The Newcastle and Bolton saga continued on Monday night, as St James’ Park finally welcomed back second string football when United played the White Men in the first home game of the new season.

After a good start at the stadium of shite the week before, Lee Clark and Terry Mac sent out a similar eleven, but with Alex Francis replacing the recently departed Paul Huntington. Mark Cook replaced the impressive Fraser Forster between the sticks, with Clark opting to continue last season’s policy of rotation in goal.

A simple, but effective, 4-4-2 was once again in operation.

The old cliché in football that it is “a game of two halves” couldn’t have described a match better than this.

The first 45 was dull, unimaginative and lifeless. Long ball after long ball from both sides resulted in the 500 strong crowd becoming restless.

What little action there was should have resulted in a red card for Lubomir Michalik, who hauled down Jonny Godsmark as he raced through on goal. Troisi hit the post with a rasping 25 yard effort and that was that for the opening period.

United started the second half like a team meaning business. Matty Pattison, who had an absolute nightmare of a first half, started to spray the ball around well. However, it was down the wings where we looked our most dangerous. Bertram and Lualua looked impressive enough down the right and it was this combination that led to our opening goal. ‘Zenga was slipped in at the edge of the Gallowgate box. He coolly looked up and slipped a lush ball along the six yard line. Danquah failed to make contact but Jimmy Troisi, like all good winger should, made a late dart towards the back stick. The ball fell beautifully for him, and he easy smashed it past the stranded Bolton stopper.

Bolton couldn’t deal with our pace. On numerous occasions Godsmark and Danquah were slipped in and comfortably outpaced the back four. Only a couple of good saves and stunning challenges kept the score down to one till the 69th minute.

United were pressing Bolton back and a sloppy clearance fell to Darren Lough midway inside the Gallowgate half. He strode forward ten or so yards with the ball at feet and smashed it goalwards. The wicked swerve on the powerfully hit strike totally bamboozled the keeper and it flew into the net, to the young left back’s delight.

More consistent pressure from United led to a third goal deep into added on time. As per usual, the ball was slipped through to Godsmark, who comfortably beat the defenders for pace and skinned the keeper. Ali Al-Habsi decided he had no choice but to hack down the birthday boy. As expected the red card was correctly produced and Jonny G got up, dusted himself down and superbly lashed the resulting penalty into the roof of the net.

The final whistle blew to a standing ovation for the lads. A very young team had beaten a very physical Bolton side, and beaten them comfortably with plenty left in the tank. Mark Cook didn’t have a shot to save and could have probably spent his time better with Mort and Ashley in Blu Bambu. The only slight worry for us was the lack of an aerial presence. With Huntington and Carroll moving on, it’s something we seriously lack. Nonetheless, a very encouraging performance for the second team. Same again please against Middlesbrough!

NUFC: Mark Cook, Mark Bertram, Darren Lough, Mark Doninger, David Edgar, Alex Francis, Kazenga LuaLua, Matty Pattison, Frank Wiafe Danquah, Jonny Godsmark, James Troisi
Subs not used: Campbell Bell, James Marwood, Kieran Wrightson, Callum Morris, Shane Ferguson
BWFC: Ali Al-Habsi, Joey O’Brien, Scott Jamieson, Chris Basham, Mark Ellis, Lubomir Michalik, James Sinclair (Temitope Obadeyi, 58m) Danny Guthrie, Leslie Thompson (Przemyslaw Kazimierczak, 90m), Zoltan Harsanyi, Johann Smith (Robert Sissons, 58m)
Subs not used: David Gbemie, Matt Cassidy