Newcastle Chemfica 6 Percy Main 2

Away day blues....

On an afternoon when player unavailability, for a variety of reasons, once again played havoc with The Main team selection, Newcastle Chemfica ran up a convincing scoreline against a Percy Main side who briefly threatened a second half comeback, thanks to a brace of goals within 3 minutes by substitute Ben Senior, but the home side soon resumed their control on the game and ran in their final 2 goals as the game neared its conclusion.

31 players have so far figured in The Main's colours over 14 league and cup games this season, leaving no wonder that team manager Steve Hurd, missing a number of key players, has been able to find any level of consistency and 2 of those made their debuts on Saturday, as Adam Scope led the line from the off and Peter Roadment appeared as a second half substitute.

In fairness, Percy Main hadn't done too badly during the first half, that is until the 37th minute when Chemfica scored 3 times between then and the interval to put themselves well in the driving seat. The early action saw the home side's Alex McKitten and Steve McLaughlin test Shaun Backhouse in the Percy goal, while at the other end, Scope headed just wide and Steven Hurd had an effort tipped around the post by goalkeeper Luke Hilliard.

Chemfica had a penalty shout turned down as Dale Johnson tangled with Sam Grieveson in the area, but Percy Main perhaps should have gone ahead just past the half hour mark as a throw from Kurt Burns, fell to David Short who took a touch and fired inches past the far post. It was a good chance, but within a couple of minutes Chemfica were to do the same at the other end, as McLaughlin was afforded far too much space, Backhouse parried Ryan Doyle's goalbound effort and Oliver Ure was just wide with his first time effort.

That led to a devastating 8 minute period as Chemfica took full advantage of a benevolent Main defence, Grievson squared from the right to Chris Homans who gave the home side the lead and the same player headed narrowly over soon after. Backhouse cleared from the feet of Doyle before McLaughlin doubled Chemfica's lead on 44 minutes, but there was worse to come for Percy Main in first half stoppage time as McLaughlin finished off a break from defence to give his side a 3-0 interval lead.

A shell shocked Main side were soon 4-0 down as Josh Grice played in McKitterick who made no mistake. There was a brief respite for Percy Main following the introduction of Ben Senior from the bench, who slotted home a deflected effort on 65 minutes and 3 minutes later latched onto a free kick taken by Ian Graham to fire past Hilliard.

Sadly for Percy, there was to be no comeback and that was as good as it got as Chemfica's Garrick Murray was thwarted by Backhouse and Johnson kicked Grice's effort from the line, but the hosts were not to be denied and scored their 5th as Murray broke, outpaced his marker and supplied Grieveson, while to rub salt in the visitors wounds, the same player rounded off the scoring in the 83rd minute as he tapped home from close range, with Murray claiming the assist.

Cup action next Saturday for Percy Main, Whitley Bay at home......