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Newcastle United Reserves	2 - 0	Manchester City Reserves
Half time:	2 - 0
Score Sheet:
LuaLua (64) LuaLua (66)
	Teams
Adam Collin David Cowan Robbie Elliott Steve Caldwell Marcelino Brian Kerr Kieron Dyer Wayne Quinn Shola Ameobi Lomana LuaLua Olivier Bernard		Kieren Westwood Tyrone Mears Stephen Jordan Terry Dunfield Gary Furnival Joey Barton Chris Shuker Chris Killen Alioune Toure Gary Browne Terry Cooke
Substitutes:
Michael Chopra for Ameobi (13) Bradley Orr for Dyer (21) Pedro Dimas for Bernard (64)		Ciaran Kilheeney for Toure (7)  Philip Gilder for Barton (52)  Barry Hogan for Dunfield (90)
Subs not used:
Mark Boyd Phil Pringle		David Tickle  David Hodgson
Bookings:
Referee: BC Sygmuta. Seemed to have betrayed his loyalties when Lua hit his second goal and the nearby official gave a mini-clenched fist salute, in the style of Mike Reed - the former brummie whistler, not the dodgy jam jar purveyor.
Attendance:  1790 More than the average number of away fans - around 10 sighted. Unlike the recent FA Cup game between the two sides though, the bar windows remained intact and we weren't asked where we were when "we were sh*t?"

29 mins Lomana LuaLua opened the scoring after 29 minutes following a strong run from Kerr, finding Orr who then crossed from wide on the right. LuaLua killed the ball in the box and then curled a rising shot to the goalkeeper's left 1-0

41 mins He then claimed his second 12 minutes later in similar fashion, curling a stunning effort into the top corner again from just outside the area, at the "City end" of the ground 2-0

Half time: Newcastle Reserves 2 Man City 0
 
Full time: Newcastle Reserves 2 Man City 0 

Tommy Craig commented:

"We needed Lua Lua to come up trumps and he did with his two goals."

"Sometimes I am hard to please because I like us to play a certain way and because of our high standards.

"We perhaps did not reach those standards last night but a win is a win and it was important that we made another home game count.

"It was a very competitive game. To be honest, Man City had as much of the ball as we did but our two central defenders, Stevie Caldwell and Marcelino, were very solid.

"And really, Man City only had one real shot on target all night. The game did not flow as much as I would have liked but the conditions and pitch did not help."

The visit of Manchester City's second string to Tyneside last night saw United reserves record an easy victory, but at some cost. There was no sign of Kevin Keegan, and by the end of the night another former England Manager had good reason to be frowning.

Both Kieron Dyer and Shola Ameobi left the field within the first half hour of the game. Ameobi suffered a self-inflicted leg injury (later confirmed as ligament damage) when tussling with Tyrone Mears of City, the Newcastle player being guilty of a high boot that caught Myers somewhere near his chin.

As the City player went to ground, Shola seemed to suffer a delayed reaction before also tumbling over - initial thoughts were that he was trying to avoid a booking, but it soon became clear this wasn't the case as physio Paul Ferris and another City player carried him over towards the touchline.

Chopra was introduced as a replacement and took up his familiar central striking position, as opposed to the right midfield role he's filled in recent reserve games.

Then within 10 minutes, United were forced to reshuffle again when Kieron Dyer walked off the pitch with play going on at the other end.

There seemed no obvious incident to blame for what was initially thought to be an injury, save for the player stretching to control a pass shortly before that could conceivably have caused a pull or strain.

Despite later reports from media sources who weren't actually at the game, Dyer walked from the pitch with no obvious signs of discomfort or injury. After a short spell sitting on the bench he headed for the dressing room with the club doctor, who was starting to have a busy evening.

It later emerged that Dyer was ill as opposed to being injured, having complained of feeling unwell and being sick in the dressing room. 

United were lucky not to end the half with a trio of injuries, as Olivier Bernard became involved with City defender Furnival, after the latter had attempted an agricultural challenge that saw toon coach Tommy Craig end up on the pitch as the players squared up to each other. Thankfully Bernard avoided the worst of the challenge and was ok to continue.

The rain steadily worsened in an uneventful second half as United ran out comfortable winners, with the club Doc once again called upon as Dunfield of City fell heavily in added time and was stretchered from the field by the St.John's boys.

For United Brian Kerr again put in a decent shift and looked to bring the ball forward into the opposition half from central midfield - given the current paucity of available midfielders at the club it looks increasingly as if he'll be attempting to reprise this role at Highbury on Saturday.

PS - Congratulations to fledgling keeper Adam Collin, who kept his first clean sheet in his 5th start at this level, combining reserve team football with going between the sticks for our U17 side.

Biffa 

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