NUFC.com contributor, John Beresford, enjoyed an evening of mixed fortunes at the Newcastle Arena as the Masters side he was coaching crashed out of the competition.

But Bez, who is nursing a calf injury picked up in a charity game at Gateshead, enjoyed a 5-3 victory over our nearest and dearest in the wooden spoon decider. United came up against strong opponents in the first two games with Bernie Slaven inspiring Boro to a 4-0 victory. Peter Beagrie then helped his Bradford side - containing ex-Mags Peter Jackson and Chris Withe - to a 4-2 victory to end our challenge.

By the time we met the mackems, Boro and Bradford were already in the final but in a fiercely contested ding-dong encounter, Peter Beardsley was superb as he scored twice and played a leading role in the battle for a bit of local pride.

Rob McKinnon gave us the lead only for former mackem thug, Paul Hardyman to equalise. Beardsley put us back in front before John Byrne made it 2-2. Unlikely striker, Wes Saunders made it 3-2 at half-time before Byrne once again levelled. Pedro put us ahead once more before a classy late goal from Paul Bodin sealed the 5-3 victory.

We caught up with Bez after the game and like any good coach, he blamed the players for the defeats. "We didn't have enough young legs out there," he said, referring to the advanced years of his aged squad....
However, he pointed out his 100% coaching record in Tyne-Wear derbies and suggested that Bobby Robson ought to be looking over his shoulder now...!  

The story was similar in last year's Masters when United beat the mackems in the last group game to prevent them reaching the final after we had already gone out. 

The full United squad was:

Kevin Carr, Rob McKinnon, John Cornwell, Kevin Scott, Brian Kilcline, Peter Beardsley, Wes Saunders, Kevin Brock, Paul Bodin, Tony Cunningham.

Non-playing Coach: John Beresford

It was a busy weekend for Bez, as he was also the non-playing (and obviously not present) coach of the England beach football team. Without his words of wisdom, a motley crew of old men and youngsters were hammered 10-2 by Eric Cantona and his French lads, in a specially constructed sandpit on Hyde Park.

Bez was also reported to have agreed to step up his playing comeback, by turning out for Unibond League Ossett Town next season. He's been playing Sunday morning games since packing in at Southampton through injury. 

p.s. - Despite his injury, John is heading out to South Africa as part of the Ellis Park Memorial contingent who will be playing a game on June 28th in memory of the 43 who tragically lost their life in the Ellis Park disaster in April.