The young Magpies, currently sitting in sixth place on 23 points, can leapfrog their Villans counterparts in fourth place with a win at Whitley Park (kick-off 7pm GMT).

Brown, who joined the Magpies' youth set-up at the age of 13, is determined for United's second-string to secure a play-off spot before the end of the league campaign in their bid to secure promotion to the Premier League 2's top tier.

"It's a very important game for us as we're wanting to push for the play-off places," the 20-year-old shot-stopper told nufc.co.uk. "Every game that comes now is going to be massive to try and get three points and progress into the play-offs at the end of the season.

"A win can see us climb up the table and put us in fourth place, which is a good incentive, and hopefully we can look towards finishing first or second.

"We need to defend well and take our chances when they come because all the points we gain will be very important. We can't be dropping too many and we'll aim to take as many as we can for the remainder of the season.

Elliott Dickman's side were unable to extend their unbeaten run to eight matches in all competitions on Monday night as the young Magpies suffered a narrow 1-0 home defeat against Nottingham Forest.

Despite the minor setback, Brown - who has started the last four competitive games for United's youngsters - revealed the squad already have their minds set on the upcoming fixture.

"Unfortunately, the winning run came to an end (against Nottingham Forest)," the former Ponteland High School pupil added. "It was disappointing to get beat and the lads were frustrated at full-time. It was a close game, which we dominated in the second-half, but we now need to pick ourselves up and go again.

"We are always hungry to win and want to try and push for more. Even when we've won recently, we are coming back into training and reviewing matches to see what we did well and what we could have done better. We're striving for more as a group.

"Everyone is pushing each other, which is bringing the standard up and improving our performances both in training and games.

"It's been good to get back into the team and start playing games again. I wasn't playing much at the start of the season, just training hard and being on the bench for a few games. I also struggled with a couple of injuries to my calf."