Newcastle United Reserves	1-1	Sheffield Wednesday Reserves
Half time:	1-1
Score Sheet:
Cort (13)		Bonvin (27)
	Teams
Adam Collin Andy Griffin Wayne Quinn   Steve Caldwell Marcelino Mark Boyd Lomana LuaLua Brian Kerr Carl Cort Shola Ameobi Olivier Bernard		Richard Siddall Neil Gibson Anwar Uddin Adam Quinn Steve Harkness Adam Muller Tony Crane Lee Stevenson Owen Morrison  Michele Di Piedi  Pablo Bonvin
Substitutes:
Colin McMenamin for Cort (83) Bradley Orr for Quinn (83)		Alex Callery for Morrison (74) Jon Shaw for Di Piedi (46) Richard Wood for Stevenson (46)
Subs not used:
David Cowan Ryan McGuffie Michael Chopra		Jubb
Bookings:
none		tbc
Referee: Russell Tiffin again, fresh from his performance at last week's Wear-Tyne reserve derby.
Attendance:  934 - temporary stand open again.

13 mins A long-range Carl Cort shot bounced three times before scuttling past the Owls keeper at the Airport End.1-0

27 mins Loose play from Quinn saw him lose the ball on the edge of his own box, allowing returning ex-Magpie Pablo Bonvin to shoot past Collin's right hand into the bottom corner of the goal 1-1  

Half time: Newcastle Reserves 1 Owls 1 

Full time: Newcastle Reserves 1 Owls 1 

Tommy Craig muttered darkly about the conditions and venue, but did confirm that he was happier with the attitude from his side compared to the previous home game against the smoggies.

Carl Cort continued his return to fitness with almost a full game and a second successive strike for the second string, but that aside there was precious little to keep the fans warm in this game.

Quinn and Marcelino both hit the bar with headers before the break as the rain inevitably started to fall, while the game rapidly descended into farce in the second half with a howling gale making anything remotely resembling football something of a joke.

Andy Griffin did hit the post after 64 minutes but Collin needed to make two close range saves to maintain parity. That aside there was little to report - Wednesday had little difficulty in avoiding a defeat, while both sides struggled to make sense of the conditions although a last minute shot from Kerr bounced off a player on the goal line. 

Birthday boy Bobby Robson made one of the best decisions in his 69 years by staying well clear of Kingston Park tonight, and after the closure of the temporary stand for the last game, it looked like a number of fans didn't bother to turn up - however the stand was actually open again.

It's now patently obvious to all that the toon players loathe and detest this place as much as the fans. A quick look at our record this season confirms this:

Played: 16. 7 home games, 2 wins. 9 away games, 5 wins.

Quite simply, this windswept hole is a complete waste of time for developing youngsters. The side plays better away from home and has a good pattern of play with better individual performances and an obvious benefit to scorelines.

The lads coming through from the Academy into the second string might as well learn windsurfing or kite flying at Kingston Park - there's no chance of a football education.

Precisely why we play at a rugby ground is unclear - Liverpool tried it for one season at St.Helens and acted on the complaints of their players, now playing at Southport football club. Given the fact that the pitch at St.James' isn't lasting anyway and requires relaying on a regular timescale, what possible harm can it do for the reserves to play on it? The current home game farce makes a mockery of having a reserve side at all - i'm sure the coach and players would be over the moon to play at Gallowgate, and much rather play all their games away than at this unforgiving hole.



Biffa 

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