Player notes: No place for Brian Kerr as he was making his Scotland U21 debut in a 1-1 draw with Denmark at East End Park, Dunfermline. Although named in the original squad, Gavilan wasn't sighted at all and there appeared to be an unannounced change in the subs - replacement keeper Carl Bell didn't appear to be there but a fifth outfield player, Tommy English, was spotted warming up.

Chopra, Zola and Offiong should press for places in the side when they return from the Academy trip to Australia later this week. All three subs used in the first team match against West Ham the previous evening played - Elliott, Shola and McClen, while the benchbound Griffin also got a runout. Only Stevie Harper wasn't used.

Waffle: It's now three seasons since we beat Middlesbrough reserves on Tyneside, and once again Tommy Craig's men only had themselves to blame for not opening the new campaign with a maximum return.

Two Newcastle goals came from crosses, and surely more would have followed had the final attempts been on target, such was the deficiency in the visiting defence.

While Shola Ameobi scored the goal of the night, he was also denied twice by the woodwork and saw the ball whipped off his toes only yards out when looking a certain scorer.

Marcelino also found himself heavily involved on the end of centres played in from the flanks, but on three occasions was unable to direct what weren't massively difficult headers on to goal to force the keeper into action.

In what was an entertaining game, Karelse was the busier of the two keepers and a draw was probably a just result, although frustrating for the home side after their apparent dominance after having taken a 2-1 lead.

As far as performances go, although Bassedas claimed his third goal of the season  (all headers) and was left on the seat of his pants by tackles on two occasions, he still looks a country mile off the senior side.

Another one who failed to impress was Andy Griffin, aside from the admirable ball for the opening goal, while Shola did well given the lack of support up front and certainly seems to be drawing dividends from an apparent new "shoot on sight" attitude.

Only Orr and Brennan of the younger generation featured, and while the latter tired towards the end, the increasingly burly scouser Bradley was one of the more impressive performers on the night. In contrast to many of his colleagues he's able to mix it in the physical sense and come out of tackles with the ball.

Whether he'll ever be anything more than a nationwide league player is doubtful, but there's definitely an improvement in his all-round game of late and he's worth his place in this side on merit, not just to make the numbers up.

Biffa

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