22/05/2005
Friendly

IJLW Brazil
Wilkinson, Walker, Churchley, Kennedy, McGowan, Creighton (Cuggy 70), Freath, Hinks (Katirai 55), Haigh (Mitchell 75), Goodliff, Paterson.

An assorted crowd of friends, family, lap dancers and squad members assembled along the side of the St Peter’s pitch for this special, one-off game to be featured in BBC documentary ‘Spendaholics’.

Brazil got off to a good start with Les Goodliff blasting in a 25 yard free kick after Jon Hinks had been carelessly bundled over. As the game progressed, Brazil looked increasingly rusty, having finished their 2004-05 league program weeks ago. West Jesmond took advantage of this to go in 2-1 at the interval, with Brazil’s chances few and far between. The hosts, however, had been extremely lucky with their first goal as the winger had taken the ball over both the touchline and the goal line before getting his cross in.

Brazil’s second half showed an improvement with James Katirai coming off the bench and getting himself into the right place at the right time. He came close to levelling the scores three times but just missed the target on each occasion.

Despite the presence of two BBC cameras, the slack third goal went in apparently unnoticed. After the game had finished the goal was unconvincingly re-enacted for the cameras, virtually guaranteeing Lee Wilkinson an appearance on national TV. The programme is scheduled to be shown on BBC 2 in July.

Other news:
On the same day, ‘A Certain Trigger’, the debut album by Maximo Park, charted at number 15. If you don’t already have a copy, go out and buy it. You won’t be disappointed.