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Newcastle United	1 - 1	Southampton
Half time:	1 - 0
Score Sheet:
Gallacher (26)		Pahars (81)
	Teams
Given Barton O'Brien Dabizas Quinn Acuna Bassedas Speed LuaLua Cort Gallacher		Jones Dodd Lundekvam El Khalej Oakley Marsden Teesem Kachloul Davies Beattie Bridge
Substitutes:
Hughes for Bassedas (85) Ameobi for Gallacher (86)		Benali for El Khalej (53) Pahars for Tessem (71) Rosler for Beattie (79)
Subs not used:
Harper Cordone Caldwell S		Royce Dudfield
Bookings:
LuaLua (38) Speed  (71)		Davies (34)
Referee: Stephen Lodge (Barnsley)
Attendance: 50,439. More fables of the reconstruction as REM would say....

26 mins Wee Kevin Gallacher notched his first Premiership goal since we went to the top of the league in September, when Lundekvam and El Khalej were caught napping by Cort's knockdown to Gallacher. The striker tood a step forward and lobbed the ball over the approaching Jones into the vacant Gallowgate goal. 1-0

Half time: Newcastle 1 Southampton 0

81 mins With Newcastle looking liable to ship a goal every time Southampton crossed the halfway line, Davies made a mug of the lame Quinn and accelerated in from the right, before crossing for the diminutive Pahars to nod home unchallenged from six yards - his third goal against us this season. 1-1

Full time: Newcastle 1 Southampton 1

A frustrated Bobby Robson commented:

"I wouldn't say we crumbled, but we just, say, disappeared, I was quite happy at half-time.

"We'd got the goal that we needed to go in at half-time 1-0 up. There was very little between the teams, but we maybe just edged it. 

"You'd think if we defend very well but look for the second goal, we'd pick up the three points, but our passing was very poor in the second-half, there was no great combination play, no great possession of the ball and they kept coming at us.

"You could say at the end of the day we might have been lucky to get a point when at half-time, you wouldn't have bet against us."

When asked whether he viewed the weekend Anfield trip with trepidation he replied:

"If we play like we did in the second-half, it's going to be a long old day, but football is different every game and every day. They've won again tonight, but that doesn't worry us."

As Southampton converted their deserved equaliser, all round the ground people rose from their seats and streamed toward the exits, many of them clad in the brand new home shirt they'd bought that day. 

A strange conflicting message there - loyal enough to pay forty notes for some nylon concoction advertising a cable TV company, loyal enough to pay at least twenty five nicker to enter the ground, but seemingly incapable of staying in their places for nine minutes in the hope United could emulate Saturday's last-minute winning strike.

Maybe i've got this totally arse about face and those who prefer to depart before the end, or alternatively stay and boo the team are trendsetters, and form the future of the modern game. I bloody hope not. We've always had a moaning element watch us, in common with most other clubs, but in the past it's gone hand in hand with some empathy from the rest of the crowd, and support to the lads. Now the latter is nowhere to be found, at least during home games.

A glimpse at the "on this day in history" section of NUFC.com in recent days shows that at this time of year we've been in some plights, and less than a decade ago went to Filbert Street in the knowledge that an unfavourable sequence of scorelines could see us consigned into Third Division oblivion.

History records that we got out of the basement just in time, having been roared on the previous week by a committed crowd, who must share the credit along with David Kelly for getting the solitary goal that overcame Portsmouth.

How many of the occupants of Saint James' Park on Tuesday evening could remember being there, or for that matter at any match before we suddenly became trendy and ascended into the far pavilions of the Premiership?

One can only imagine the response from those fans to events like our borrowing players such as Gavin Maguire, who became a taxi driver after his brief stint on Tyneside, or Peter Garland, a player who made Tomasson look like Godzilla. No doubt barricades would have been erected on Strawberry Place and buses hijacked in response to the signings of Kevin Dillon and Wayne Fereday (it has to be said with some justification in the case of the latter....)

The point i'm struggling (badly) to make is that people have short memories; that the team who were cheered off after superlative efforts saw Leeds defeated twice a few months ago was essentially the same as the one that performed so miserably against Southampton. While there are underachievers in the side (Bassedas) and players who don't warrant a place at a Premiership club (Quinn), there has to be something badly awry when only two out of the eleven starters have only a vaguely decent game, messrs Given and Gallacher. 

Confidence has to be a factor, and shouting abuse at our players hasn't been proven to improve their game in the past. We've advocated in these pages giving some of the reserves a blooding rather than having players on the bench that are weeks away from being kicked out of St.James'. However, an inexperienced player being subjected to the sort of hostility from the crowd that accompanied the latter stages of the Saints game wouldn't be a particularly constructive move.   

Whether motivation amongst the team was lacking (could it be the players don't want to play in the Intertoytown Cup?), we'll probably never know, the nearest we'll get being yet another mealy-mouthed "we let you down" message transmitted to disgruntled fans via the Chronicle (that's the 9th the season.) 

It's also arguable that the genuine talents in the side were missing (Dyer & Solano), but the Peruvian has restricted himself to brief cameos in recent months (eg. the cross for the equaliser at Bradford after an otherwise anonymous game) and Dyer has also played many of his 25 league games when injury restricted his contribution. Having said that, the display against Southampton was so lacking in flair, movement, pace and imagination that Mick Martin could have improved the midfield. 

Dressing room malcontentment is another possibility, with comings and goings a-plenty promised and rumoured in the next few months; but surely there remains some semblance of personal and professional pride in players (Spanish defenders excepted.) 

Whatever the reason was for our total failure to perform, we were poor in the first half, got worse in the second and utterly failed to entertain the people who'd paid to see it live and on the goggle box. The players take the rap for that, along with the manager and his coaches. 

I could moan on until the next fixture list comes out about Stephen Glass and his 19th nervous breakdown, Quinn and Barton the showroom dummies, LuaLua the great pretender, or Bassedas (don't try for me, Argentina) but if you saw the game it'll just upset you again. The quicker the season finishes the better quite frankly, and it's best not to think about the potential massacre at Anfield on Saturday....

But despite the post-match furore and clamour, this was essentially a meaningless game that wouldn't have changed anything had we lost and not claimed even that one point. The real damage that may be inflicted is that for many, the abjectness of the display may have proved to be the last straw. For the uncommitted follower, we're not worth watching.

There again, apart from the lost cash in the bank before the season starts, is it a bad thing if 5,000 or so of the moaning malcontents do stop away, allowing people to pick up extra tickets at a reasonable cost for their children, foreign visitors etc? 

We rip the proverbial out of the mackems (and rightly so), but at present they're beating us in the PR stakes, and polluting the minds of youngsters with their red and white filth. While we do our best to highlight their evil ways, they continue to permeate into the civilised world - running buses from Edinburgh, ferry packages from Europe and even selling tickets at City Centre stores....in Newcastle. 

Time for the Empire to strike back, starting on the field. This season has been a waste of time, let's hope and pray that the lessons are learnt, and that the chunk of money we invest in new players brings some reasonable return for once. 

If we end up with the new Andersson, Maric or Marcelino again, I really will believe that we're fated.

Biffa

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