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mackem Reserves	0 - 2	Newcastle United Reserves
Half time:	0 - 0
Score Sheet:
		McMenamin (48) Cort (84)
	Teams
Macho Harrison Ramsden Byrne Williams Medina Bellion Dickman Kyle Marchant  Butler		Steve Harper Andy Griffin Wayne Quinn  David Cowan Marcelino Brian Kerr Bradley Orr Mark Boyd Carl Cort Colin McMenamin Olivier Bernard
Substitutes:
Brown for Marchant (58)		Lewis Guy for McMenamin (89)
Subs not used:
Kennedy Ryan Teggart James		Adam Colllin Andy Ferrell Steven Taylor Ryan McGuffie
Bookings:
Kyle (63)		Boyd (60) Griffin (69)
Referee: Our old pal Russell Tiffin, the consistently entertaining Northern league referee, no doubt completely bonkers.
Attendance: 9,028. Around 600 toon fans in the usual away section, with once again the teenage mutant charver mackems within touching distance - 40,000 spare seats and the f***wits put the two sets of fans together. Inevitably the police made several ejections, presumably the sole point of the exercise - nice bit of on-the-spot training I suppose.... Support from the toon fans to the team was good, once again the glaring difference between the two factions being that their songs betray a fixation with us, to the exclusion of supporting their own team. That said, some of the United ditties verged on the surreal, with one chorus of "shoes off if you love the toon" seeing dozens of footwear items raised above head height (not with feet in them I hasten to add.)   Bobby Robson was in attendance in the main stand, while Peter Beardsley was with a party in an executive box above the great unwashed. When spotted, he acknowledged the cheers of the magpie fans and ignored the indecipherable gurglings of the local half-wits. Peytar Reid was nowhere to be seen - off looking for some more old crocks no doubt. Barnsley were having a castoffs sale, probably about his level.

Half time: mackems 0 Newcastle Reserves 0 

48 mins A Boyd corner down the Newcastle right, in front of the toon section, dropped kindly for Bernard to slam in a shot from 15 yards that bounced back off a defender on the line. McMenamin was there in classic goal poaching mode to sweep home the rebound from close range into the side of the net. 1-0

84 mins Another cross from the right, this time a beauty from makeshift winger Bradley Orr that dropped perfectly for Cort to power a header home, shrugging off the attentions of a pair of hapless mackem defenders to do so. 2-0

Full time: mackems 0 Newcastle Reserves 2 

some mackem muttered in the Sunderland Echo:

“There was no faulting the players' workrate, but only Newcastle hit any kind of flow in a derby to forget.

"At least the Magpies had the consolation that £7million striker Carl Cort came through his first full game after a long injury lay-off, and scored to put himself in the frame for when the rivals meet in the Premiership."

An understandably delighted Tommy Craig commented:

"It was as good as last week was bad and I'm talking purely in terms of attitude.

"If that was not right we would've found ourselves in trouble.

"There weren't a great deal of chances at either end in the first-half but in the second-half we started to get a hold of the game.

"We produced a few patches of good football.

"Last night was a night for the players to redeem themselves.

"Nine of last week's team started and I was delighted with their application and attitude.

"The front two did well, Brian Kerr worked from box to box and Bradley Orr did well in an unfamiliar role."

About goalscorer Cort he said:

"That game will have done Carl the power of good - he got through an awful lot of work and was shattered afterwards," 

"He wouldn't have scored that goal last week. He's a bit sharper and the good thing is his knee's not troubled him.

"Carl's happy with the physical side of the game and he's had no complaints afterwards.

"It was a competitive derby match and he's come through it very well - and he'll get better, he's trying to find his quick feet again."

Newcastle's reserves did what no other United side has ever done last night - won at the Stadium of plight. Two Premiership draws, a reserve draw and defeat and a Youth Cup stalemate, meant it was sixth time lucky as second half supremacy won it for Tommy Craig's side. 

In a drab first half Steve Harper was probably the busier of the two keepers as the mackems threatened to make a breakthrough by pumping the ball to the edge of our area and chasing after it - the school of science this was not.

After the break however, we remembered our own footballing pedigree and began to play in the cohesive way that this side can when they put their mind to it, tempered with a steely backline. At times Marcelino, Quinn and especially Griffin all fought fire with fire when the kicking and shirt-tugging started from the frustrated home players.

Within three minutes were were ahead, and despite one or two scares, we never really looked like blowing our first victory at any level on this ground. Cort's goal was the icing on the cake, and in the closing stages we threatened to overrun the mackems and strike further blows, much to the delight of the travelling mags, who exuberantly celebrated both goals.  

Man of the match? Whisper it quietly but probably Marcelino. As another onlooker said - if you didn't know the history, you'd assume that he was another first teamer on the way back from injury like Cort. It's immensely frustrating that the bloke is as unpredictable as the weather, but has obvious talent in the defensive arts.

Congratulations to Lewis Guy who got on near the end for his first reserve appearance and Stephen Taylor for his first call-up to the reserve bench. Both lads were rewarded for good displays in the Academy games at the weekend, and promoted in this international week to cover for absent colleagues.

After the awful home display last week against the smoggies, this was a pleasing return to form and a deserved victory to reward the efforts of the players. Quite simply we wanted it more than them, and once we'd adjusted to their strong arm tactics we outplayed them.

The sight of the stands emptying rapidly as Cort's header hit the back of the net was what makes watching football at this level enjoyable - on nights like this, the travelling, crap performances, sparse crowds and seemingly ever-present rotten weather are all forgotten.

Now we've broken our duck at this place, let's hope the first team can inflict further punishment in a few weeks time, and hand out a long-overdue beating to those miserable wretches in red and white. We may have given them a Metro extension, but they'll get nowt else off us.  

Biffa 

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