National League U19 Alliance

League Cup 1st Round

Wednesday 11th October 2023

Kick Off 13.30 Actual 13.32

Gateshead U19 1 Darlington U19 0, attendance 23

90’ + 1, 1-0

@ Academy for Sport, 3G Pitch C/D

Neilson Road

Gateshead

NE10 0EF

No Admission or Programme.

After the failure to get a new ground yesterday, I decided to do a game I hadn’t even planned on until late last night. Gateshead played this on one of the two artificial pitches here at Academy for Sport, which is adjacent to the Gateshead International Stadium. It is tucked away at the back of the main building, to the left and then raised slightly to the left. The two cages run end on to each other, with spectator viewing along the full length of one side on each pitch, bar a couple of sections of mesh fencing and a slightly obscured view where each pitch also has a pair of dugouts. Entry is in the corner of Pitch A/B (to identify half/quarter pitch hire) and today’s game was on Pitch C/D, the furthest from the entrance. As well as my game, there was also a University/College game on Pitch A/B which kicked off at 13.45 and another on the grass pitch which started just after 14.00, with this being the only one with three match officials. During the first half one of the groundskeepers was mowing the grass on his sit on mower. Hard to imagine this happening, when fifteen minutes down the road, Washington couldn’t even get their game on last night in the Northern League!

As for the game….Played mostly in the middle third of the pitch. Plenty of effort, but fair to say it was one for the purists. It just never looked like producing a goal, then out of nothing, a minute into stoppage time, a cross from the right was played back across the six yard box and put in at the far post, to win it for Gateshead.