Promising Newcastle United striker Michael Ndiweni needs to learn from his 'mistake' after being sent off in his first start of the season. That is the view of U21 head coach Elliott Dickman, who feels the teenage forward needs to learn from the 'harsh' dismissal.
The young Magpies were reduced to nine men as they lost their second straight match of the campaign on Monday night. Ben Kershaw's stunning long-range strike decided the match, although the hosts did continue to push for an equaliser despite the red cards for both Ndiweni and Matty Bondswell.
Ndiweni scored off the bench in the opening-day defeat to West Brom, and was rewarded with a start alongside Santiago Munoz. The 18-year-old was booked in the first-half after sliding for the ball and accidentally colliding with Daniel Malone.
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Dickman made two changes at the break in an attempt to galvanise a response from his side, with Jay Turner-Cooke pushed up to support Ndiweni as a lone frontman. However, the Magpies U21 boss was forced into another reshuffle minutes after the restart when his striker was given a second yellow for a mistimed attempt to close down goalkeeper Blondy Nna Noukeu.
Dickman had sympathy for the young striker, who trained with Newcastle's first-team for a spell last season after catching the eye of Eddie Howe. However, the youth coach feels it is a setback Ndiweni will have to learn from.
Dickman told ChronicleLive: "The first half sort of fizzled away, and we were thinking at half-time we would make a couple of adjustments to how we were playing and see where we go with that. We were looking forward to the second half, because I felt in the first half we created some chances.
"The sending off changes it a little bit which is harsh on Michael to some extent. I can understand why he's done that, in terms of closing down. He wants to compete and it's his first start of the season so he's obviously excited to play.
"But he's made a mistake and ultimately we're down to 10. In football, sometimes players buy cautions and I think that's happened to Michael.
"The second one is a yellow card and because he's already been booked, it is one of them things unfortunately for him. But he's got to learn from that as well."
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