Sven Botman made a long-awaited return to competitive action on Monday night, making his first appearance for NINE months.
Botman, who last played for Newcastle back in March’s FA Cup loss to Manchester City, is back following a long spell on the sidelines after battling his way back from ACL surgery earlier this year.
After resuming first-team training earlier this month, the Dutchman played an hour during Newcastle U-21s 3-2 win over Chelsea U-21s on Monday night.
It was a big night for our returning centre-back but also a huge win for our Young Mags, who moved up to fifth in the Premier League 2, leapfrogging Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Sunderland to go just a point behind Liverpool in fourth.
Botman was joined in the starting line-up by Lewis Miley and Irish talent Alex Murphy, with England youth internationals Trevan Sanusi and Leo Shahar also in action.
Eddie Howe watched on from the sidelines along with Jason Tindall, James Bunce, Sean Longstaff, Anthony Gordon, Jamaal Lascelles, Alexander Isak and Lewis Hall as several first-team stars showed their support on Monday night.
The former Lille star was hardly troubled at Whitley Park, as the young Magpies were 3-0 up before Botman was taken off 60 minutes into the game in a pre-arranged substitution.
Ben Parkinson opened the scoring early on, poking the ball past Max Merrick after Jay Turner-Cooke’s corner wasn’t properly cleared by the Chelsea defence.
Parkinson bagged his brace not long after, converting the penalty after he was brought down just after the quarter hour mark. The Durham-born attacker was only denied a fantastic first half hat trick by the crossbar, but comes out of the night with plenty of credit and goals that make it seven goals in 10 second string games this season for the striker.
A strong bullet header from Scottish centre-back Charlie McArthur, once again delivered by Turner-Cooke, put the Magpies 3-0 up and the result beyond doubt. Though Ato Ampah and Donnell McNeilly each grabbed a late consolation goal for the visitors as it finished 3-2.
But it’ll be Botman who makes the headlines, with it brilliant to see the big man eased back into competitive action after spending the majority of 2024 recovering from a serious knee injury.
Alongside Miley, who looked composed in his 45-minute run out, it’s only a matter of time until the pair to re-insert themselves into the senior squad, with Howe recently revealing that Botman is likely to be available for selection at the end of the month, if not start of January.
**U21 line-up:** Aidan Harris, Leo Shahar, Sven Botman (Cathal Heffernan 60), Charlie McArthur (c), Alex Murphy, Travis Hernes, Lewis Miley (Alfie Harrison 46), Anthony Munda, Trevan Sanusi (Josh Donaldson 78), Jay Turner-Cooke, Ben Parkinson.