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Ipswich Town	0 - 1	Newcastle United
Half time:	0 - 1
Score Sheet:
		Solano (21)
	Teams
Sereni Makin McGreal Venus Hreidarsson George  Holland Wright Clapham Armstrong M.Bent		Given Hughes Elliott O'Brien Dabizas Robert Speed Solano Lee Shearer Bellamy
Substitutes:
(68) Peralta for George  (68) Counago for Armstrong		Bernard for Robert (60) Dyer for Solano (85)
Subs not used:
Branagan Naylor Magilton		Harper Ameobi Distin
Bookings:
McGreal (45) Counago (70) Hreidarsson (75)		Robert (29)
Sendings off:
None		None
Referee: Rob Styles (Waterlooville). Very poor but if Ipswich fans tell you he cost them the game then they are burying their heads deep into the sand. The Robert booking said it all - a total misinterpretation of events.
Attendance: 24,748 - Highest of the season but the new stand had large empty areas in the lower tier - possibly due to safety restrictions. Will inevitably be bettered when the upper tier opens. United's goal revealed an incursion of away followers in the lower tier of the new North Stand. In the corner was a group of around 30 Newcastle fans shepherded by a cordon of stewards. The combination of being a goal down and another unsuccessful penalty appeal had stoked up the home section and they were herded out before it turned ugly. At half-time one bright spark sitting below the away fans thought it clever to reveal a mackem top under his coat and seemingly wore it with pride as he giggled with his mates.  There were several Newcastle fans ready to drop the 20ft into the lower tier to explain the error of his ways but luckily a steward got to him first. The youth removed the offending article to expose a Naylor 12 Ipswich away shirt, so it looked like he was just wearing it for a bit of a laugh, unaware of the peril he had place himself in....

21 mins: Nolberto Solano juggled the ball over his head to Gary Speed, who was coming in from the left hand side. His cross-shot was blocked by Matteo Sereni, only for Nolberto Solano to crash the ball into the empty net. 1-0

Half time: Ipswich 0 Newcastle 1

Full time: Ipswich 0 Newcastle 1

Uncle Bobby said:

"That was our best defensive performance of the season. And we did very well for the whole 90 minutes not to concede a goal.

"I thought Nikos Dabizas and Andy O'Brien were magnificent in the air all afternoon, heading a lot of deep crosses and our full-backs worked very hard to stop the crosses coming in.

"Shay Given made two good saves in each half, but we kept them to just a few half-chances, apart from that and that is very pleasing for me.

"The back four protected their goalkeeper very well, apart from one bad back-pass from Dabizas.

"As for Given, no team has ever won a championship or a big cup without a good goalkeeper and Given is looking very good for us."

George Burley said:

"Bobby is a legend here and it's not surprise he's doing so well at Newcastle. He says we are too good to go down but only we can put it right.

"We've got a big battle on our hands to stay in the Premiership. Everyone will be writing us off so it's probably the biggest challenge that I've had as a manager at this club to pick up enough points to stay up."

The Magpies won their fourth away game in the league this season, Ipswich added to the list that already included Middlesbrough, Bolton Wanderers and Everton. 

Four different post-match conversations and four different versions of the same game. 

Without reading any paper or web reports, here's what this correspondent saw:

Ipswich and Portman Road are a million miles away from Newcastle and St. James' - those travelling down will testify to that. However, the two grounds do share one thing - they are right in the middle of town. 

There's still something magical about seeing the roof of a stand and floodlights sharing a skyline with office blocks and warehouses. It's somewhat bizarre to think that deep in the bowels of a town centre is a perfect rectangle of grass staging the ebbs and flows of Premiership football.

En route to the pre-match ale house a newish building was belching smoke out of the air-conditioning ducts and while firemen leapt out of their engines, a local photographer was bemoaning a bus ruining his shot. Only the saddest of the sad would try and read any match omens into that strange scene... and I couldn't....

United followers were housed in the Cobbold stand and as another Premiership ground is being enlarged, Ipswich witnessed their biggest crowd of the season. Whether the North Stand, being completed to our right, will be full next season is a matter of serious debate in Ipswich. On the strength of this display, relegation seems a certainty but it's difficult to believe that they could play this poorly for another 22 games.

Any team that can keep Town out for the first twenty minutes and then score themselves can shatter the fragile confidence left in the Tractor Boys. Thankfully we were able to do that and it was just as well, as we made extremely heavy weather of it.

The opening exchanges were fairly non-descript. Most home forays found the head of Dabizas and at the other end Shearer was getting little change from their central defensive pairing with Bellamy also making few inroads. 

It was a surprise then when Nobby Solano found time and space in the box to juggle the ball and hook it over his shoulder to an equally unmarked Gary Speed at the far post. His shot was on its way in but when Sereni saved, the rebound fell invitingly for Solano to tap into an empty net from point-blank range.

The air of resignation around Portman Road was almost audible as United greeted the lead with cautious optimism. At least no-one dared sing the Jingle Bells song.... 

By this stage referee Rob Styles was starting to lose the plot. The first real indication was his booking of Robert. The Frenchman tried to touch the ball around McGreal on the left side of the box but overhit it and bumped into the defender before tumbling over. 

The thought of a penalty hadn't entered into either player's mind - if Robert had dared to appeal he would have been laughed out of court (although it was possibly more of a penalty than the Fulham farce). But Styles deemed it to be a dive and Robert received his fifth booking of the season meaning he will miss the Boro home game.

At the other end Armstrong raced to meet a cross and also tumbled over in the box. Styles waved away the appeals when the only decisions he could have given were a penalty or another booking.

Olivier Bernard and goalkeeping coach Simon Smith came out to warm up at half-time. As they lumbered across the pitch it was difficult to judge who had a wider girth. It was to be hoped that Bernard's width was due to several layers of clothing and several layers of muscle. When he eventually replaced Robert it was seemingly neither....

Bellamy buzzed around with more menace in the second half, playing on the shoulders of defenders who couldn't match his pace. However, his grasp of the offside law became ever more tenuous as the game went on. On the occasions he broke free, a last ditch tackle, a save from Sereni or poor shot selection prevented us getting a killer second.

Dabizas almost gifted Armstrong an opening and Shay Given failed to look behind him (again) as Counago stole the ball away from him. Shay did recover but was given a dubious free-kick anyway.

Shearer thumped a spectacular volley goalwards, Bellamy almost picking up the rebound, and Aaron Hughes caused Hreidarsson to earn a booking when he tripped him. At the time Hughes had just ignited his turbo booster and was on his way to breaking the land speed record with a startling charge down the flank.

The remaining ten minutes were nerve-wracking but only in historical and geographical terms - United's ability to throw away three points anywhere south of the meridian is enough to cause palpitations - even if Ipswich's forward threat was minimal. 

Kieron (or is that Kevin?) Dyer came on in the last few minutes - Bobby claiming all sorts of sentimental reasons for the appearance. Whatever, it seemed to distract the home side from any serious attempt at goal and Dyer himself almost had a dream return, evading a couple of challenges but before a last ditch lunge eventually halted his progress.

Three points then that didn't affect our league position but kept us breathing the rarified air at the Premiership summit. It's difficult to imagine that such a laboured performance will see us win again this year but then again we have still got to play Ipswich at SJP.

Special mention for Gary Speed who had a storming game in midfield, playing the Rob Lee role of old. Rob Lee played the current Rob Lee role which didn't amount to very much apart from the odd wayward pass. Andy O'Brien didn't put a foot wrong and Dabizas also had a game to remember, despite his almost catastrophic howler but there weren't many black and whites that enhanced their reputations. 

Robert shouldn't have been on the pitch - pulling up like a lame horse on more than one occasion. Are we really that desperate that we have to play him half fit? Bernard or LuaLua could have had their worst games for us and still have been more effective.

But three points are three points and if you win when you're playing badly... etc. etc. 

Another three against Blackburn next week would put us in a fantastic pre-Christmas position but can't you just see Keith Gillespie grabbing a late winner for Rovers...?? 

Niall MacKenzie

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