Toon win top of the table clash

The lads turned up to Marden bridge with some interesting fashion choices on show, with captain Nat wearing some leggings, John Mc wearing the now compulsory bucket hat, and Johnny Leck wearing a name badge and one sock. Not to mention that Johnny Z had forgotten to bring a white shirt, deciding to overlook the fact that after initially choosing to play in black, Nat had since put three messages in the chat remaining us all to instead bring white shirts. This left him wearing John Mc’s warm up vest and allowed him to show off his huge biceps to any lucky women who happened to be watching the game.

After the ritual playing of Rasputin, we decided to change it up and play ‘Love Story’ (Much to the fury of Johnny Z) on the advice of the mighty 3s, which led to Lawson explaining that there are two versions of the song - Who knew Lawson was such a big Taylor Swift fan ??? With T swizzle’s vocals ringing in our ears we headed out to the pitch for what was a huge game.

We were warned before the game that the umpires were strict, so naturally within 30 seconds John Mc picked up a yellow card for a bad tackle, breaking our run of 6 games without a card. Start as you mean to go on !

After a tense first 10 minutes that North Shields controlled, Newcastle snatched a goal, a Johnny L pass finding James who weaved around two defenders and buried a shot into the bottom corner. 0-1 to the toon.

The goal gave Newcastle momentum and we kept attacking shields, and were rewarded with a 2nd goal soon after, Johnny L driving into the D and rifling a shot into the same spot James found 5 minutes earlier. 0-2 Newcastle, we were flying.

Despite being 2 goals down, the experienced and dangerous Shields team’s heads didn’t drop, and they got a P flick after a poor tackle by Nathan. Adam received a green card for chat to the umpire. The flick was converted and shields had one back before halftime, 1-2.

In the closing moments of the half, Lawson was heard to shout ‘There’s a man coming on your back’ followed by ‘That’s not something you want to hear….!’ Not the best worded shout Lawson !

HT: North Shields 1-2 Newcastle

Shields grabbed a goal fairly quickly in the 2nd half after a voyage down the left saw their tricky winger through on goal. Tom Mc ran out to meet him, but was rounded and shields had an equaliser. 2-2

With the game level again, the team dug deep. Johnny Z tracked back excellently from right wing to make a last ditch tackle on what would have been a 1 on 1 for shields, and not long after Tom Mc made an excellent save with his stick, just managing to hook the ball away from their winger and stop what would have surely been a shields goal.

Newcastle broke away and James found himself 1 on 1 with the keeper, only for the keeper to attempt to dislocate his shoulder. Safe to say a P flick was awarded, which Lawson promptly slotted home and then shockingly celebrated Findlay Green style #GetOnTheGear
2-3 Newcastle.

Shields equalised again after a short corner attempt was saved and fell to Ben, who just took too long to clear the ball, and was promptly mugged and dunked on, shields making it 3-3. Nat earned himself only his 2nd card of the season, getting a green for chat to the umpire.

With 5 minutes to go, Newcastle were pushing for a winner and found another goal through Johnny L, who slotted expertly just inside the post from an angle after a scramble in the D. 3-4 Newcastle.

James wrapped up a fantastic win for the toon, arriving at the back post to tap in a cross from the industrious Johnny Z - get him playing in a vest every week ! 3-5 to the toon, and it was game over. The shields number 7 still had enough time to assault Nat and get himself a yellow. But it didn’t dampen the mood for the toon in what was a top class performance against a top class side. Full time, we brought the points back home with us and now top the table. Bring on round 2 next week against the same opposition, in what will inevitably be another very difficult game.

Howay the toon !

FT: North Shields 3-5 Newcastle

Match report Ben Grenyer