During his protracted tenure with South Shields, a National League North team, the Newcastle United forward made an impression.
Elliott Dickman, the manager of South Shields, has said that he would jump at the chance to permanently recruit Dylan Stephenson, a promising player for Newcastle United.
In the last days of the January transfer window, the 21-year-old attacker signed a loan deal with the National League North team, reuniting with his former academy coach at Magpies. Stephenson scored his first goals for the Mariners with a brace in a 5-0 thumping of Gloucester City. Dickman’s team finished the season with eight goals and one assist in 18 games, just missing out on a play-off spot in the non-league second division.
Stephenson made his comeback to Newcastle’s Under-21 team on Friday, helping them to a 2-1 victory over Stoke City. On Monday night, Ben Dawson’s team will play Aston Villa at St. James Park, and Stephenson may play again. Though there are no plans to negotiate a new contract and Stephenson’s current contract expires in June, it is less and less likely that he will stay with his boyhood club.Significant interest in a potential permanent move for the forward exists, just as it did before his loan switch to South Shields in January, from a number of clubs in League Two, the National League, and Scotland. However, Mariners manager Dickman has made it clear that he is eager to win the race and include Stephenson in his squad for his first season in charge at the 1st Cloud Arena.
“Dylan has been fantastic for us,” he said to The Gazette. He has contributed goals and scored goals, but leaving his current surroundings to go on loan is never easy. Dylan has adapted to our environment quite well, and I believe he will be the first to acknowledge that he has had previous opportunities where things didn’t go so well for him.
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