Huntley ready for Rovers test

The young Magpies take on their Rovers counterparts at the Lancashire FA County Ground in Leyland this weekend (kick-off 1pm GMT) and face a Blackburn side who have conceded 43 league goals so far this term, the highest in the division to date.

Huntley, who was named on Newcastle's first-team bench during their UEFA Champions League Group F clash away at Paris Saint-Germain in November, is hopeful United's second-string can build on their 2-2 draw against Leicester City over a fortnight ago ahead of their third of six consecutive fixtures on away soil in all competitions.

The 19-year-old, who joined Newcastle's youth set-up as an eight-year-old, told nufc.co.uk: "I think our performance in our last game against Leicester a couple of weeks ago was good. We played well but it was disappointing that we didn't get all three points, especially conceding late on so against Blackburn, the next step is to turn a good performance into three points.

"Our aim is to win games. That's the big deciding factor and it doesn't how many we score, whether we win 1-0 or more, we want to finish as high up in the table as possible. Picking up points on the road is big and breeds a lot of confidence around the squad.

"There have been matches in the first half of the season where we've had the correct performances but came just shy of not picking up a point or three points. The big thing is to turn those performances into wins as that is what will ultimately bring us up the league and into the play-offs.

Newcastle's under-21 side have recently underwent a warm-weather training camp in La Manga and Huntley believes the mid-season trip to Spain has been a "beneficial one" ahead of returning to Premier League 2 action.

Primarily a central midfielder, Huntley has enjoyed a bright run of form in front of goal, recording three goals and one assist in his last seven competitive outings at under-21 level and is aiming to build on his encouraging displays of late.

The Ashington-born teenager added: "I'm quite pleased with it but, at the end of the day, I just want to do my job for the team. If that is scoring goals and helping them pick up points, I'm happy with that. I want to keep doing what I'm doing and, hopefully, we can kick on and reach the play-offs towards the end of the season.

"As a midfielder, some people don't expect you to score goals but I think that's a big part of my game, bringing goals to the team and helping by either creating or scoring."