Silverware dream still alive! Newcastle Res 4 Newcastle Benfield 2.

Posted on December 1st, 2009 | 76 Comments |

A cup...
A cup...
We’re still on course for some silverware this season after the reserves came through a tough test against their non-league foes, to reach the semi-finals of thecup. Newcastle Reserves lined up at home to Newcastle Benfield of the Northern League, in the quarter final stage of their defence of the Northumberland Senior Cup.

Last season saw the second string side beat Benfield 2-1, at the semi-final stage of the competition and at the same ground with goals from Mark Doninger and Wesley Baheng. Newcastle Benfield sit in 8th place in the Northern League and have a spattering of former YTs of various professional clubs (including United) on the books, including one who’s a physio at the town.

At a blustery Whitley Park, Benfield took an early lead, when a speculative shot from Shaun Bell was carried over the fingers of Robinson and went in off the underside of the crossbar, to put the Northern League side 1-0 up. The wind did it’s best to spoil the game but the youngsters of Newcastle tried to combat it with good interplay, though Benfield largely kept them at bay initially.

It wasn’t until early in the second half that the young Magpies got back on level terms when Shane Ferguson, dropped the ball into box and a mishit from McLaughlin fell kindly to right back Leadbitter who finished at the keeper’s near post. Newcastle brought on Nile Ranger shortly after, but the scored remained 1-1 at full-time, and as the two teams went into extra-time it seemed like the first half of extra-time would also see nobody adding to the goal tally, but with seconds of the half remaining, Nile Ranger took the ball inside the box and turned well before striking well past Grainger who had no chance.

The Newcastle youngsters seem happy enough with the one goal advantage but though they looked tired, Benfield continued to press and got what their efforts deserved, when former Newcastle academy player Chris Carr headed them back into the game at 2-2. But the reserves weren’t finished and it was heartbreak for Benfield as LuaLua’s class and pace made the difference and he drove his shot across the keeper into the corner to make it 3-2. And two minutes later to add insult to injury, Nile Ranger did well to tee up Shane Ferguson who put the outcome beyond doubt. The the final whistle blew shortly after, and our man on the ground headed off for a pint at his local.

Us – Robinson, Leadbitter, Taylor, Tozer, Grieve, Lough, McLaughlin, Danquah, LuaLua, Donaldson, Ferguson

Subs – Henderson, Page, McGorrigan, Morris, Ranger

Newcastle Benfield – Grainger, Forsyth, Paterson, Dugdale, Leighton, Carr, Antony, Bell, Young, Nicholson, Morris

Subs – P Buzzeo, Rowntree, Bangura, S Buzzeo, Tait

Att – tbc

NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.

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76 Responses

  1. Nah, s’all good, as Chuck might say.

    To be honest though, at the moment, only LuaLua and Ranger out of that little lot would be likely to make it at Championship and possibly above. But in fairness it’s the not strongest second string we could have put out.

  2. Has anybody else had problems with commenting via mobile since we put this fancy control in (i.e. with the formatting)?

  3. Bowburn i’ve only been posting a couple of days so i don’t know how it used to be but have no problems myself mate.

  4. Chars! Could just be my IPhone but it lets you post once and then won’t re-enable the touch screen keyboard on the phone, which I reckon is to do with the control rather than the phone. But worky is the expert and he’ll probably say it’s my daft phone!

    Reet, off to bed. Laters!

  5. Looked at that yeah , nobbie was special , I wish I could see some videos of Terry Hibbit in the mid 70’s , he was very similar and fast as well , and a very hard worker never gave up , good honest footballer ….

    If you get a chance watch the swansea vid done by one of their fans whocame up to SJP last week , quite funny to watch , he thought our ground looked like the inside of a recreation centre , with all the breeze blocks it was similar !!



  6. That line up cofirms the question I raised Monday/ Tuesday or whenever when posters suggested we field the second string for the FA cup. 

    The question I begged was do we have 11 we could call safely call on  as first team reserves?   Yes we have the numbers but are they of the standard required to  slot in to the first team?  No way – just how would they fare against say ManU reserves? 

    No competetion and this shows that the squad we’ve got is just far too thin!

  7. Lesh’
    but, back in the day, players who weren’t getting regular first team football, played in the reserves.
    That does not happen anymore.
    The odd one gets some match practice, that’s it.
    So, if we actually played the guys not getting a regular start, we’d have a decent reserve team.
    The reserves team is more like the 3rd team these days.
    Don’t y’think?
     

  8. nzedtoonman says:
    December 2, 2009 at 8:21 am
    Looked at that yeah , nobbie was special , I wish I could see some videos of Terry Hibbit in the mid 70’s , he was very similar and fast as well , and a very hard worker never gave up , good honest footballer ….
    Great footballer, could drop a ball in a bucket from 50 yards. He definitely wasn’t fast though and was tired and laboured late in games. Nothing like Nobby – one of the best!!

  9. That’s the point I was driving at CLiNT – The reserves team is more like the 3rd team these days and as a result, we’re in deep doo-doo if there’s a need for a number of reinforcements for league games!.

  10. Lesh,
    aye, but isn’t the real reserves the ones not getting regular games atm?
    i.e. Butt, Geremi, Khiz, Krul, etc

  11. If the players on the bench don’t play can’t they be named in the reserve team for the following game?

  12. sorry clint, my comment was not based on your post mate, but in the interest of match sharpness, ranger who often gets a run out for the first team (all be it 30 mins) plays some part for the reserves last night, butt and geremi who don’t get as much match time as ranger don’t play for the reserves. suppose about 60 grand a week is a bit much for reserve team players though!

  13. Well hopefully “s`all good” we are depending on people like yourself, able and willing to give us a rundown of the youngsters.
    I thought then and even more so now it was a good policy to dig up good young prospects and put them in the hands of people who can help develope them as future (hopefully) first team players.
    Seems we have`nt brought in any lately and I understand we have some out on loan, so the reserves in that case may appear to be a bit understrength.
    But appreciate the effort and report.

  14. As a reserve player i’d feel sick playing next to somebody like Geremi… £50K a week and probably not any better than a lot of the lads in our second string.

  15. AndyNUFC says:
    December 2, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    “As a reserve player i’d feel sick playing next to somebody like Geremi… £50K a week and probably not any better than a lot of the lads in our second string.”

    Andy, how many other members of the reserve team have won the Champion’s League twice, the African Cup of Nations twice, the Premier League twice, La Liga twice, an Olympic gold medal and the Spanish Super Cup?

  16. jay jay – Worky must be talking about Geremi’s well know Football Manager career on the PC :D

  17. & we win most games played with Geremi playing.
    Just cos we say someone is crap, doesn’t mean they are.
    We might not like a player or hate that they’re on 10’s of k’s per week.
     
    & we’re allowed to have that opinion, but it doesn’t make it true.

  18. I never said I didn’t like Geremi, just how i’d feel being in the reserves alongside a player earning over 10 times what I was!

  19. workyticket says:
    December 2, 2009 at 3:26 pm
    AndyNUFC says:
    December 2, 2009 at 2:54 pm
    “As a reserve player i’d feel sick playing next to somebody like Geremi… £50K a week and probably not any better than a lot of the lads in our second string.”
    Andy, how many other members of the reserve team have won the Champion’s League twice, the African Cup of Nations twice, the Premier League twice, La Liga twice, an Olympic gold medal and the Spanish Super Cup?

    That was when he was in his 30’s!

    He must be about 50 now – Or he runs, crosses and shoots like that anyway!

  20. Andy,
    i wasn’t having a dig mate, i used the word ‘we’.
    I’m just saying that we sometimes get the hump with players, for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes perfectly good reasons.
    I’m just playing devil’s advocate. Soz.
    But i’m sure you’ll agree that building up or slagging down our players is something us Toon fans do too often, & it never helps the team if we’re groaning &/or booing if they do have a cack game?
    We just have to make use of every player to get out of this league asap.

  21. Lol.
    Cool.
     
    He also advertises erectile dysfunction,
    which is mad as a box of frogs.
    :)

  22. worky,
    i was just watching brazil v holland ’74 world cup the other day.
    Eeeesh! brazil were awful, & dirty in that game & got beat 2-0.
    But i seem to remember them meeting again, was it ’78?
    Where holland won 3-2 & brazil (paulo cesar?) resorting to rugy tackles & hacking.

  23. That was way before his legs went! he’s past it, he’s like that old fella’s dog in of mice and men.

  24. Clint, I don’t think the Netherlands and Brazil played each other in the ’78 finals. Funnily enough, it was Michels and Cruyff in the ’74 World Cup that really got me into the game in the first place. JC is still the greatest player ever to kick a football.

  25. Maybe it was ’82 then?
    Hey it’s a foggy memory now, think brazil wore blue again though.
     
    What a player JC was, he made it all look so simple.
    He made so much time for himself.
    & he smoked tons of tabs(not on the pitch like).
    But what a team with Rep, kneeskins(sp?), kruhl(sp?) et al.
    Total football

  26. I seem to remember Cryuff doing an ad for ‘lucky strike’ where he shows amazing skill keeping a cigarette box up, whilst smoking a tab, suited & booted, talking to camera.
    That probably got me into smoking. :)

  27. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    December 2, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    “He also advertises erectile dysfunction,
    which is mad as a box of frogs.”

    He was supposed to be telling men not to be embarrased to ‘come’ out about their limp sausages. However, he made them put something at the bottom of every ad stressing that Mr Pele himself had actually never had any problem whatsoever getting it up! No sense of irony whatsoever! :-)

  28. Wow!
    Exactly!
     
    He must have had more possession per game than the other 21 put together?
    The guy was a masterpiece, he had a stride of about 20 ft.
    Should’ve won the world cup, they should’ve made a cup just for him.
    I think you’re right like, best ever.  can anyone touch that?
    Thanx for the link.
     

  29. to nztoonman re post #15  Nice one mate. Got to feel sorry for the Swansea fans coming all that way but they seemed to have made the most of it and had a good time anyway.

  30. Cryuff, every time.
    Jimi Hendrix of football.
    Best was great, but badly/sadly flawed.
     

  31. NUST have given an update on their plan.  They say they are half way to their target.

    From what I’m reading it would appear their saying that they have wealthy peopl wanting to buy the club but want proof that the fans can raise funds and be part of it.

    All a bit vague for my liking though.

  32. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    December 2, 2009 at 7:51 pm

    “Should’ve won the world cup, they should’ve made a cup just for him.”

    He refused to go to the ’78 one because of General Galtieri. Ironically, if he had, there’s a good chance the Netherlands would have stuffed Argentina in the final.

    He did win three European cups in a row though, and another one as a manager.

  33. Worky,
    they woulda killed ’em.
    More than Cryuff, Nederlands’ football shoulda won the world cup.
    They proved how brilliant Northern european football could be.
    I’d choose fast, flowing Northern european football every time over latino.
    A man of principle too though.

  34. to Workyticket re post #50 Great link. Cruyff was poetry in motion. Beautiful to behold his footballing skills in one video.

  35. Stuart,
    it would be helpful for us potential buyers to have some clue how much is required
    wouldn’t it?
    It all just seems a bit cloak ‘n’ dagger, i know they wanna keep certain info
    back, but surely a bit more info wouldn’t go a miss.

  36. After all,
    when you go to buy a product & you ask what’s in it,
    the seller usually tells you.
    Or you’re less likely to buy?
    Weird!

  37. Stuart,
    but he gets points knocked off for who he played for.
    & y’never know what overseas players names mean.
    If it’s down to names, what about messi & kaka?
    :)

  38. Who does blanche play for then?
     
    manc beats arse, blackbum beats the chavs, who’d a thunk that?
    :)

  39. Roy hows you mate after that run in with Tony ;)  Lads I might be biased but I think Geordie best was 1 of the best players to grace a pitch.