Thankfully we dodged the Friday night and Saturday tea time thunderstorms, as Percy Main won for the first time in 4 pre season attempts, against a Walker Central side who now play their football in the Newcastle Corinthians league, since they pulled their senior side out of the Northern Alliance a couple of years ago.

Mind, Walker, trying out a few new boys, made a reasonable fist of things and had a couple of really good chances in the second half, which went begging because of poor finishing and their centre back pairing did a good job and restricted The Main to just the 2 goals.

Unusually for Monkchester Road, this time around, there wasn't a Hurdy in site - all away on a jolly beano to sunnier climes, for this week anyway - while the place itself had seen better days, as the dug outs over the far side seemed to have come to grief and the corner flags set out before the match, had been nicked before a ball had been kicked in anger. (Probably chucked away in the next street by now)

No sausage and chips either .....

For Percy, there were just 13 fit and able bodies, which included keepers Rob Rodgerson and Shanny Backhouse, (who needs his dob adjusted on the league website) as the races, injuries, holidays and work took their toll. Gary Lee came in as a sort of 'trialist' (as they seem to get called on proper websites and match reports) and was probably the pick of the bunch, with his endeavours down the left flank.

Robert Hamilton came straight from work and took to the fray mid way through the first half, after taking an eternity to get changed, a touchline smoke and a 50 metre jog to get warmed up properly and he put in a few crunching tackles to liven up the midfield....

All 3 goals came during the opening half and there was a first for the busy Mark McDonnell, recruited from Seaton Delaval during the summer, who slotted home a cool finish on 17 minutes. After Walker had equalised with a well worked goal which cut through the middle of the Main's defence on the half hour mark, Ian Graham restored the visitors lead on 37 minutes, with a header at the far post.

(Sorry, I don't know the names of any of the Walker players, no team sheet - mind, I probably couldn't spell them anyway)

Next up is Blyth Town away on Wednesday night - kick off at South Newsham is 7pm.

Percy Main Amateurs F.C.

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