Walker Central 0 Newcastle 3

Newcastle Reserves began their Northumberland Senior Cup defence on Monday evening at Kingston Park with victory over their Northern Alliance opponents from the East end of Toon.

Wearing their red and blue away kit (Walker were drawn at home), United took the lead in the 38th minute when James Troisi beat his man down the left and pulled the ball back for Andy Carroll to thump home from ten yards via the underside of the bar.

It was 2-0 two minutes after the break when Dean Critchlow burst clear into the box, kept his balance and played in Carl Finnigan for an easy finish.

And Australian James Troisi sealed the victory when he struck home from the edge of the box on 89 minutes.

However, Walker gave a good account of themselves and could have embarrassed United, missing good chances in both halves.

Team: Mark Cook, Mark Bertram, Phil Cave, Dean Critchlow, David Edgar, Callum Morris, Chris Shanks (Kazenga LuaLua 80), Kris Gate, Carl Finnigan (Jonny Godsmark 67), Andy Carroll, James Troisi.
Subs n/u: Callum Little, Alex Francis, Robert Cavener.

Last year's beaten finalists Blyth Spartans have already made it through to the Second Round stage, beating Blyth Town 5-1.

Newcastle 1 Bolton Wanderers 2

For a third successive home Premiership game Newcastle took the lead but once again proved unable to go on and claim victory, after serving up yet another sub-standard display.

An alleged handball by Faye on 19 minutes saw referee Wiley point to the penalty spot and Shola Ameobi convert with a low shot at the Gallowgate End, as Jaaskelainen went the other way.

In a first half that we dominated, Peter Ramage came closest to extending the lead with a bad miss from close range, while referee Wiley ruled out two more Toon spot kick shouts that looked more deserving than the one he awarded.

At the other end Bolton seldom threatened, but Steve Harper was alive to the threat and brought off one noteworthy quadruple stop to deny the visitors.

However a promising start to the second half when Martins brought about a good stop from Jaaskelainen rapidly evaporated, as Allardyce reshaped his side to good effect.

Ramage atoned for his earlier miss with a vital blocking challenge to deny Nolan, only for two comical pieces of defending in quick succession punish our failure to build on the opening goal.

First of all El-Hadji Diouf latched on to a centre to poke the ball past Harper, before finding himself unmarked to nod a free kick home - Carr and Bramble jointly culpable in both cases.

And it could have been worse, with Davies also striking the frame of Harper's goal as our defence stood motionless, their blushes only partly saved by an erroneous offside flag.

Both Diouf goals saw him head towards the Strawberry corner to celebrate, causing a bad reaction from home fans in that area.

However the Senegalese-born striker was equally unpopular with the rest of the Newcastle crowd and players for his constant diving and injury-feigning antics, for which he was rightly booked.

At the other end Newcastle managed only a fierce but wayward effort from Emre, as they failed utterly to mount a response and never looked like stopping the visitors taking the three points that lift them into third position.

Overall this was a brittle and one-dimensional performance reminiscent of the latter days of the Souness era.

Despite being gifted the perfect start, we again failed to increase our advantage and responded to going behind by resorting to an insipid attempt at route one that Bolton coped with easily.

Questions have to be asked of the midfield again, with Emre, Duff and Solano all failing to influence the contest - a recurring inability to pass the ball and find space being at the heart of our current malaise.

Having two bone idle strikers doesn't help either, while former Newcastle defender Roeder will have nightmares about the antics of the current inhabitants of the Magpies backline.

We exhibited little skill or thought and zero belief when the going got tough and were still consoling ourselves from the equaliser when caught by a second sucker punch.

That lack of belief from the team was mirrored by the crowd, who barely mustered a roar when we forced a late corner and deserted in their thousands when N'Zogbia whacked it straight out of play.

Newcastle reserves are betta than the first team

u dont need to keep posting the Bolton Newcastle match report mate