BILLY Barr admitted his Blackburn Rovers Academy side ‘got what we deserved’ as they went down to a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United in the Under-18 Premier League North Division.

Rovers headed to the north east in high spirits after battling back from two goals down to win 3-2 at home to Derby County.

But they rarely threatened in a one-sided match at Little Benton leaving their manager disappointed.

Barr: “We got what we deserved. We were sharp in training on Friday but on Saturday we just didn’t turn up. It was a bad day at the office.

“There was no fluency to our play and there was no threat in the final third until the final 15 minutes of the match. We have to do better.”

Newcastle went close early on when Callum Smith struck the crossbar.

But Rovers failed to heed the warning and they fell behind in the 22nd minute when a Mackenzie Heaney free kick beat Matty Campbell.

Campbell then made two crucial saves to keep his team in it.

However the goalkeeper was beaten for the second and final time just before the hour mark when Heaney finished off a counter-attack move.

It was only in the closing stages that Rovers started to put Newcastle under pressure.

The closest they came was when Stefan Mols saw a header cleared off the line.

Rovers return to action a week on Saturday when they welcome table-topping Manchester City to Brockhall (11am).