The young Magpies trailed inside nine minutes of their pre-season friendly against the Mariners following Ewan McGowan's low drive before Johnny Emerson, who made his Newcastle first-team debut during the Magpies' 2-0 win at Hull City last weekend, levelled the clash in front of 1,424 spectators at the 1st Cloud Arena.
Hernes, who joined the Magpies from Shrewsbury Town in September 2023, was pleased with the outing after coming from behind against the National League North outfit, who compete in the sixth tier of English football.
The central midfielder, who represented Norway during this summer's European Under-19 Championship finals in Northern Ireland, told newcastleunited.com: "Playing against a men's team is a good challenge before the season, especially when their season starts next week so I thought we did well at times when we had the ball.
"We kept composed and had periods in a low block but, overall, it's a confidence boost for the team, coming up against senior opposition.
"Going one-nil down is never easy, especially so early in the game, but I thought we showed great character to get a goal straight afterwards. It was a great finish by Johnny and that gave us a boost, with the nerves going out of the game.
"They put some pressure on us and I'd say they were in control for large parts of the game but we know what we're good at and stayed resilient, with confidence in each other to not concede."
After helping his country secure a spot at next year's Under-20 World Cup finals in Chile last week, Hernes revealed the lack of resting time has, albeit, not affected him and the promising youngster is relishing the beginning of the 2024-25 season, with Newcastle's youngsters opening their Premier League 2 campaign at home to rivals Sunderland on Monday, 19th August.
Hernes, a professional debutant with Shrewsbury at the age of 16, was handed the captain's armband for United's friendly clash against South Shields and expressed his delight in captaining the young Magpies for the first time at under-21 level.
The 18-year-old added: "Coming back from the (U19) Euros, I feel quite fit and I went to Spain with the (Newcastle) under-21s for pre-season. It was quite a boost for me to start playing games quite early after playing with Norway and I feel fit and ready for the season.
"As captain, I was very pleased to lead the boys out today. It's a great responsibility to be a captain and it felt great. It was my first time being captain but I really liked it and I enjoy that side of being a leader out on the pitch."
Photograph courtesy of South Shields Football Club
