British Universities & Colleges Sport

National Championship

Semi Final

Wednesday 9th March 2022

Kick Off 16.00 Actual 16.05

Newcastle University 1 Nottingham Trent University 3, attendance 90

8’ 0-1

10’ 1-1

19’ 1-2

51’ 1-3

@ Cochrane Park Sports Ground, 3G Pitch 3

Etherstone Avenue

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE7 7JX

No Admission or Programme.

I first saw Newcastle University play here at Cochrane Park Sports Ground on 8th February 2006, when they beat Bradford University 1-0. The game was played on the grass pitch in the far right corner of the complex, which was where they played their games when their Saturday team was in the Northern Alliance League (they have since moved following promotion to the Northern League). It was fully railed, but although the pitch is still there, only the rail on the far side still remains. I also saw them beat Leeds University 6-2 on 24th October 2018, which was played on the 3G pitch at Longbenton Sports Ground, in Coach Lane, which was used as a home base whilst the new hub was built here at Cochrane Park.

Nottingham Trent were well in control of this and I doubt too many teams have had a more comfortable game to reach a final. A long ball was flicked on, and finished with a neat finish over the ’keeper, to give them an early lead. Although Newcastle levelled it up just two minutes later, they never really had another chance for the remainder of the game. A shot that came back off the post was smashed in on the rebound to put Nottingham Trent back in front after nineteen minutes and it was game over six minutes into the second half, when the Newcastle ’keeper failed to clear a cross and the ball was put in, following a scramble, to make it 1-3.

Newcastle University Intramural League

Division 1

Wednesday 9th March 2022

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.04

BusSoc 3 Barca-Law-Na 3, attendance 5

5’ 1-0

11’ 2-0

13’ 2-1

21’ 2-2

32’ 3-2

69’ 3-3

@ Cochrane Park Sports Ground, 3G Pitch 2

Etherstone Avenue

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE7 7JX

No Admission or Programme.

This certainly wasn’t what I had planned this afternoon. I had originally intended to watch the South Shields versus Frickley Athletic game in the National League U19 Alliance, which was scheduled to be played at Wallsend Boys Club. However, on arrival, there was a game already in progress, but it was a Colleges F.A. game. Apparently, the South Shields game had been moved to the Washington Football Hub, although the F.A. Full Time website didn’t show the change and even still has the venue as Wallsend Boys Club on their results page!

My main choice for today was to see Newcastle University host Nottingham Trent University in the B.U.C.S. National Championship Semi Final, which was kicking off at 4 o’clock. I wouldn’t have made it from Washington anyway, unlike Wallsend, which was only a six minute drive. I arrived back at Cochrane Park (I called in there on the way to Wallsend Boys Club, to suss out the parking situation in case I was cutting it fine between matches) expecting a long wait for my game. There are three 3G pitches here. Pitch 1, next to the impressive pavilion and having a rail along part of that side, which was hosting back to back rugby union matches and Pitch 2 and 3, which run the opposite way to Pitch 1 and are parallel cages with no spectator areas, although it was no problem to stand inside the fence. There were two matches scheduled for 2 o’clock. One had already started, but the other was running a few minutes late. Luckily, for me at least, it was the game on Pitch 2 that was about to start, as the Newcastle University game was going to be on Pitch 3, so it offered a chance of a double after all.

The Newcastle University Intramural League has three divisions, with 8 teams in each, this game being in the top division. It was 4th versus 5th in the league table and was ’Business v Law’ as far as who the teams represent. It was a far better standard than I was expecting and although it isn’t something I would plan on watching again, it was certainly better than not getting a game.