Having belatedly recorded a first win of 2015 at Aston Villa last week, Newcastle U21s faced Derby at their Oakwood training ground on Tuesday afternoon.

With John Carver looking on, Peter Beardsley's side included Siem De Jong, Adam Armstrong and Facundo Ferreyra. Those runouts may have aided fitness and first team claims, but it did nothing to help the scoreline as United slumped to their heaviest defeat of the sason.

Since winning 2-0 at St. James' Park, the Rams had lost 0-1 at home to Reading and Blackburn but went ahead through a 25th minute strike from Kwame Thomas.

That opener was engineered by Mason Bennett and within 11 minutes, the England youth international had shot past Paul Woolston to double the home side's lead.

Restricted to only occasional efforts from distance and consistently out-worked by their opponents, United introduced midfielder Alex Gilliead at the interval, but remained second best.

Derby then thought they'd gone further ahead midway through the second period, but a linesman's flag denied Alban Bunjaku, who was replaced soon after.

However that merely delayed the inevitable and home substitute Shaquille McDonald got the final touch to extend Derby's lead to three with 12 minutes left.

A double swap by United saw Facundo Ferreyra and Dan Ward make way for Tom Heardman and Sean Longstaff, but it was Derby who struck again on 85 minutes, Ivan Calero becoming the sixth different player to score against us in two games.

The Magpies will end their home campaign against Blackburn Rovers at SJP next Tuesday before concluding the season with a visit to the Hawthorns to face West Brom on Monday May 11th (both 7pm kickoffs).