CONSETT stepped up their pre-season preparations with a comfortable win over Northern Alliance opponents Gateshead Redheugh. The starting XI again contained a mixture of youthful and more experienced players, and there were first starts for left-winger Stephen Callen and striker Michael Young.

It was Callen who opened the scoring on 22 minutes with a fine goal, picking his spot in the bottom right corner from 20 yards, and Steven Aiston made it 2-0 on the half-hour, cutting in from the right and running at a defender before curling a shot just inside the left-hand post from the edge of the box. Five minutes later it was 3-0, and it was another of the new boys, left-back Ian Davidson, who got his name on the scoresheet, with a raker into the top right corner from all of 30 yards.

Five minutes before the break Redheugh got one back when Carl Piecha got caught in possession 30 yards out and the visitors' striker, spotting Peter Jameson off his line, beat him with an inch-perfect lob.

As in the previous game, Consett made a raft of changes at half-time, and within 30 seconds of the re-start one of the newcomers, Jack Stanger, had made it 4-1 with a crashing volley from just inside the box.

On 55 minutes Michael Mackay took his goals tally to three in two games when a pass left him one-on-one with the Redheugh keeper, and the outcome was never in any doubt. England Under-17s captain David Backhouse made it 6-1 with eight minutes to go, beating his man before firing into the bottom corner, and returning old boy Andrew Thompson rounded off the scoring with a well-timed run onto a through ball and cool finish five minutes before the end.

GARY WELFORD