This is my first attempt at player ratings. Here goes...

Firstly, the team wasn't as makeshift as the one expected. There was a change to the team announced on the official site earlier, with Boyd playing from the start instead of Power. This in turn allowed McSweeney and Jones to play in their recognised positions.

FLINDERS - 6 - Looked quite calm and assured throughout the game. Would have got a rating of 7, if not for a last minute howler allowing a shot through his hands from outside the area. To be fair to him though, that end of the pitch was in semi-darkness by that stage due to floodlights not working.

SWEENEY - 7 - Steady performance.

SMITH -5 - Not good enough for league football. Passing was wayward at best.

LIDDLE - 7 - Looked good at the back and capable of doing a job there when the real action starts.

HARTLEY - 6 - Not bad.

ROWELL - 7 - Did well as the first half wore on. Subbed early in second half.

JONES -5 - Played the full game, fairly anonymous.

MONKHOUSE - 6 - Well taken header.

McSWEENEY - 7 - Pacy with a few good crosses. I like the look of him.

BEHAN -6 - Showed a few promising signs, and a powerful header for his goal. No sign of an understanding yet with Boyd though.

BOYD - 4 - Really pleased to see him in a pools shirt again before kick off. However, he was abysmal. Looked uninterested and contributed nothing apart from fancy flicks to nobody inparticular. At one point in the first half was heard effing and blinding and losing his rag at Hartley for some reason.

Subs:

Good to see Brown on the pitch again. Only other thing to note was how unfit Power looked when he came on.

Hello Gateshead fan here,

Well done tonight, you played well and deserved the win, wasnt the best game a little dull at times, but thats pre-season for you.

i thought Monkhouse played well tonight, looks a very good player.

do you think you will sign Dan Smith? we had him last year and he never really showed his best in a Heed shirt, how has he fared in pre-season?

best of luck for the new season lads and lasses.

Cheers for ratings, decent post.

Am not worried about Boyd so far, dont think with his attitude he was ever going to be amazing before the season starts. He will turn it on when it matters in my opinion.

Did Flinders manage to make any saves?

boyds a bit of a mood player, if he's in the mood and can be arsed he will be ellish

i'm not arsed as long as he scores, a team needs a player who can produce summit out of nothing, he can have 89 annoymous minutes but do 1 thing that could win you the game, that'll do for me.

Flinders didn't have to make any notable saves, but he did seem to command his box well, taking a number of crosses and also communicating well with Liddle and Hartley.

This was the first pre-season game I have seen this year, but I get the feeling that perhaps Hartley will prove to be better for us as a full back in the long-term. For me, the biggest single plus point of the night was the performance of Gary Liddle at Centre-Half.

I think Gateshead wer overall better than us! The speed is the main man as always! We were not great tonight but 1000 times better than we where at york!

I don't think smith will sign, he was very poor tonight! Defo not up to league standard. Hope Gateshead do well this season though, like your team a lot.

Must admit I was well impressed with Gatesheads's Centre half and the little left winger, best of luck for the season, sure you'll do ok.

yeah that curtis was very good before swailes came on for him. Phillips was beating sweens every time which isnt good!

We need a centre half that lad from Gateshead could be worth a look he was very impressive to me.

I agree with the above comments about the Gateshead centre-half, he played well.

With regards to the left-back situation, I thought it was ironic that one of our "rejects", Mark Robinson was playing No. 3 for Gateshead and looked much better than our triallist Dan Smith who was deemed not even good enough for the Blue Square North league last season by Gateshead themselves!!

Hi all, Smith didnt impress at all last season and your right, Robinson looks a class above him.
Our lad Curtis, big ginger centre half, has grown in stature and confidence over the last few seasons.
Phillips, left winger, tricks in abundance and pace to go with it, ghosted past your full back, on a quite a few occassions.

Your team looked fitter and stronger in some areas, but thought Gateshead applied themselves well, against one of their senior professional neighbours. A draw would have been a fair result, in my opinion, im sure you may see it differently.

I enjoyed the game, hope you did to.

Best of luck for the coming season.

hi everyone first post and all that!!!

best player on the pitch by a mile was phil turnbull. seen him play for our reserves a few times with his brother steven and they always impressed me. cant believe we let them both go and wilson got power in who he thought was better than these 2!!!

they both get stuck in and never hardly waste a pass i think on last night performance phil was outstanding.

thought it was funny how when power come on all he got was stick off the rest of the team for giving the ball away and that short corner he messed up nearly resulting in a breakaway goal was a disgrace!!!

also agree that mark robinson played well and he seems to have settled his game down since leaving us.

that performance does not fill me with hope for the upcoming season!

cheers

results are more important than performances