This report is in association with a Ginsters' Spicy Chicken Slice because the lads were hot and the Villa got a stuffing....(don't worry, it gets worse....)

Date:    Sat 3rd November 2001, 3.00pm   Venue:    St. James' Park   Conditions: Couldn't have been much better. With the clocks having changed, a perfect day that began in dry bright sunshine and ended in the gathering darkness.

Newcastle United	3 - 0	Aston Villa
Half time:	1 - 0
Score Sheet:
Bellamy (37) Shearer (50) Bellamy (82)
	Teams
Given Elliott Hughes O'Brien Dabizas Solano Speed Bellamy Shearer Robert Lee		Schmeichel Delaney Wright Alpay Boateng Angel Staunton Hendrie Hadji Vassell Kachloul
Substitutes:
Bernard for Robert (85)		Dublin for Angel (60) Taylor for Hendrie (60)
Subs not used:
Acuna Harper LuaLua Distin		Enckelman Barry Balaban
Bookings:
None		Delaney (20) Kachloul (35) Alpay (45)
Sendings off:
n/a		n/a
Referee: Clive Wilkes. First time in toon and to be honest I almost forgot he was there. He could and should have brandished a second yellow card for Delaney straight after his first, when another rash tackle was made right in front of him. However, I would rather have beaten Villa fair and square - a win against ten men would given them a window of opportunity to bleat through.....
Attendance:  51,057. The usual corporate seats remain empty, but oddly enough there were spaces in the Villa end despite them asking for an extra 500 places to boost their following to 2,000 and claiming on their website to having sold them. Maybe some of them had a premonition and didn't leave Brum (or perhaps followed the .cock match guide and turned up at Villa Park!)

37 mins. Robbie Elliott lofted a lovely (right-footed) ball forward over the Villa back line. Bellamy turned and lashed a dream half-volley into the top left corner of Schmeichel's goal at the Leazes end. An absolute stunner. 1-0

Half time: Newcastle  1  Aston Villa  0

50 mins. Rob Lee hit a 40 yard pass across to Shearer running in from the right side of the box. He hit a perfect volley into the opposite top corner, reminiscent of Marco van Basten's famous goal for Holland. Some aspersions have been cast on how cleanly Shearer hit it (TV replays of it from behind Al do look a wee bit unusual) but perhaps Peter Schmeichel's static pose would suggest it was clean as a whistle. Like Peter Beardsley's goal at Sheff Weds in the 1995-6 season, those who know the player best wouldn't doubt their intent for a second. 2-0

82 mins. Once more Bellamy escaped Villa's last man and raced into the box. Schmeichel came out but Bellamy tucked the ball neatly between the great Dane's legs. Again, it seemed pretty clear from the TV re-runs that Bellamy did this deliberately. 3-0

Full time: Newcastle  3  Aston Villa  0

Uncle Bobby told journalists:

"I was asked 10 minutes from the end to name my man of the match and I said 'We haven't got one, the team is the man of the match - but I'll give you Bellamy as a close second',".

"I'm delighted. I would say that for me ranks as just about the best performance we've given our fans since the day I came here, and that would include my first home game when we won 8-0.

"We beat Manchester United 3-0 last year and we trounced Tottenham 6-1 in a cup tie, but I thought that was the best, and 3-0 just might have flattered them actually."

"They were outstanding. Alan Shearer is getting better. I always felt that Alan needed time. He's done some extra training to improve his speed, and his movement was much better today.

"He held it up well, battled well and got a great goal. His strike was as classical a strike as he's ever hit. He's scored several hundred goals and he's never hit one better than that.

"Bellamy was precocious, penetrative, speedy and difficult to handle. He could have finished with four goals today really.

"Peter Schmeichel made a marvellous save in the first half when he came in on the angle and hit it like a dream, and then in the second half, he put two just past the back post.

"In terms of making chances, we've done very well today - and I quite like them. Before we scored, I thought one goal might win it and I fancied us.

"But it was as complete and comprehensive a victory as we've had since I came here."

"We have to keep our feet on the ground. I believe we have a good squad and a good team. We have Kieron Dyer and Carl Cort to come in and that will be even better for us.

"But nobody wins anything or loses anything in November, and we've just got to continue."

John Gregory said:

"It was a poor day, a poor day. Newcastle were very good. I wouldn't want to take anything away from their victory because they did particularly well.

"Bellamy and Shearer led the line exceptionally well and they were the major difference, I think, between the two teams.

"We were rather fortunate, I felt, to be only 1-0 down at half-time. Peter made one or two good stops in the first half and Newcastle were guilty of missing one or two chances that you would have expected them to put away.

"Peter let three in at Everton three weeks ago and there was absolutely nothing he could have done about any of them. He kept us in it at certain stages of the game today.

"It's a big lesson for us. You have to come to places like Newcastle and deal with a big crowd and a very partisan crowd and you have to be big enough and bold enough to cope with that.

"You have to come away from places like this with points or with something to show for your endeavour.

"Newcastle worked harder than us today. They passed the ball better than us today and they certainly finished better than us."

On Shearer's goal: 

"I thought he shanked it. I did see him look up as it was on the way and I thought at first he was just trying to put it back in the mixer.

"But I've just seen him outside and he said he meant it, and I wouldn't want to doubt Alan shearer."

We kept up the sequence of winning all of the non-SKY and non-PPV Premiership games we've taken part in this season.

Of course, you could go even further back to include Southampton (h) and Charlton (a) from last season to make it a miserable 2001 on the box - last win was Boro (a) 16.10.00. Games broadcast on Canal+ not included - you could argue every Newcastle game is on live somewhere, even if it's just in the ITV editing room....

That Shearer goal - his 97th career goal for the toon (all competitions), coming on the occasion of his 400th career league appearance (all clubs). The 1st he's scored this season when there have been 11 opposition players on the park (Bolton and Boro had both had a player dismissed when he netted (and the Man U goal was awarded to Wes Brown.) Coming on the 3rd November, big Al just snuck again with a strike, 1 day short of a year since his last goal at St.James' Park, which had come on 4th November 2000 against Ipswich. 

Olivier Bernard made his Premiership debut as a late sub, becoming the 93rd player to represent Newcastle in the competition (not including unused subs or 2nd time rounders like Elliott and Tommy Wright.) Four debutants then this season, three of them French - Robert, Distin, Bernard. Olivier became the 10th Frenchman to play for us in the Premiership: Ginola, Charvet, Guivarc'h, Domi, Saha, Goma, Dumas, Robert, Distin, Bernard. (Perez and Terrier never came off the bench but were named as subs.)

21 goals in 11 Premiership games for Newcastle this season, comparing well with the 11 at the same point last season - it look us until Boxing day last year to exceed 21 (20 games.)

Bloody hell this was good.

Although we'd won numerous games this season at home and away, this result was coupled with a performance that totally justified the destination of the three points. Quite simply, from the time the first whistle blew to the time a vanquished Villa were allowed to slink off, we were at their throats.

Of course, after recent Tyneside failures, we could hardly have asked for more favourable opponents at St.James' to put our home record back on track. It's well documented that with one glorious exception, Villa have had blank returns in their Premiership visits and only the actions of a certain Mr Rennie spoiled this win continuing United's perfect record.

That said, John Gregory's side this time came into this match at the head of the league table. Whether they get back to that lofty position is in considerable doubt, especially if they are cut down on enemy territory in similar fashion to the way Newcastle managed.

While Shearer took the plaudits for his special strike and yet again the greased lightning thrusts of Bellamy saw him score about half of what he should have done, the quality, effort and composure were evident throughout the home ranks.

Media gossip through the week had suggested that old line about the players feeling under pressure in front of their own crowd was being trotted out in some quarters for the disparity between home and away results. Thankfully this result disproved that theory as a fearless United started with a great tempo and threatened Villa constantly until the opening goal came. 

It's always crucial to get a goal at the time that your play justifies it - seeing Schmeichel in between the posts brought back memories of that 0-1 game in March 1996 when we pummeled his goal for the opening 45 but just couldn't get it past him. Result? 1-0 to the Reds with a second half goal, after the home team and crowd seemed to sense we'd given it our best shot and failed by half time.

Although it was only 1-0 by the break, again we proceeded to repeat our trick from Goodison of snatching a second goal almost before the opposition had digested their orange segments. We'd attempted to conjure up spirits in our match preview by mentioning Shearer was one day off a year since he'd last scored at St.James', and our ouija board was obviously working on turbo boost in the 50th minute.

Al's strike was simply one of those goals that takes the collective breath away from the crowd, just for an instant. Lee's ball dropped over Al's right shoulder, towards the right hand side of the Gallowgate penalty area (from my view at the opposite end) before being clubbed into the opposite side of the goal in one movement by England's former number nine. Clocks stopped, hearts may have stopped, babies in the RVI paused their hungry crying for a sec....etc. etc. you get the picture. 

Then came the roar, and a familiar figure in black and white stood alone, arms aloft in salute as Schmeichel stood motionless and the ball nestled in the net. 

Perhaps if I'd had a few more pints the ghostly figure of sir Les would have appeared to congratulate Big Al, Robert would have become Ginola and a certain Columbian might have hooked his shirt on a nearby corner flag. 


Whatever: for one glorious moment we were back in 1996 and only the lack of a brown ale shirt badge and a slightly thinning head of hair gave the game away.    

Shearer later said it was one of the best, if not the best goals he'd scored - maybe it was because it was reminiscent of days past - his home debut strike v Wimbledon or the rapier free kick that fired us back into contention for the 4-3 Leicester win perhaps.

In years to come he may have cause to ponder on the lack of medal success in the post-Blackburn homecoming part of his career, and perhaps wonder whether injury would have restricted him at club and country level had he joined a "luckier" club. Like us, he'll never know, but it's clear his popularity on Tyneside is little diminished in the five years since he swept in on an Alan Robson-generated wave of Leazes car park celebration. Even if the fans do serenade him with quite the worst ditty in living memory (Hey Alan Shearer! ooh aah! etc)

Presumably he came "home"  with the intention of fronting at least one winners parade at the civic centre, but on behalf of the more miserable element of our support I never quite thought it would become reality. In common with a lot of Newcastle followers, I suspect that days like these were what we realistically expected - stirring performances, memorable goals, that vaguely breathless light-headed feeling as we made our way home or to the local to wait for the football pink to arrive. Oh, and the mackems losing of course. But anything more tangible or long-term than that? not really... 

Back to the game, and the in-depth analysis can be put away for another day - this was simply a cracking collective display, and we even had the luxury of Bellamy missing chances and Robert looking distinctly off-colour. A fightback of sorts before our third goal was repelled, and once again O'Brien looked the pick of the backline, both in the stopping stakes and also when confidently bringing the ball forward. Even Nobby looked like he fancied it, and Lee climbed out of his bathchair to earn another precious win bonus.

As the nights draw in and the fixture list takes a nasty swing towards the L word (L****n), this season is turning out to be genuinely intriguing, both from our own perspective and on a wider level. Whilst looking genuinely impressive at times, Manchester United seem to have become almost mortal and a whole host of clubs continue to linger in the top half of the league with varying degrees of pretension and delusion respectively.

Thankfully we're well up there, but as ever we have to exercise control in four crucial areas if we're to be any more than bit part players and occasional party poopers: 

Consistency (results and performance), 
That L****n thing (actually anywhere South of Leicester)
Injuries
Our Perennial New Year "down with the decorations" blues (take any season review, Enjoy up to Xmas, Endure until Easter if you ignore the FA cup bits.)

Only time will tell whether this victory over Villa was any more significant than the one last season by the same scoreline, when we ended the season on a positive note but in many ways had stagnated on the field since the previous August. 

The signs look good, but we've taken too many wrong turnings in the past to be getting excited.

PS - one final thought - Dyer coming through the midfield with us in this mood and Bellamy away like a whippet? bring it on.

Biffa

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