Taxi for Medina

However, these skills faced an early test when he offered Liam a lift to the game but inadvertently left him waiting….taxi for Medina

Club debuts from Keith, Sam V, Chris, and Matt T meant spirits were high pre-game.

As the game started, Newcastle wasted no time in making their presence felt as they surged forward, pressuring Darlington's backline. Left-wing attacks came in waves, but the Darlington defence, though scrambling at times, stood firm.

In a moment of unpredictability, Neil decided to embrace the age-old 2s strategy of “hit and hope”. His drive into the Darlington territory took a deflection off a defender, ricocheted off the Darlington keeper, and landed on Alex Tompkins's stick, who made no mistake in slotting it home.

After taking the lead the game began to stretch and Darlington started to play their way into the contest. Struggling to maintain momentum, Newcastle found themselves pinned in their own half. Brian coultn't quite keep tabs on the multitude of charging Darlington players. This pressure finally paid off for the visitors, as a Darlington player broke into the box, weaving past defenders before sending a scruffy shot into the back of the net. 1-1.

Sam B unleashed his creative side in an effort to turn the tide, executing a juggling run followed by a hurling-style strike into the Darlington goal. Regrettably, it was disallowed for being the wrong sport.

The home team struggled to get a foothold in the game towards the end of the half and conceded another messy goal as they failed to clear their lines. All in all, a disjointed first half for the Toon and Darlington deserved to lead.

HT 2-1 Darlington

David rallied the team at half-time and Newcastle started the second half much brighter, clearly with an increased intensity. Euan and Keith quickly got stuck into a midfield battle, with Newcastle gradually gaining the upper hand through their more controlled pressing.

Newcastle drew level via a ‘well-worked’ short corner. Keith sent a ‘disguised’ ball directly to Matt Thomson who beat two men and fired the ball into the Darlington goal. Debut goal for the Northern Irish man and an assist on debut for Keith. The scores were level once again.

Newcastle made good use of their squad of 16 as Sam Van Vuuren and Sam B were introduced to ensure Darlington had no opportunity to play their way back into the game. Continued Newcastle pressure resulted in Alex T breaking into the box and a Darlington player committing a deliberate back stick, a flick was awarded. The big question lingered for new captain David Marshall: Trust Neil, the flick maestro who hadn't missed in 16 years (yes, he reminded us..a few times), or empower the new CF who had already shown flicking finesse against Morpeth last week? The result….Matt grabbed the ball first. He stepped up and rolled/bobbled one into the bottom corner. Newcastle lead again, Neil's flick record remained unblemished and confidence was high.

As they now trailed 3-2, Darlington started to commit more men forward, which created the perfect opportunity for a clinical counter-attack. Neil was set free to run at the sparse Darlington backline, and he found myself with a pinpoint pass….it was all downhill from there. I absolutely fluffed the chance, missing a wide-open goal and an opportunity to give Newcastle a 2-goal lead. DOD secured for the longstanding 2s player.

Darlington continued to attack but their play was consistently broken up by Robbo, Luke , Liam, Robin, and Kev. Debutant Chris was on hand throughout the game to make a couple of brilliant saves, leading to growing frustration for the Darlington players.

Continued attacking play from the visitors opened up more space for Newcastle forwards on the counter. Robin played a great ball to Neil who ran at their defence (I decided to not provide a support run this time), he eluded a couple of defenders and hit a reverse stick shot to make it 4-2.

Newcastle comfortably saw out the remaining time in the game and secured a well-deserved 3 points in their season opener.

FT 4-2 Newcastle

Based on the second-half performance, it was a fair result for the Toon. However, it could have easily gone the other way. Nevertheless, it was an excellent game overall against a resilient and formidable Darlington team.

MOM – Sam B
DOD – Paul C

Goals – Alex, Matt (2), Neil
Assists – Neil, Robin, Keith

Match Report: Paul Campbell