Full time: Tallinn 0 Newcastle 1

Glenn Roeder said:

"It's fantastic to go away in Europe and win 1-0, which I always think is the perfect result because you have got the away goal and the clean sheet.

"It's our third away win in Europe and now it would be nice to do likewise in front of our own fans.

"I was critical of our defending against Fulham at the weekend, but I know I had to be, and to be fair the players were critical of themselves.

"But they knew what they did wrong and I thought our defending was a lot better against Levadia.

"Shay Given didn't really have a lot to do."

About the goalscorer:

"It was a trademark goal. We have seen his ability in the air in training, which I saw first when I watched him at Lens and when I saw him play at Manchester City. Give him enough chances to score from aerial crosses and he will take a high percentage of them."

About the walking wounded:

"Unfortunately Titus tweaked his ankle and his knee in the same incident and, while our doctor has looked at them and does not believe the injuries will keep him out for a long time, if at all, he is still a big doubt for Sunday.

"And as far as Taylor is concerned he has a bruised foot with no breaks or fractures, but the bruising is taking a bit of time to come out and we are checking him on a daily basis."

"Nobby should be just about ready to return just when we have the next international break at the beginning of next month, and he will probably not be available to us until we go in against Bolton Wanderers in the middle of October."

"He was probably fit enough to play but I want to be in a situation where I can leave one or two players out whenever we play three games in a week."

"I have only received positive responses. I have received several messages.

"It's a pity we could not win, but I think we made a good effort."

United's European adventure continued with a second successive jaunt to The Baltic States - and another unimpressive 1-0 victory.
                         
In fairness this isn't a new phenomenon: seasoned away travellers having stifled yawns in previous seasons when watching United emerge victorious at the likes of Breda and Panionios.
                                                                                                            
However in the stadiums of those hitherto unheard of opponents, we left it late before scoring the goal that ultimately won the game - conveniently erasing the tedium of the rest of the evening.

Tonight saw us dominate the opening stages and grab a goal through debutant Sibierski - who had already spurned what looked like a gilt-edged chance from the opposite end of the ground.

1-0 up and with Martins having been involved in the build-up, there was something approaching optimism that we'd see the Nigerian break his duck and his side tangibly mark their superiority by knocking another couple in.

However there were to be no further goals as the Estonian defence got to grips with Femi and Sib - surely the most bizarre forward pairing we've fielded since Mirandinha and Frank Pingel.
                                                                             
Things started to go all to (le) Coq when Duff was pressed into service at left back following the switching of Ramage to central defence in the wake of Bramble's departure with a leg injury.
                                                                                                                           
And with Solano absent and  N'Zogbia an increasingly peripheral figure, Roeder deployed Milner from the bench.
                                
After having been banished from the 16 against Fulham in the wake of the transfer window fiasco, presumably the vocal response from the occupants of the A Le Coq Arena was deemed manageable, compared to what could have been an embarrassing reception at a dis-chuffed SJP.
          
As it was, Milner's display down the right seemed to polarise opinions in the away section.

The England U21 man enjoyed some success getting by the Levadia left back, but his crossing was somewhat inconsistent - perhaps partly due to the mystifying positioning of Martins, Sibierski and for a few minutes - Luque.

We ultimately won this game after surviving one or two small scares in front of Given's goal and with Martins having had a couple of fruitless late gallops towards the goal that the Toon fans were mustered behind.

Shame then that he was one of a number of players who chose to ignore the travelling support at the final whistle - despite the fact most of the vocals in the second half had been in encouragement of the man already dubbed "a poor man's LuaLua" by more than one regular watcher.

This result should be sufficient to secure our passage to the group stages, where only a complete capitulation will see us exit.

That then keeps us involved next year when the competition starts to get interesting and shed its phony war image.

It remains debatable though whether this campaign is actually doing us any good, given the casualties we've sustained thus far.

The suspicion remains that we'll be undone by the first vaguely decent side that we're drawn against.

As it is though we return to Premiership action with low expectations of any positive return from our next two away fixtures after this humdrum performance.

Regardless of the perceived threat from the likes of Tevez and Bellamy, our problems seem much closer to home and self-inflicted.
                
Those indefinable traits of spirit and luck seem to have temporarily deserted us - some would say since England's World Cup Campaign - and at present we just don't seem to be on our game.

Had we not won this game it would been nothing short of a disaster.

As it was, we secured a victory that while not insignificant, was a long way away from being satisfying. Job done. Sort of.

Biffa

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