Haris Vuckic’s brace – either side of Victor Fernandez’s first goal for the second-string – put the Magpies into a commanding position at Whitley Park, with substitute Jamie Holmes adding a touch of gloss to the scoreline late on.

United now lead the competition’s Group A by a point, though they have played two games more than any other side.

They may well require victory over Southampton at the end of the month to make sure of their place in the last 16 – a fact not lost on Beardsley, who was pleased to see his side recover from Thursday night’s Northumberland Senior Cup defeat to North Shields.

“Hopefully we can beat Southampton, and that will put us on ten points. When you look at teams qualifying from the Champions League group stage – and I know this isn’t the Champions League – they look at 10 points from their six games to get through. We hope that will be the case for us,” he told nufc.co.uk.

“We have seven points at the moment, and I know we were well beaten at Southampton (in December), but other than that we’ve played quite well in the competition.

“Today, going 3-0 up so early into the second half, we could have made it a lot easier for ourselves – and a lot more enjoyable – by continuing to pass the ball, but we were having too many touches. But, there are always positives. To bounce back and score the goals we did – everybody is pleased with that.”

Beardsley also praised the showing of young Spaniard Fernandez, who also chipped in with two assists on just his second start for the Under-23s.

“Victor did well at West Brom last week and he did well again today,” said Beardsley. “He’s a nice lad – he speaks good English, so he has been good with the group. We all know that he will have to work on his physical strength – a bit like Yasin (Ben El-Mhanni) has had to do – but when you’re new to a club, it makes a difference if you can score or make a goal.”