Date: Saturday 22nd July, 2000, 2pm.

Venue: St. James' Park, Alnwick. No programme was issued.

Conditions:  Fine.

Crowd:  TBC - over 1,000.

Teams: 

ATFC: TBC.
Subs n/u: TBC.

NUFC: (normal home kit) Karelse (Brain 60 mins), Green, Beharall, Hamilton, Marcelino, G.Caldwell, Boyd, Ketsbaia, Coppinger, McMahon, Brady.
Subs n/u: none.

1 min. Newcastle set off at a good pace and Gary Caldwell shot narrowly wide from about 20 yards.
4 mins. Ketsbaia lined up a free kick just outside the corner of the box and with the ball never rising more than six inches off the ground, drilled it into the far corner to put Newcastle in the lead. 1-0.
12 mins. A mix up between the Newcastle defenders left Karelse stranded and Alnwick's Robert Cockburn chipped him to make it 1-1.
22 mins. Jamie Coppinger had a goal disallowed for offside. The Assistant Referee involved was a certain Glen Wallace well known to all Newcastle Ground Hoppers and only missing from Washington D.C. because of his aversion to flying.
30 mins. Ketsbaia cut the ball back from the right for Brady to run on to it and fire low into the corner. 2-1.
34 mins. An excellent cross from Stuart Green, playing in a right wing back position, should have been headed home by McMahon but he completely missed the ball and it fell to Ketsbaia who, surprised that it had got to him, snatched his shot and put it over the bar.
38 mins. David Beharall ran through on the left side of midfield and beat a couple of players before unleashing a scorcher from 30 yards which hit the outside of the post.
40 mins. With Newcastle now dominating some intricate build up play on the right put Coppinger in to make it 3-1.
42 mins. Stuart Green shot low and hard to put United 4-1 ahead.
45 mins. In first half injury time a Ketsbaia shot could only be parried by the home keeper and Coppinger slotted the rebound in to make it 5-1 at the break.

Halftime score: Alnwick 1 NUFC 5 

56 mins. A replica of the 5th goal as another Ketsbaia shot was parried by the keeper only this time it was McMahon who blasted home the rebound from about 14 yards. 6-1.
60 mins. Coppinger missed a good chance to complete his second hat trick in four days when his shot from the corner of the box was well saved.
68 mins. Coppinger got clean through to go one on one with the keeper but allowed his shot to be saved.
80 min. Hamilton's pass to Marcelino was intercepted by Cockburn about 25 yards out. The Alnwick striker took it forward to the edge of the box before giving Brain no chance. 6-2.

Final score: Alnwick 2 NUFC 6 

Waffle: 

With 22 players enjoying the sun over the other side of the Atlantic and the Juniors having a game in the morning, Tommy Craig was unable to name an outfield substitute for this match against Northern League Division 2 side Alnwick Town.

The pitch, although having a noticeable slope from goal to goal, had plenty of grass on it and was a far better surface than Ashington on Wednesday night.

Ketsbaia could not be accused of taking it easy and would have impressed any watching scouts. (There again, I suppose a lot of people at Newcastle were impressed when they first saw him.) 

Marcelino was never really tested but seemed to have little enthusiasm for the game. Of the younger players, once again it was Green, Gary Caldwell and Coppinger who caught the eye although Beharall and Boyd also had good games.

All in all, a sound enough performance from the team skippered, on this occasion, by Des Hamilton. 

Thanks to Dave Greaves