Young reserves have set the standard

Willie Donachie has urged his young Newcastle United Reserve squad to show "commitment, passion and pride" in their remaining games this season. Victories have been hard to come by over the last few months for a second string side mainly comprised of Academy players, and following Tuesday's 1-0 defeat against Arsenal they have just a handful of matches remaining, including fixtures against Manchester United and Liverpool. But there were encouraging signs against the Gunners - not least a spirited second half display which should have been rewarded with a goal or two from the hosts. And Reserve team manager Donachie wants to see that same level of performance from the next generation of United starlets for the rest of the campaign. "It's a massively important time for them," he told nufcTV. "They are learning the real game now against bigger, stronger, faster players than in the Academy. "It's a different world and will take them a while to get used to it, but they are giving everything they can and that's all I can ask for. "The main thing is that we carry on what we did in the second half for the rest of the season. We have to give that commitment, passion and pride in our performance, and I will be happy with that." Michael Richardson, Jeff Henderson, Ryan Donaldson and Phil Airey all went close for the Magpies against Arsenal at Whitley Park as they tried to claim a share of the spoils. And Donachie was pleased with what he saw, admitting: "Arsenal was a great test for our young players. "As I keep saying, the only way you learn is to play against better players than yourselves, raise your standards, and that was a great opportunity for our young players. "We had set a target of trying to score the first goal, but didn't manage that. After about 12 minutes heads went down, we started feeling sorry for ourselves and stopped working. "But in the second half we got it back again, and the players showed a lot of character, passion, hard work and pride in themselves. "They gave a good account of themselves with two cleared off the line, one hit the bar and a lot of pressure on the Arsenal goal. "I was proud of the way they reacted in the second half. It would have been nice to get some sort of result, but that wasn't to be."