Tuesday evening saw Newcastle's second string venture into uncharted territory, as they made their debut at SportCity - the purpose-built 3,800 seat athletics and football ground in the shadow of The City of Manchester Stadium.

And in front of a crowd of 545 dotted around the stands ( plus a pair of ducks*), another glorified academy side suffered at the hands of a more experienced City lineup including Steve McManaman.

After going behind on 11 minutes to a header by striker Christian Negouai - who appeared at St.James' earlier this year while on loan at Coventry - we missed our best chance of the evening when Marc Walton lost his marker but headed O'Brien's cross over Nicky Weaver's crossbar.

Half time brought no further goals but a number of chances for the home side, in particular Negouai, whose height caused us problems all night and who should have bagged a hat trick in the opening 45 minutes - Cave heading his effort of the line on 37 to prevent a rerun of the goal.

And in a very low-key start to the second half, it took until just before the hour for City to increase their advantage, the pace of Bradley Wright-Phillips allowing him to run on to Thatcher's through ball, squeeze past Chris Farman, bear down on goal and beat Smith.

That removed any remaining hopes of a comeback from United, who were barely sighted as an attacking force in the second half and went further behind when Negouai grabbed his second on 70 minutes, being left unmarked in front of goal and shooting home with ease.

Three goals to the good, City then removed their two scoring strikers, replacing Negouai with a clone - giant academy striker Ishmael Miller.

And in a torrid final ten minutes for our shredded backline, Miller grabbed two goals and could have had a hat trick.