Newcastle U19 manager Adam Lawrence left “frustrated” after narrow UEFA Youth League defeat to Athletic Club

Newcastle Under-19 manager, Adam Lawrence, described his side’s 3-2 loss to Athletic Club in the UEFA Youth League as “frustrating”, following Wednesday’s match at the Gateshead International Stadium.

Athletic Club raced into a two-goal lead with goals from Alex Carril and Manex Lozano, before goals either side of half time from Sean Neave and Scott Bailey levelled the contest.

However, the Basque club’s captain, Peio Huestamendia, sealed the three points, despite having Iker Quintero sent off midway through the second half.

Speaking to SportsByte post-match, Lawrence said: “You feel gutted for the lads and it’s really frustrating, and there’s loads of good in there, but you understand and know why you’ve lost the game.

“Individually and collectively, there’ll be so much good, but ultimately we’ve conceded from a corner, getting trapped in the corner and then turning the ball over, when we shouldn’t and that means that we lose the game.”

The former Manchester United youth coach added: “The biggest frustration is being 2-1 down at half-time, we then score the equaliser quite early on in the second half.

“We felt that Bilbao had a wobbler and obviously we have our tails up.

“It was pleasing for the lads in terms of getting into that position and then we’ve held the lead for barely five minutes.”

Newcastle put out a squad that included 15-year-old Roman Dowell in goal and 17-year-old Thomas Old.

Speaking on the latter, Lawrence praised his performance, despite making a mistake that led to Athletic Club’s third goal:

The U19 manager continued: “Tommy knows he’s made a mistake and to be fair to him, in his first game in the competition, overall he did really, really well.

“But, in that little moment, if we sustain the energy in the next five minutes after we’ve scored the goal, then the rest of the half looks different.”

Lawrence spoke about the decision-making process behind introducing younger players into the squad for the UEFA Youth League.

He added: “The players that we see the longer potential in, under-16 Alfie Seldon for example, we’re giving him an opportunity.

“He comes on against Benfica, and he plays a good amount of the game tonight.

“We’re hoping in terms of those high-potential players, if we can give them that exposure, it helps them aspire to the level that they want to be at.”

Sean Neave and Scott Bailey were on the scoresheet but it ends in defeat at the Gateshead International Stadium ⏱️ pic.twitter.com/zlVUCPL4zz

— Newcastle United (@NUFC) November 5, 2025

Lawrence also commented on the performance of Sean Neave, who has been involved with the first-team recently: “I’ve been impressed by his level of performance, and he looks like he’s got real good potential.

“He has to keep working, stay hungry, and keep going, but he definitely looks like a player who has potential.

“Sometimes he’s playing as a striker or slightly deeper, so we’re trying to help him become a more rounded footballer, in terms of his understanding of positions and then that opens his options with the first-team in terms of how they’re looking at Sean.

“Today, he scores the penalty, he’s had a couple of moments around the box, so he always looks like a threat.”

Reflecting on the competition as a whole, the Newcastle boss said: “It’s been disappointing in terms of the results overall, but we want to expose our players to the best level across Europe as frequent as we can.

“We’ve probably been a little bit unfortunate where we’ve played some of the top sides, but at the same time, that’s what we want: we want to play against the best.

“The benefit of playing this level of opposition is you get  to see what the rest of Europe is like and play against the best of the best and then you can see where the players are at, individually and collectively.”

“I’ve definitely really enjoyed it.

“It’s definitely not been played four, lost four and with no positives in any of the games.

“I think we could have and should have had more points, in terms of how we’ve performed, but ultimately it’s highlighted certain things that have made it really tough for us against those good opponents.”