Friday night saw Newcastle's second string complete the double over a mackem side who have now managed just a single point from their 17 league outings this season.

Just two minutes were on the clock when Rosaire Longelo raced to the left hand byline and his pull back was eventually poked into the Gallowgate net by Tom Allan to put United ahead. 

At that point it looked odds-on that the visitors would "get battered" as teenage Toon fans in the East Stand sang incessantly, but sadly this was to be anything but a St. Valentine's Day massacre.

A first hint that the blue-clad visitors weren't just there to make the numbers up came when Tyler Frost fired across goal in the 26th minute; the hosts failing to build on their excellent start and losing both momentum and direction as they dropped to the level of the visitors.

Despite having the measure of the visiting right back in the opening stages, Longelo seldom had the ball at his feet on the left, while there was little understanding between strike pair Elias Sorensen and Yannick Toure. 

Without being seriously tested, Jake Turner rather concerningly was seeing more of the ball than opposite number Anthony Patterson and the United 'keeper made a vital block to deny visiting midfielder Stan Asonutha a 54th minute equaliser.

A second Newcastle goal finally arrived after 71 minutes, Yannick Toure meeting Longelo's near post corner with a glancing header that nestled inside the far post, rubber-stamping our first U23 league victory at Gallowgate in five attempts - those previous four all ending in defeat.

Both sides ended up a man short following a dust-up in the final seconds, Sorensen reacting badly to an innocuous tackle by visiting captain Jack Bainbridge and each raising their hands to the other. 

Straight red cards followed, Sorensen's misdemeanour capping a listless display when he looked anything but the answer to our senior side's striking shortage. While his career remains on the downturn though, for local lad Tom Allan this is a genuine breakthrough season; making his senior debut and extending his U23 scoring tally to 14 in all competitions tonight.

Victory took Newcastle to seventh and with five league games left, qualification for the playoffs is in their own hands - their next trio of games against the three teams immediately above them.

And while their bright start soon dissipated, Ben Dawson's side recorded a third successive victory in all competitions without conceding a single goal - Jake Turner completing his own personal hat-trick of clean sheets and looking a lot more assured than in the first half of the season.

Against that it has to be said that none of the three teams beaten - Swansea, West Brom and tonight's mob - play first team football in the top-flight. Using that comparison, we look rather less effective, losing four of the five games played so far against Premier League second strings.   

We're in our sixth season since the Premier Reserve League was introduced in the current format - and we've spent all of them in the Second Division. That's more telling than derby bragging rights.

Biffa