Resorves v Scousers @ A Rugby Ground

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or the Screach & Josh tour of non Premier League arenas continues.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Answers

Result 1-1

Sort of report follows.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000


Oh howay man - hurry up. Aah wanna know wot happened when aah was chattin' up that bird behind us. Who scored (not me)? Who was good (not you). Why was it so bliddy cold??

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Why leave early when you can get away from Screach towers at 6:30 and still make the 7:00 kick off by a nanosecond.

Anyway Toon '2nd' string v Liverpool Reserves @ ST Helens Rugby League Ground.

Facts Weather - Bloody cold - Ameobi in gloves - is he really from Wallsend Pies - not bad Tea/Coffee hot - but no Bovril Ground - Parked right behind NUFC Team coach and outside changing room windows. B&W shadows as we walked round. Pitch - Green but very uneven except for a relaid bit. Stadium - Old - typical R/League - Seats on one side and terraces on other 3 with one open end including 2 bars and a 'house'.

Fiction - The reserves are all pushing for 1st team places

Facts Part 2

Team in 4-4-2

Karelse - 2 blinding saves - one in each half yet still subtly unconvincing.

McGuffie - Solid enough against one of Pools up and coming youngsters - in the 2nd half started supporting Gavilan and looked better

Caldwell/Beherall - Solid enough C/Halfs but had nowt against them

Bernard - Gosh he's little but looks like may be a possible. Gave away their goal with a diabolically short head back to Karelse - but I suspect the keeper might have tried slightly harder. Young Oliver is quick and solid (he makes up in width what he lacks in height)

Gavilan - subdued but frustrated several times by lack of cohesion with his mates. Tried but where is the early promise - I hope its the injury still working out of his system. Got in good positions behind the Pool new left back many times - and put in a delightful cross for Sholas goal

Kerr/Green - busy bees in mid field - as the game wore on they got better and started linking with the front 2

Glass - skillfull in parts - worked hard and got up and down the line but I can't remember a teling cross

Lua2 - held the ball up well but hasn't learnt the time to pass yet - raw but I've seen him in the 1s. He'll do

Ameobi - as raw as Lua2 but bigger and not quite as naturaly skillfull. Worked hard and took his goal well.

MTF

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000


Josh....alright to nick and stick on our site......give you credit.....done it anyway! ;0)

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Yes - but wait there's more .

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000


More

1st half - 50-50 with Pool perhaps pressing a bit more than Toon. We tried but couldn't get any kind of consistent flow of passes going. Liverpool weren't giving an inch to anybody. There were many occasions of our lads squabbling because something had been cocked up.

Liverpool scored after Bernard dropped a header well short of JK and a red shirt pounced and slotted it into the net. Shortly before that Karelse had made a blinding save from a point blank range header. Both sides also went pretty close a couple of times.

We watched this half standing near the half way line and freezing.

Half time interval - 1 pie and 1 hot drink each + a seat in the stands and things improved.

2nd Half

We started playing a bit. Kerr and Green got a grip in the middle and people started getting Gavilan more involved in the acres behind their left back. A lovely ball in behind, Diego gets to the bye line and spot on cross back allowed Ameobi a relatively easy header 1-1.

It wasn't until the last 10 minutes once Bary McAllister (must be Garys twin - but that was what the program said) was subbed that Liverpool got back into the game. We were definitely the better team in the 2nd half.

Ameobi spent a while on the wing with Glass up beside Lua2 - YBR trying something ?

2 minutes before the end Bernard went off and a youngster came on. If indeed it was Michael Chopra (it was no16 and the program was pretty accurate elsewhere) then I liked what I saw - he only got involved once (not bad in about 90 seconds) but looked confident and seemed to have a good touch and - he's pretty tall compared to young Coppy.

Overall :-

I reckon that Lua2 & young Shola are 1st team squad now.

Bernard & McGuffie will graduate with practice.

Green & Kerr - might if they grow a bit.

Caldwell & Beherall - I could't say - they looked solid enough against nowt much.

Gavilan, Glass - ??

Karelse - nope.

A good evening compared to previous reserve outings.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000


Thanks Josh.....much appreciated.....now on our site at DAILY TOON

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Brilliant Josh- many thanx!

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Thanks Josh.
Which Caldwell was it playing? I'm still not sure why Steve wasn't on the bench on Saturday, when we had no back-up defenders at all.
Given the injury situation, I'd be surprised if Steve had been risked in the Stiffs.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

Though Karelse is not Premier League quality, he's still a good enough 3 rd choice keeper and if Harper gets p!ssed off at sitting on the bench and goes off somewhere, I think he'd still be an adequate keeper. Having said that, he's probably costing us a fortune in wages.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000


Clarky - it was Gary Caldwell (or could it have been Bary). I'll endorse Josh's appraisal of the team, but add that from what I saw, albeit on a freezing night on a bumpy pitch) that our expensive stiffs aren't really ready for the EPL. Maybe it was the pitch, but Lua x2's deft flicks just didn't work. There's more to football than the fancy-dan stuff. IMHO, Gavillan has an attitude problem and maybe that's why YBR is holding him back. I wish Shola would put on a bit more weight (perhaps he should come oot drinkin' with the BBS??). He'll be fine in a season or two, if difficult to identify from Cort if they're playing together.

Still, a good result against a useful 'pool side, even if they had less EPL experienced players than us.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000


Thanks for that Josh & Screach.

I thought for a moment you had managed to slip a scoop in there Josh with the debut of Chopra. As it happens nufc.com states that he did not play so perhaps the program was in error? I've only seen Chopra once (as a spectator at a juniors game) and I don't think he's very tall. I gather from your report that he was mentioned in the program so it seems that his debut is imminent.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000


Jonno

NUFC.COM reckon it was Dimas - there was no announcement for the substitution and Chopra was no.16 in the program. However whoever it was touched the turf and crossed themselves as they came off at the end - continental touch there and I'm not sure what religion YMC is.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000


As I said last night, I thought Chopra was of Asian decent. Therefore the sign of the Crucifiction seemed a tad odd. Plus he didn't look very Asian to me.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

It's about time we started testing Chopra at a higher level. Him and that Richard Oflong (Or whatever?) seem to have been scoring goals for fun in their current age group.

Some may say there is no point in rushing him, but you could say he's more experienced than Lua-Lua in many ways due to his international appearances. I reckon Michael Owen must have started pretty early for Liverpool reserves if he was a first teamer at 18.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000



Cheers Josh + Screach. Great report.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

It was indeed Dimas, not Chopra (see Ronny), tho Choppy's now made it to the reserve squad so we should be seeing him, perhaps in the next game.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

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