Any one thinking of going to the senior cup game on Tuesday night? A chance to boo at Given and see the new Wayne Quinn in action.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Answers

Aye - probably.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

Give us a ring if your going screacher. Is it a seven o'clock kickoff?

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2001

NUFC.COM have confirmed a 7pm KO. I might take the bairn, if its crap we can go to the Spanish City.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

I'll be gannin'. I think Croaky and Ciara are also up for it. Let's see if there's anybody else..........................Softie, Steph??? What aboot youse lot in Lahndaan?

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Jon has to work late so haven't got the car - sorry! See you Saturday.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

I'm definitely going. I take it we pay at the gate? I've asked around the club shops and they don't even know about the match. Neither did the box office yesterday. Nothing like getting out the support for your resorves, eh?

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

NSC is a pay on the gate affair. Usually about £3.00 but since we are likely to be blessed with a view of a World-class-far-too-good-to-let-Harper-have-a-game keeper, it might be £30.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Oh is he paying us out of his millions, then? ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Will Given be playing then? What about John Karelse?

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

nufc.com only have Karelse listed in the squad. Quinn not playing so he can be available for Saturday.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Anybody fancy a quick pint before the game? Is The Foxhunters at 6.15 too early?

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Well, we won 2-1 in a pretty dire game played in arctic conditions on a dreadfully uneven pitch.

Coppinger scored a simple first goal midway through the 1st half after a comicl error by the Bay keeper, only for Bay to equalise after equally sloppy keeping from Karelse. I think it was Bonvin who scored the winner with about 15 minutes to go.

While somewhat short on skill level, the game was fairly physical with Bay continually attempting to unsettle the younger and less 'robust' pros. Not surprisingly, Bay had a couple of players booked, and finally one sent off for giving the referee severe verbals.

The Caldwell brothers were steady in defence supported by FB's McGuffie and Beharall. However, the lightweight midfield found it difficult to exert any kind of control especially with the ball bouncing all over the place off the pitch.

We were also short of punch upfront although Coppinger worked hard and provided our only real threat. Gavilan was hugely diappointing, and must be wondering what has happened to a promising career, playing in such a physical match, in those conditions, and on such an appalling surface.

Not much to cheer Messrs. Robson, Wadsworth and Milne watching in the Stand, but at least they got a warm cup of tea and a ham & pease pud sandwich at half-time.

Screacher thoroughly enjoyed the eclipse of the moon, and reckoned the Bovril was champion. Softie, Ciara, Rik and clarky just froze - very, very gradually.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

Brrrr, just thawed out.

I like the rest of the bbsers, wasn't too impressed with wkat I saw of the future ?) Newcastle United players.

We sneaked into the 3rd round of the Northumberland senior cup after an untidy and unconvincing win against Whitley Bay on Tuesday night. With all of the outfield players in the Under 21 category it was really men against boys. The big blokes from Whitley Bay were up for the game pitting their heavyweights against the lightweight but more skillful Newcastle Boys. The team sheets were a little confusing with numbers with the names , Des Hamilton was supposed to be playing , but was knower to be seen . Hopefully it will be an impending transfer to either Sheff Wed or Tranmere Rovers that was keeping him out of the team rather than an injury. Steve and Gary Caldwell played as centre backs and had their work cut out against two strapping Whitley Bay forwards. Ryan McGuffie sporting shorter hair than the last time we saw him was at right back and had a reasonable game. As is traditional in a Newcastle United team, the left back was right footed player playing out of position. David Beharall wearing the captains armband being preferred to our French left back Olivier Bernard. He looked a lot stronger and slightly heavier than he did when he used to play under Gullit he also had a decent game. On the left wing was the big Portuguese lad Pedro Dimas, who seems to have a decent left foot, but gave the ball away too much. On the right was Diego Gavilan the £2.2 million man, sporting a nice white Polo neck shirt under his Black away shirt. He wasn't given the ball much and was quiet at the beginning of the game coming into action later on when his superior fitness saw him able to beat the Whitley defenders. The two lads in the centre of midfield were very lightweight, with no announcer and no info in the program I can only presume it was Kerr playing alongside Stuart Green. Upfront little Coppinger played alongside the slightly larger Argentinean (or should I say Italian) Pablo Bonvin . He was wearing the South American national costume of little black gloves. As with Gavilan he didn't get much of the ball until later in the game. Midway through the first half Newcastle opened the scoring. The nervous Whitley Keeper made a complete hash of a run of the mill cross, Coppy nipped in and tucked the ball away. Almost immediately though Whitley came back into the game. It was another cross, which should have been cleared when it fell to the Caldwells, they fumbled the ball, Karelse half came for it but the ball was in the net. A few minutes later there was a bit of a punch up after a Whitley player went in very hard on Coppinger. Fists were flying in from both sides but no one received a caution. The only other action in the half saw a low flying Swan skim over the heads of the players , something you don't often see at a football match, and probably the highlight of the half. Half time and pie time. The game had already been called off in mid December and I reckon the extra pies had probably been in the catering stand since that time. I still ate one, but if this page isn't updated in the next few days you know why. The second half was a bit more lively, Newcastle's second goal came from a Gavilan cross. it wasn't cleared properly and Bonvin hit it home from the edge of te area. The Whitley players who had been given the ref a load of verbal all night started on at the ref again. He ran out of patience and sent their biggest player off. At this point we expected a rout. Whitley didn't throw in the towel though and kept at Newcastle. The pitch was pretty awful and Newcastle did struggle to play the way they would want to . Whitley made three or four changes opposed to Newcastle's Two, Our number 12 (Boyd?) coming on for Kerr? whatever , he was bigger and better than the man he replaced. We also got our first look at new young striker Colin McMennamin . He replaced Coppy late on, He wore the number 14 shirt and looks about 14, but they reckon he's 18 . He's got a bit of pace and is a similar build to Peter Beardsley. He seamed comfortable enough on the ball but like I say didn't get any real opportunities. Overall Newcastle's youngsters were a bit disappointing , perhaps it was the bad pitch , perhaps it was the fact that they were all so young, Newcastle scraped through into the third round, I don't think I'll be going to that game.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

It all started a bit slowly, and it was hard to see in such a cramped area. However things started to warm up (so to speak) and even a light covering didn't spoil things too much. This second string performance wasn't as spectacular as big brother, but still quite entertaining. As usual, it lasted about 90 minutes with the first action starting low down the left side, a lot of action in the middle then a final fling out wide on the right. As Clarky said, we even saw some red and a few old stars were also seen.

Dunno 'bout the footy mind, but the lunar eclipse was great entertainment ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

>>>>>Des Hamilton was supposed to be playing , but was nowhere to be seen

No change there then ...

>>>>Robson, Wadsworth and Milne watching in the Stand, but at least they got a warm cup of tea and a ham & pease pud sandwich at half-time

Well done Clarky - meticulous attention to detail as usual. :-)

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001

I see my little mate Coppy has requested a loan move to a 1st Div club to prove what he can do. Obviously his lack of height will cripple his progress as Owen, Ph****s, Barmby, Beardsley and wee Hughie Gallagher all found.

Quick, controlled, scores goals. No humping high balls at him as there's no point....is he not what our formation and current skills are crying out for? Sheesh. What's he got to do?

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2001