The fixture gods served up a mouthwatering opening day fixture, with Sunderland travelling to Newcastle for the first ever derby at this level. A 2s squad with some new faces took a mixed approach to pre-match preparation. Some felt the best thing was a nice early night, others decided that a night out until 4am would be just what the captain wanted on day 1. The captain himself showed his commitment to the cause by being on a very very early train to make it back from some drinking trip conference.
As pushback approached, the team were motivating themselves for the game ahead. Rumour has it one of our younger contingent got himself into the right headspace by chanting “It’s Derby Day” to his grateful family all morning. Others (Tom Mc) took a more relaxed approach to waking up and arriving on time….
A 10am start was at the insistence of the police due to the risk of crowd trouble, but the early start didn’t deter the fans as they poured into the DWP Kop, with a raucous atmosphere created.
The opening minutes were classic early season fare, high in grit and application, somewhat less so in quality. However the Toon started to assert dominance, and took the lead through a superb strike from Charlie, ensuring that his goal drought for the 2s came to a timely end. At some point in the half Sunderland took a yellow card for some robust contact on Neil. Debutant Alistair then took control at a short corner to drag flick home a second (Matty who?). However a cheap PC giveaway allowed Sunderland to strike from the top of the D and pull one back.
Half-time: 2-1

Fuelled on Haribo and with Robin’s inspiring words ringing in our ears, we started the second half strongly. Before too long, Charlie had turned 1 goal into 2, making sure that a saved shot from Alistair definitely got over the line. But as the second half wore on, we struggled to turn our dominance into results on the scoresheet. The other debutant Luke picked up a slightly unfortunate yellow for some heavy contact, and a few minutes after he returned, Sunderland tucked away another short corner to pull back to 3-2. As the time ticked down, the game was still in the balance, but we pulled away in the final minutes as the game got stretched, with Alistair adding a second (with a rare FG assist from Brian), and Neil rounding out the scoring with a finish to a move that was straight off the training ground from Wednesday. In the end the scoreline of 5-2 probably reflected our overall control of the game, but with 5 minutes to play there would have been nerves about whether we could hold out. A strong start to the season though, not least given the number of absentees to come back into the side.

Mom: Alistair
Charlie picked up a lot of votes but was just pipped by the debutant, with both providing two goals and an assist apiece.
DoD: Charlie
It can be a cruel game. Despite the above Charlie was awarded DoD for hat trick avoidance, fending off competition from Luke Q (card), Will (“I can’t see or hear when I’m in the D”) and Brian (who knows, but also do you need a reason).