Newcastle United Football Club - Match reports

Season 1997-98
Birmingham City City (a) Friendly

Date: Saturday 19th July 1997, 3pm

Venue: St. Andrew's

Conditions: Tropical

Admission: Ł5.50

Programme: Ł1.70

Birmingham City		Newcastle
	2 - 3
Half time:	1 - 1

Score Sheet:
(4) Devlin (79) Furlong		Tomasson (39) Shearer (54) Bennett (90)

	Teams
Bennett Bass Bruce Ablett Johnson Robinson O'Connor Holland Grainger Devlin Furlong		Hislop Barton Hughes Albert Pearce Hamilton Ketsbaia Gillespie Tomasson Ferdinand Shearer

Substitutes:
(46) Hughes for O'Connor (53) Hey for Robinson (53) Ndlovu for Grainger (71) Francis for Devlin		Beardsley for Tomasson (46) Pinas for Ketsbaia (58)

Subs not used:
tbc if any		Given Gudjonsson

Bookings:
None		None
Dismissals:
None		None

Referee: Vic Callow (Solihull)

Attendance: 13,799

Goals

4 mins Paul Devlin volleyed the hosts ahead. 0-1

39 mins A fine Jon Dahl Tomasson volley whistled in from 20 yards out. 1-1

Half time: City 1 United 1

54 mins Peter Beardsley's fine pass set up Alan Shearer and although his initial shot was parried by Bennett, the United number 9 was able to plant his header into the net. 2-1

79 mins Paul Furlong headed home a cross from Bryan Hughes. 2-2

90 mins Peter Beardsley coolly shot under the goalkeeper to win it. 3-2

Full time: City 2 United 3

We Said

Kenny Dalglish said:

"Birmingham looked a solid and compact side and this game will have been of benefit to them. They will face different competition in Division One, and on this evidence, they should do ok. They have a depth to their squad, they have some good players, it all augurs well for them."

On Stuart Pearce:

"Stuart hadn't trained with the lads before the game but it makes it easy to settle in when you're a good player."

On Les Ferdinand and rumours of his departure:

"If there's something to say then we say it. I'm hoping that they (Ferdinand and Alan Shearer) pick up where they left off last season."

They Said

Trevor Francis:

To follow

Stats

Stuart Pearce and Brian Pinas both made their debuts, the former joining on a free transfer from Nottingham Forest and the latter an unexpected arrival from Feyenoord (also on a free).

Pre-season pitch time (in minutes):

Albert 90+45+90=225
Barton 90+90+90=270
Batty 45+0+0=45
Beardsley 0+90+45=135 (1 goal)
Crawford 0+45+0=45 (1 goal)
Ferdinand 0+90+90=180
Gillespie 90+17+90=197 (1 goal)
Given 90+0+0=90
Hamilton 0+73+90=163
Hislop 0+0+90=90
Howey 71+45+0=116
Hughes 19+90+90=199
Ketsbaia 90+45+58=193
Lee 90+90+0=180
Pearce 0+0+90=90
Pinas 0+0+32=32
Shearer 90+0+90=180 (1 goal)
Srnicek 0+90+0=90
Tomasson 90+90+45=225 (3 goals)
Watson 90+90+0=180
(+ 1 og)

Waffle

A sunny Saturday afternoon at St. Andrew's saw United maintain their 100% record in pre-season, with new boy Stuart Pearce debuting, just hours after joining the club.

Also spotted for the first time was Dutch youngster Brian Pinas, who arrived too late to be included in the match programme or even the PA announcer's notes. That resulted in his unheralded arrival from the bench and chants from the 3,000 away fans of "Watsie" - i.e. what's he called.

After Paul Devlin had put City ahead, another fine finish from Tomasson levelled matters, before City's ex-Magpies 'keeper Ian Bennett got the final touch on a deflected Alan Shearer effort to put United ahead seconds after former Coventry player Peter Ndlovu made his debut from the bench.

The hosts - also featuring old boy Chris Holland - then levelled through Paul Furlong and missed several chances to win it, before Peter Beardsley latched on to Les Ferdinand's pass and hit the winning goal in the opening seconds of added time. Ferdinand had hit the post earlier at 1-1.

That pass proved to be Ferdinand's final contribution in a black and white shirt and he threw his into the crowd at full time. His transfer to Spurs was concluded the following week.

Biffa

Page last updated 26 July, 2019