13 mins Stewart Close range effort at the Gallowgate end, after two shots had been blocked. 0-1
22 mins Shearer Goma lofted a ball over the defence and Shearer took it in his stride, before firing it past Wright into the right corner of the Leazes goal. 1-1

67 mins. Shearer Running toward goal Shearer checks back and Mark Venus makes contact with player rather than ball. Seemed like a blatant penalty to all but the Suffolk contingent. Even BBC's Gerald Sindstadt thought it was an open and shut case. Anyway Shearer dusted himself down to fire past Wright for the winner. 2-1

Full time: NUFC 2 ITFC 1

Match facts:

The attendance took our total at St.James' in the league to the pleasantly round figure of 308,000.

We said:  Uncle Bobby speaking about George Burley (or Burnley as he said on Radio Five) and his mealy-mouthed penalty comments:

Alan Shearer scored the 100th Newcastle goal under the stewardship of uncle Bobby to break his Premiership home duck this season, notch his third and fourth in as many days, and then woke up on Sunday to read stuff and nonsense about his making an England comeback ! 

To complete the circle, the opposition manager also myopically moaned about the penalty award in Al's favour that led to the winning goal. With other weekend newspaper stories forcing Shearer to refute claims that he was a part-time bookies runner as well as his new film on general release, once again it seems that he's the centre of attention... 

Certainly on Saturday's performance he justifies all the column inches - the lad was totally professional, totally committed and the difference between maximum points for the home side and another eye-catching away victory for the self-proclaimed "tractor boys."

In truth Ipswich rarely threatened after going a goal up, and when they did they found the familiar figure of Kieron Dyer well placed on the goal line to hack away a shot that would have taken Town into the interval with a 2-1 advantage. However, aside from Shearer, Newcastle only intermittently looked like breaking through a compact Town side, and only a Domi shot and Speed header looked like adding to the tally.

Like all goalscorers, Shearer only looks truly happy when the ball is hitting the back of the net, and despite his familiar straight-bat response to questioning about his lack of home goals in recent weeks, the ecstasy and relief were there for the 50,000 acolytes to see when he swept home the equaliser.

Maybe it was the lofty perch occupied by your correspondent for this match, swapping my usual seat for one up in upper tier of the Milburn, but as well as the panorama of the city, the vantage point amply illustrated the amount of work that Shearer got through as he led the line. He popped up on the back of the last defender twice, and both times the end result was a goal. Contrast this to earlier in the season when he just wasn't making those runs. For the second game in succession, he also proved his expertise in the noble art of taking the ball into the corners and running the clock down.

The performance of Cordone again illustrated the importance of getting Cort back from injury to form a double attack with Shearer. Quite simply, the Argentinian looks out of his depth in a front position and has yet to gel with Shearer in terms of playing off him, or even taking a position vaguely near our number nine. Like Kitson, Maric and Tomasson before him, Cordone is giving the mutterers in the crowd some subject matter by failing to prosper in a position he wasn't bought for. A mite unfair perhaps, but if he wants to earn a longer-term deal on Tyneside, he needs to be prepared to play wherever he's required. 

In defence, mention must again be made of the performance of substitute Caldwell, who partnered Goma again when Bobby compensated for the loss of Solano by reverting to a flat back four. Already in his three games the Scottish Under-21 captain has shown enough ability and desire to place him ahead of the likes of Beharall in the defensive cover stakes, and dare one say it, even El Sicknote himself, Marcelino ? Obviously he still has a steep learning curve, but the success of Aaron Hughes in the last year proves that trades can be learnt "on the job."

By contrast Domi again looked disinterested and listless in the left back berth, and singularly failed to beat a man on his forays down the flanks. So far he's done little to impress this season, and an injury-free run from Griffin could yet tempt Bobby to cash in on one of his undoubted assets. 

In short, Ipswich were there to be beaten, and thankfully we managed it. The team has played better football in patches at home this season and gained no reward, but two home wins in four days and six goals seems to have arrested the gradual slide. Certainly Robson's men will go to Leicester with renewed optimism, and a repeat of last season's victory wouldn't be a shock.

NUFC.com correspondent John Beresford commented on local TV the day after the game that he didn't believe Bobby Robson knew his best side. Certainly Bobby now has more options open to him than at any other time in his Newcastle career, and the improving form of his main striker must hearten him as he assembles his sides in the coming weeks. At present England's loss looks to be Newcastle's gain, both in the forward line and in the dugout.  

Biffa