Dawson delighted as young Magpies book quarter-final berth

The young Magpies opened the scoring inside seven minutes of their first round tie at Whitley Park on Wednesday night following Ellis Stanton’s accurate drive from distance before the hosts netted three times in the space of six second half minutes following efforts from James Huntley, Kyle Crossley and Josh Scott.

Stanton netted his brace in the latter stages to complete the rout, with United’s second-string handed a home tie against Bedlington Terriers in the quarter-final stages, and Dawson was pleased to see his side return to winning ways with a first competitive victory since August.

“I thought the lads got their reward for their application and mentality towards the game,” he told nufc.co.uk. "I think it’s quite easy for the lads to look at it and think it’s non-league opposition in a local competition but, in fairness, the staff and players have approached it in the same way we have every match this season.

“We’ve scored some really good goals tonight and, if we’re being critical, we probably should’ve had the same amount again with the chances that we’ve had. It’s been one of the areas that has let us down in some of the other games we’ve played in different competitions where games have been tight, we’ve had opportunities but not taken them and the other team have gone up the other end and scored.

“It was nice that we got ahead, maintained the momentum and killed the game off. It’s always difficult when you’re not winning games. Your confidence does dip and it has dipped in the dressing room - there’s no denying that. The opposition tonight only lost one of their last 16 games and they’re on a high so they’ll have to quickly get over the defeat and go again this weekend.

“Hopefully, we can use it to our advantage and build momentum going into the upcoming games and gets us a step into the right direction."

After handing Stanton his first start of the 2023/24 campaign, the 18-year-old midfielder repaid Dawson with a tremendous brace against the Northern League Division Two leaders, competing in the tenth tier of English football.

Following a long-term injury for the former England Under-16 international, suffering a meniscus (tearing of the knee) injury, Dawson highlighted the Farringdon-born youngster's positive display and is hopeful the Farringdon-born youngster can challenge for a regular slot in the middle of the park for the young Magpies.

“He’s been frustrated because he hasn’t played a lot of minutes,” Dawson added. "We’ve had plenty of conversations with him and trying to chip away at him in training and push him on. He’s in a good place at the moment. He’s competing for a place in that midfield where we have lots of quality.

"Performances like tonight where he got on the ball a lot, tried to play forward and scored two great goals is probably a reward for the effort he’s putting in during training. We’ve stressed to the lads that you can’t just turn it on come match day - it comes from good habits throughout the week and then replicating that on a weekend.

“He’s in a good place looking ahead to a decent run of games coming up as well."