A tragically small crowd were tempted away from watching the Manchester derby on TV and rewarded for their loyalty with the highest-scoring Senior Cup Final since 1995 (excluding pens).

Newcastle Reserves ultimately lifted the trophy for the 33rd time in their history, but needed two hours of play and a penalty shootout in order to tame a tenacious Team Northumbria side, fresh from lifting the Northern League Second Division title.

Magpies Captain Tamas Kadar picked up the trophy as United's second string made it four triumphs in the last five seasons in this competition on a damp and chilly evening. The Hungarian was one of a clutch of Newcastle players making farewell appearances at St.James' Park, with a host of contracts close to expiring and a large scale clearout of the development squad imminent.

That may have contributed to something of a loose defensive display from the home side, but there were no initial issues at the other end of the field and the opening goal arrived on 16 minutes in front of a deserted Leazes End.

Ryan Donaldson was denied from point blank range but then took the corner that Paul Dummett poked home, netting from six yards in his first game back since a loan spell at Gateshead.

The Students - including former Magpies Mark Bertram, Rob Cavener and Dean Critchlow - levelled on the half hour however when a poor layoff from Kadar let in Team North top scorer Peter Watling, who fired a low shot beyond Jak Alnwick from the edge of the box.

That parity lasted for barely two minutes as Phil Airey hooked in a right wing cross from 12 yards to restore the lead and Airey then cracked in a second two minutes before the break - only the Leazes crossbar preventing him grabbing a hat-trick on the stroke of half-time.

More lack-lustre defending however allowed Team North to narrow the deficit three minutes after the break, when Tom Davies scored from close range. Airey's replacement, substitute Dan Taylor then sprung the offside trap on 69 minutes and smoothly stroked the ball home to re-establish the two goal lead for United.

Back came the Students though, with former Darlington midfielder Daniel Riley shooting through Alnwick to make the remaining twelve minutes anything but academic. And amazingly, it was all square just two minutes later when Davies got his second, nodding in a corner with the home defence seemingly lost in the gradually descending Gallowgate mist.

Team North thought they'd won it in the final seconds of normal time until an offside flag curtailed the celebrations and they then faced a resurgent United in thirty minutes of extra time.

Despite dominating proceedings though, United failed to seriously threaten Andy Jennison's goal until the dying seconds. He was then called into action to deny James Tavernier, watched as Greg McDermott hit the post with a free-kick from the edge of the box and was then helpless to stop the same player netting, only to for another linesman's flag to correctly send the tie to penalties.

In that, United eventually prevailed 4-2 to collect the trophy for the second time via that method, having overcome Blyth Spartans 4-3 here back in 2008.

Biffa

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