Newcastle Finally Find Their Groove at Lancaster

GOOOOOOD EVENING NEWCASTLE! How are we all? I'm still knackered from Saturday when we travelled over to the Lancaster Beginners Tournament. A nice early and rather soggy start to the day saw us arrive having slept like babies all the way there except for Chris and Hyun Gyu.We'd mixed the teams up completely as we were just there for a bit of fun. Uni 1 would be facing Lancaster 1, Manchester 1 and Keele. Uni 2 would be up against Phoenix, Ed Uni 2 and a scratch team made up of Lancaster and their alumni.

First game of the day saw Uni 1 take on Keele and from the outset their game plan was obvious, get it to the big ginger guy and let him do the rest. This problem having been sorted by Chris and Harry we were all over them and by far the better team, moving the ball well and defensively sound. However our issue of not going the final bit right came back to haunt us as the game finished 1-1.

Newcastle 2 having had an extra half an hour to wake up then had a rather non-beginner Ed Uni 2 to play. It was fair to say that their greater experience shone through and so dealt us a rather harsh 5-0 defeat. Newcastle 1 were then back on straight after having watched their fellow korfers against Manchester 1. Again starting dominantly going 1-0 up before being knocked to 1-2. In the dying minutes Hyun Gyu had a fantastic runner only to be hulk smashed half way through his shot and not be awarded a penalty.

Following his battering, Hyun Gyu went to go get coffee so he didn't fall asleep before reffing and Newcastle 2 were back for their game against the scratch team. As it turns out this scratch team may not have been so scratch after all with some clearly seasoned korfers and again we were defeated 2-0 despite a much improved performance.

Final game of the groups saw Newcastle draw 1-1 with Lancaster 1 and Newcastle 2 lose to Lancaster Phoenix. So we would both be in the bottom half of the draw and the best finishing place we could hope for was 9th. Firstly though I did a team run to Greggs with Laura and Harry and frankly we lived up to the Greggs geordie stereotype admirably with a combined 9 sausage rolls, four chicken bakes, a toastie and a baguette. I promise we shared them out!!

Newcastle 1 were back in action first against Manchester Uni 2 and we won!! A lovely little swish by Chris and some solid shooting from Evi saw us to 2-0 before closing the game out in style by not giving Manchester a chance. Uni 2 then had to take on Liverpool (very friendly club by the way, can't wait for their tournament) and narrowly lost on penalties, which you can watch here.

Penalties came back for Uni 2 as well with the game against Manchester Uni 2 also going to penalties despite a lovely score by Jenny. Rebekah stepped up to take the first one and slotted it home, giving us the victory we deserved. All that was left was to see if Uni 1 could finish off the job against Old Boys 2 to bag themselves 9th.

And secure 9th they did with a resounding 4-1 victory that was just reward for the performances on display all day. It nicely sealed the day that Rebecca also got her first goal!

We were all super proud with the progress people made throughout the day and at this rate we'll be just fine. I hope everyone had a good day, I know I did and it was really rewarding to finally see you putting your new skills to the test.