33mins: Doninger penalty 1-0

40mins: Bell shot 1-1

45 mins Marwood header 2-1

Half time: Town 1 Toon 2

64 mins: McCrudden shot 3-1

72 mins: Doninger shot 4-1

Full time: Town 1 Toon 4 

Interim Coach Richard Money commented:

“No matter what the standard of opposition is, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful to anybody, all I ever want to see is a group of youngsters playing football in the right way.

“It has to be with the right attitude, the right energy and the right tempo.

“We also looked like we were dangerous, which is the pleasing thing for me.

“And I thought we saw that at Prudhoe. We have taken another step forward. We are trying to play properly and one or two of them or doing OK.

“Michael (McCrudden) and James (Marwood) were always a threat. But if you add Nile Ranger and Jonny Godsmark to that, what we’ve got are four very mobile forwards who are all prepared to receive it, turn and run at people.

“We’ve concentrated on that a lot at the moment and we are showing progress.

“We just want to play games. If you are in the competition you might as well try to win it. All you want to see is them doing it properly. We had three first-year professionals in the back line and that’s encouraging.

“But the pleasing thing is that they are looking like they enjoy the way we play.”

United's Reserve side progressed to the second round of the Northumberland Senior Cup on a wet Tuesday evening, thanks to the goalscoring efforts from a trio of midfielders.

It took just over half an hour of play at Kimberley Park for Newcastle to open the scoring against the struggling Northern League Second Division outfit from the spot.

A foul on Michael McCrudden by Chris Baxter saw Mark Doninger convert the resultant penalty, only for the home side to level before half time through Liam Bell.

James Marwood's header just on half time restored the advantage for United and he linked up well with Jonny Godsmark to set up McCrudden for a third on 64 minutes. 

Doninger then grabbed his second of the game with a low effort from 18 yards to keep United on track for a successful defence of their trophy.

Biffa (with thanks to Dave Greaves)

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