Date: Saturday 5th August, 2000, 3pm. 

    Venue: McCain Stadium, Scarborough.

   Programme scan to follow.

Conditions:  Warm & Sunny.

Crowd:  800 

Teams: 

SFC: Woods, Atkinson (Russell 46 mins), Brunton, Ingram, Ellender, Jones, Williams (Windross 77 mins), Stoker, Pounder, Brodie (Morris 71 mins), Betts.
Subs n/u:  Newton, McNaughton, Grant

NUFC: Grindlay, Charvet, Beharall, Hamilton, Caldwell S, Caldwell G (Allegranza 46 mins), McGuffie, Green, Copinger (McMahon 59 mins), Ameobi, Boyd
Subs n/u: Brain

Referee: Gary Wallace

The first half was technically neat and controlled, with Newcastle having most of the midfield play although never really threatening the Scarborough goal. The Seadogs managed to put the ball in the United net midway through the half, but the offside flag had been raised well beforehand. 

Half Time Scarborough 0 NUFC 0

The turning point of the game came with Newcastle's interval substitution of trialist Carmen Allegranza on the left hand side of midfield, Gary Caldwell making way for him. This disrupted the well-organised United defence, with Charvet partnering Steve Caldwell in the centre and the other trialist on view, McGuffie, dropping back to fill the right back berth. McGuffie had looked quite tidy in midfield previously, but was given a bit of a runaround in his new defensive role. 

Allegranza's performance can best summed up as "anonymous."

United continued to dominate play early in the second period, but the home defence remained solid. The visitor's best chance of the game came on 68 minutes, when Steve Caldwell was put clear through the middle, but with only 'keeper Woods to beat, he rifled his shot narrowly wide of a post from only six yards.

Newcastle had cause to regret this miss when Scarborough opened the scoring within a minute. Brunton was growing in confidence down the left flank for the home side, and beat McGuffie to to draw Grindlay to his near post. A hard and low cross into the middle then fell nicely for the advancing David Pounder to slide the ball home from four yards. 0-1.  

Brunton continued to cause havoc, and combined beautifully with Williams in the 74th minute to slice open the United rearguard, before crossing again to Pounder. This time he had time to control the ball and turn away from two defenders, before blasting home his second. 0-2. 

The remaining 15 minutes saw Pounder on the hunt for his hat trick, with another quality effort from the edge of the box being claimed by Grindlay as United heads dropped. 

United belatedly tried to force their way back into the match, but the nearest they came was an 85th minute free kick blasted in by McMahon and spectacularly punched away by 'Boro 'keeper Woods.

Pounder was subbed in the final minute and received a generous round of applause from both sets of fans for his man of the match performance.

Final score: Scarborough 2 NUFC 0 

Waffle: 

The Competition was generally well-organised, but marred slightly by the failure of the PA announcer to bother with team lineups or substitutions. This lack of information and an unhelpful programme left many fans uncertain precisely who they were watching !

It also seemed rather strange for the PA system to announce that, owing to the lack of competition from FC Siol (the Dutch fourth division side who had gone down 12-0 to Darlo in the first game), Newcastle would face Darlo at 3pm on the Sunday, with the hosts taking on Siol in the noon slot. This was broadcast immediately after the Scarborough v Newcastle game, and obviously virtually everyone intending to turn out on the Sunday heard it.

Quite rightly, the home fans then sought out Chairman John Russell (now ex-Chairman) and protested vehemently about this fixture-fixing. Of course, by this time both the travelling toon fans and newspaper reporters had 3pm Sunday down for the Newcastle match. Cue many disappointed black and whites, who turned up on the Sunday, only to be told at the turnstiles that the Newcastle game was already over, and they had missed a comprehensive win.

Many thanks to Alan, our Special Correspondent.