02/11/2024
By Chris Gibbs
Second win in a week lifts us to ninth
Trafford 1 Donohue (87)
Newcastle Town 3 Vale (30), Twyford (54) Grice (66)
Assists: Twyford, Vale, Armstrong
What a week to be a Newcastle Town fan!
We turned in a teriffic performance in south Manchester this afternoon to earn a fully deserved 3-1 win at Trafford and all this after another three points earlier in the week at City of Liverpool. We’re now up to ninth in the league and we’re not planning on stopping there.
This was a fine all-round effort. Ok, we played against ten men for more than half the game but we’d started to wrest back the initiative well before the sending off of Trafford’s full back Sean Higgins and were already in front at the point the home defender lunged in on Ethan Vale.
Our hosts Trafford started well and played some neat football in the first fifteen minutes – tricky forward Matty Lusakueno carved out a great opportunity after a good piece of skill on halfway and a surging run. He put Brad Byrne in but Byrne’s first touch took him slightly away from goal and Slinny covered the danger.
Ty Webster had our first decent chance as he fired one towards the back post only for home keeper Sam Booth to get fingertips on it and turn it behind. After a hugely ambitious attempted overhead kick by none other than Tom Thorley and another effort from Ty, we took the lead on the half hour mark.
The attack started in our defensive right but a lovely cross field ball from Jake Twyford got things moving down the left. As play moved back across the pitch Twiggy shifted it on to Ethan Vale. His finish for his first goal of the season was unerring and we had ourselves a lead.
Ethan was involved in the next decisive moment in the match too. He was on the wrong end of an over-the-top tackle from Higgins, which referee Taylor Metcalf had no hesitation in issuing a red card for.
Trafford could have no complaints. They could have been down to ten even earlier when Ty was fouled by home captain Harry Norris and denied an opportunity to go on to score. It was a 50/50 call.
Crucially, we started the second half brightly and doubled our advantage with another fine team goal.
This time it was Jack Sherratt who provided the impetus, breaking up play in our half before getting us on the front foot. When play was recycled down the right, Ethan picked out Jake Twyford in space and Twiggy curled a delicious finish into the far corner before pulling out a cowboy lasso style celebration, which I’ll need to quiz him on later!
We were playing with real confidence now. Tim Grice flicked one round the corner for Twiggy to run onto and his cutback was met by Ethan, who probably ought to have scored. Another move down the left ended with Carlos dos Santos being provider this time and half time substitute Olly Armstrong placing his finish too close to the keeper.
No matter. Within moments our red-haired maestro – with us on a one month from The Alex – made up for missing that chance by playing a lovely through ball to Tim Grice. Our new striker made no mistake – rounding the keeper and calmly sliding the ball into the unguarded net to make it 3-0 and to notch his second goal for the club.
Tom Thorley put in the kind of brilliant block four minutes from the end that managers and fans alike just love to attempt to preserve the team clean sheet. However, a momentary lapse shortly after that allowed Trafford’s sub Cian Donohue in for a simple finish. That will be spoken about, you can be sure.
The perfectionists among us will say that it slightly took the gloss off the win, but the reality is that we are unbeaten in eight away league games. With four of our next five matches at Buckmaster Avenue we just need to sort our home form now…
That starts next Saturday when Hednesford Town come to town. The 2004 FA Trophy winners – who sacked their manager earlier in the week – were finally knocked out of the FA Cup today after an incredible 4-4 draw with Gainsborough Trinity before going out of the competition 5-4 on penalties.
Team: Slinn, Derbyshire, Ritchie, Sherratt, Thorley, Van der Laan, Dos Santos, Vale, Grice, Twyford, Webster, (Armstrong 46).
Man of the match: Ethan Vale – a fine all-round performance from our number 8. Bakes has been calling for more goals from midfield and he delivered with a goal and an assist in a dominant performance.
Attendance: 313