The Senior Cup ‘adventure’ starts for Spartans tomorrow evening, as they face a trip to Newcastle University, who play at Kimberly Park, the home of Purdhoe Youth Club Seniors.
In all honesty, little is known about this New castle University side. Often confused with Team Northumbria (Northumbria Uni’s team that resigned from Northern League a few years ago) Newcastle Uni have risen through the Northern Alliance leagues since first forming a senior side in the 1970’s
They eventually escaped the Northern Alliance and won promotion to the Northern League in 2018, going up as Champions. Over the last few seasons, they’ve established themselves as a top half team in the Northern League’s second division.
Not much is known about the current crop of players, as they don’t have a huge amount of information online. Goalkeeper Paul Herberholz seems to be well established in the team, and looks to have had a decent season so far. Captain Joel Burgees may be missing due to suspension, as he picked up a red card last week – which could of course be a big loss for them.
Joel Manning’s name has come up on a few scoresheets this season, as has Stephen Pennington’s – who appears to be a midfielder? Obviously with them being mainly a Uni team, the average age of the squad is rather young.
A number of Academy players are set to feature for the first team tomorrow and a few of them will do so for the first time. We may also see a fair few rotation players get some much needed first team minutes as well.
Forward’s Bobby Small and Leon Burke are expected to be involved, as well as right back Josh Norvell and midfielder Zach Simpson. A few other youngsters are set to be included for the first time, including left back Luke Parker – who impressed in the Youth Cup game at Croft Park earlier in the month.
Another one who impressed in that game is Rhys Brunton. A promising young winger who’s very quick and good on the ball, Rhys will certainly be one to watch tomorrow. Stephen Husband and Dean Cochrane should also be apart of the team tomorrow. Both of them are centre back’s, both in their second year with the academy. The other youngster set to feature is midfielder Charlie Whittaker, who impressed in the Senior Cup game against Newcastle Benfield last season.
We may well see young Michael Hogan back in goal tomorrow, to give him a chance to impress. The likes of Charlie Aitken and Joseph Abrahart could probably do with some game time as well.
Harrison Clark may get some game time to help him gain some match fitness after his injury. The same could also be said for Lucas Reed, Ryan Donaldson, Harry Gardiner and Joe Oliver – if they’re ready to return. As for Marcello Benedetti, we’ve no clue.
A predicted XI is difficult to guess at in all honesty. But this is probably the best guess any of could make.
If this is even half right, the team probably has enough about them to secure a victory tomorrow evening.
The old Purdhoe Town ground is easy to get to (10 Broomhouse Rd, Prudhoe NE42 5EH). If you’re driving up from Blyth, jump on the A1 and turn off for the Chain Bridge Road just before B&Q.
Follow the A695 through Blaydon and through picturesque Northumberland until you get to The Falcon (the only pub nearby that seems to be worth a look in) before turning onto Eastwoods Road, then onto Broomhouse Road.
As for Public Transport, don’t bother. You’d have to get the train from Newcastle to Wylam, then walk the remaining half an hour to the ground.
We’ll likely call into The Falcon before heading up the ground. We believe they have a social club rather than just a can bar at the ground, serving Fosters, Guinness Amstel and Dark Fruits will be available at ‘student prices’. They also have a basic food setup apparently as well.
Admission prices can be found below. No word on whether it’s cash only or they have an option to pay by card, but we would recommend taking cash for these sorts of games just in case.
Adults – £5
Concessions – £3
A reminder that the Kick Off is at 7:30pm with it being a Senior Cup game. The car park is also rather small, so we’d probably suggest getting there a bit sharpish.
It may be worth keeping an eye on the weather tomorrow, as it’s still set to piss down tonight and all day to tomorrow. If the game does survive the forecasted rain, you’ll probably need to take care driving up into Prudhoe as that road into the Town has been known to flood a fair bit.
