Date: Wednesday 19th July 2000 7.30pm.

Venue: Portland Park, Ashington. A programme was issued - scan to follow

Conditions: Fine.

Crowd: Over 1,000. 

Teams:

AFC: (normal black and white home kit)  TBC

Subs n/u: TBC

NUFC: (Black away kit) Karelse, Caldwell G ,Caldwell S, Marcellino (Ameobi 61mins), Beharall, Green, Hamilton, Boyd (McMahon 50 mins), Brady, Ketsbaia, Coppinger.

Subs n/u: TBC

After a few minutes of fairly even play when a couple of mix-ups in the Toon defence gave Ashington half chances, the game settled down to what you would expect from two unevenly matched sides.

18 mins. Stuart Green slotted a lovely ball through to Jamie Coppinger inside the box. Coppinger moved it wide before chipping the keeper. 1-0.
41 mins. Coppinger again but this time with a 25 yard screamer into the bottom corner of the net. 2-0.

Halftime score: Ashington 0 NUFC 2 

52 mins. An 18 yard shot from Coppinger was well saved by the home  keeper.
56 mins. Gary Caldwell put Green through into the area and Green the cleverly beat a defender before making it 3 - 0.
61 mins. Ameobi replaced Marcelino and there was a reshuffle at the back to allow Ameobi to play up front.
66 mins. Steve Caldwell blasted one in from the edge of the box. 4-0. 
68 mins. Ketsbaia beat three men and was unlucky when his curling shot dipped too late and went over the bar.
70 mins. Coppinger completed his hat trick with a tap-in after some tricky (if he meant it) work by Ameobi. 5-0.
75 mins. A 25 yard shot from Ketsbaia was well saved.

Final score: Ashington 0 NUFC 5 

All in all, a very competent performance from the Newcastle team. No one had a poor game although the difficult pitch did not lend itself to flowing football, hence no one really shone. I suppose a hat-trick from Coppinger is outstanding!

Ashington used 7 subs in the second half, with some players returning after being subbed.

No sign of Charvet or Robinson so the rumour machine was in full swing about them being on the move to Charlton and Wimbledon respectively.

Steven Robson (son of Pop) and Steve Beharall (brother of David) played for The Colliers and forgotten man Carl Serrant was at the game.

Thanks to Dave Greaves.