Half time: Newcastle 0 Liverpool 0

51 mins Trickery from Chopra broke the deadlock, as he latched on to a long ball from Caldwell, waltzed down the byline on the left side of the Liverpool box and  shimmied past Raven before tucking the ball through the keeper's legs from six yards 1-0

Full time: Newcastle 1 Liverpool 0

A satisfied Tommy Craig said:

"Michael (Chopra) got into good positions and would have been a nuisance for any back four.

"He came on against Manchester United last Saturday and is in the scheme of things at first-team level. He's playing well. He showed what a handful he can be and he could have had a couple of more goals."

"We've now got two wins out of two in the Premier League but more importantly we've had two very good performances." 

Reds coach Hugh McAuley said:

"It's disappointing in the sense we lost the game because we want to win all the games we play, but it was a good start in the fact we created a lot of chances and there was a lot of good work.

"We slipped up and went to sleep for the goal they scored but by and large we created two really good chances we should have put away. I thought there was some good pleasing all-round performances for the first game and there was a lot of plusses.

"I thought Florent-Sinama Pongolle and Robbie Foy worked hard in the first 20 minutes of the game and made some good runs and got in behind the Newcastle defence.

"It's a new experience for Florent playing English football. He is very quick and very sharp and can score goals. He can beat players and will come to terms with the physical side of our game. He is a great prospect and has certainly got a lot to offer.

"Paul Harrison made two or three excellent saves. He was comfortable all night and he made a fine save from Lua Lua which he tipped round the post - we thought the shot was in from the bench. Paul kept us in the game and he deserves a lot of credit."

Our opening home Premier reserve game brought about our second win of the season, as a solo Michael Chopra effort completed a Merseyside double - Everton having been beaten 4-2 last week.

With highly-rated young French striker Florent Sinama-Pongolle (pictured) leading their attack on his reserve debut, the visitors had opened brightly and twice Magpies 'keeper Tony Caig claimed shots that should really have flown past him to open the scoring.

However, after some early getting-to-grips with our 3-4-3 formation, Newcastle started to test the reds and should have taken the lead on 36 minutes. LuaLua worked an opening down the right and his pull-back fell perfectly for Chopra, only for the striker to squirt his shot wide of the gaping goal.

Within six minutes of the restart though, Chopra had broken the deadlock and we never really looked back after that. Chops received the ball down the left, got to the byline before shimmying past a defender and tucking the ball through the keeper's legs from six yards.

Further chances followed, most notably for the lively Ambrose, who had a couple of shots on goal that 'keeper Harrison had to deal with and LuaLua, who fell over when presented with his best chance.

Watching from the stand was Sir Bobby, who made his way down to confer with coach Tommy Craig in the second half, shortly before Chopra was withdrawn, while LuaLua stayed on for the full game. Looks like the striking pecking order has changed and Chopra will get at least a seat on the bench on Saturday. 

For LuaLua though, the future is uncertain.

Biffa

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