The long term rivalry between Newcastle mens 3s and Medics 4s was being renewed for another season, and all that was missing to make this clash any more mouthwatering was the Champions league music. After being given approximately 30 seconds to warm up, the teams took to the field ready to battle for the 3 points.

The game started tensely, with both teams eager to score the first goal. Newcastle dictated the game but Medics proved to be a threat on the counter, with a shot on goal which Guy easily pushed aside keeping Newcastle on their toes. The toon were creating many chances but failing to convert, with shouts from the defence to ‘Slide on your belly’, encouraging the forwards to give everything for the cause. With about 20 minutes played, the first moment of magic broke the deadlock. Newcastle had a short corner, and after initially failing to get a shot away, captain Andy kept his composure to play a pass towards the back post for the number one medics enemy, Kurran Bailey, to send a looping shot under the diving keeper and into the back of the net. Cue wild celebrations, none celebrated more wildly than KB44 himself as he cupped his ear to his own fans, basking in scoring his dream goal against the team he wanted to score most against, and cementing the moment as one of the all time iconic sporting moments.

Newcastle kept the pressure on the medics and were rewarded with a second goal, this time from legendary striker Adam Hawkins, who before the game actually turned on time for the first time in his hockey career, rather than 2 minutes before pushback. (Perhaps an omen that magical moments were afoot?)
 
HT: Newcastle 2-0 Medics
 
A half time chat in the form of a reminder from Neil Mc that we had to stay focused and still had another half to play kept the lads focused and ready to fight for more goals.

Newcastle picked up where they left off and penned the medics into their own half, the energy of Oscar and Aaron in midfield proving too much for the students, and the flailing limbs and stick waving antics of John Carr intimidating their forward line.

Lawson was alleged to have shouted ‘Spread it wide and drill it hard’, adding to his repertoire of other questionable shouts such as ‘There’s a man coming on your back’. (Lawson, if you didn’t shout this, please take it up with James Roake, the allegation-maker….)

On the back of this inspirational shout, Newcastle did indeed spread it wide and drilled it hard into the middle of the D where Kurran had made a sneaky run up from left back, and he once again scored to bag himself a brace and Newcastle’s third goal. His celebrations this time were not as wild due to Ben G over-exuberantly knocking his stick out of his hand while trying to celebrate with him.

From this point on Newcastle totally dominated the game and medics didn’t come close, bar a few very charitable passes by Captain Andy in his own 23 who clearly felt a bit sorry for medics and wanted them to have at least a couple of chances to score, which alas they did not take.
Aaron added a fourth after a scramble in the D, bagging his first goal for the club, well deserved after a brilliant, dominating display in midfield. Matt Besford wrapped up a fantastic fifth with only seconds to go, winning the ball in a 50:50, and driving into the D before finding the bottom corner.

A top class display from the boys, with a few players missing and two non-midfielders playing in midfield. Newcastle are up to 6th in the table, and look to build some momentum going into another derby this Saturday, this time against Sunderland.

Howay the lads ! Howay the mighty 3s !

Match report by Ben Grenyer