21 mins Barnett header 0-1

Half time: Valiants 1 Magpies 0

Full time: Valiants 1 Magpies 0

Peter Beardsley:

"We were poor in the first half, to be fair. Probably ten minutes before the break, we started to liven up. Once Luke has that shot, it livens everyone up and the atmosphere is different. Until then, we hadn’t really looked like scoring. We hadn’t had a shot.

"The second half, we played really well, but never really looked like scoring, if I’m honest. The goalie made another good save from Luke – people are saying that it’s a great save, but I’m not sure if it was, although it was a nice, clean strike.

"They obviously have the advantage of being more experienced, and they were almost happy for us to have the ball. They were quite content to defend and soak up the pressure. You could hear their fans getting frustrated because they wanted them to move on and get further forward, but they weren’t able to do that. Their fans were becoming frustrated, but we’re frustrated, as well. Not scoring causes you a problem. I don’t think we had a clear-cut chance, in my opinion. If we did, I missed it.

"It isn’t ideal, because we’d have liked to have won tonight, but it’s very much in our own hands. If we win, we qualify – and that’s the great thing about it. For us, and it sounds really stupid, it is like a Champions League. We have a group of four, two go through, but the bad news is that we can’t go into the Europa League if we get beat. But, it is what it is, and it’s a great experience, whatever happens."

Interim boss and ex-Mag David Kelly didn't say anything we could find. Given that he was about to leave the club he was probably too busy clearing his desk.
 

Stats

In squad numbers only, here's our line-up: 

NUFC: 62, 42, 59, 47, 52, 71, 35, 66 (67), 55, 65 (69), 63. Subs n/u: 28, 61, 56, 36, 68.

Waffle

A 21st minute header from Tyrone Barnett divided the two sides at Vale Park on Tuesday evening, as United lost their second Checkatrade Trophy fixture.

With former Magpie favourite David Kelly in the home dugout, League Two Vale opened the brighter and James Gibbons shot just wide in the fourth minute.

Gibbons then turned provider to centre for Barnett to head home and Vale could have been further ahead before United's first meaningful attack ended with a 37th minute shot by Luke Charman that was tipped over.

It was a frustrating first half with United's youngsters struggling to cope with the more physical home side and the insistence to play out from the 'keeper meant the ball rarely travelled into the opponent's half.

Starting attacks from the defence is all well and good against other Academy teams but some of our lot failed to apply some common sense to proceedings - Josef Yarney being the main culprit. 

Yarney and Stefan O'Connor may have some technical ability but they are keeping it pretty well hidden and their commitment to the cause looks a bit suspect. Everton and Arsenal appear to have let them go for a reason.

The visitors were vastly improved after the break, Dan Barlaser quickly having an effort pushed away by Kelle Roos with Charman just failing to reach the rebound.

Roos then denied Mo Sangare on 54 minutes before Callum Smith made progress into the Vale box but pushed his shot wide of the far post.

Substitute Owen Gallacher then had a shooting chance within seconds of arriving on the field only to lose control, while a Charman rasper from the edge of the box again tested Roos.

However, there was to be no equaliser to prompt a penalty shootout and Vale held on to claim all three points, almost doubling their lead late on but Nathan Harker made an excellent save.

Vale sit top of Group D with one game left.

Team:

Group D: 

Results/fixtures:

29.08.2017 Crewe Alexandra 1-2 Newcastle
29.08.2017 Oldham 0-0 Port Vale (Vale won on pens)
03.10.2017 Port Vale 1-0 Newcastle 
03.10.2017 Crewe Alexandra 0-1 Oldham
07.11.2017 Oldham v Newcastle
07.11.2017 Port Vale v Crewe Alexandra

The top two sides in each group go forward to the knockout stages of the competition, meaning that Newcastle require a victory in 90 minutes against Oldham at Boundary Park in order to progress.

Niall MacKenzie