Newcastle United Football Club - Match reports

Season 1999-00
Stoke City (a) Friendly

Date: Wednesday 28th July 1999, 7.45pm

Venue: Britannia Stadium

Conditions: Warm, with a hint of a breeze.

Admission: Ł10

Programme: Ł1 wafer thin edition

Stoke City		Newcastle
	1 - 2
Half time:	1 - 1

Score Sheet:
(44) Jacobsen		Dumas (41) Robinson (67)

	Teams
Ward Robinson Small Mohan Jacobsen Keen G.Kavanagh Edwards Taaffe Crowe Connor		Ziegler Hamilton Marcelino Hughes Barton Solano McClen Dumas Shearer Maric Serrant

Substitutes:
(50) Sigurdsson for Mohan (59) Pearce for Jacobsen (65) Lightbourne for Connor (71) J.Kavanagh for Keen		Gullit for Hamilton (38) Kerr for Dumas (46) Robinson for Marcelino (62) Beharall for Solano (62)

Subs not used:
Muggleton MacKenzie O'Connor Oldfield Petty		Perez Coppinger

Bookings:
None		None
Dismissals:
None		None

Referee: Paul Rejer (Leamington Spa)

Attendance: 6,742 with around 1,000 of the loyal/daft clustered in the Signal Radio South Stand. Arthur Cox was present to check on Alan Shearer for upcoming England games, not Des Hamilton...

Goals

41 mins: Your correspondent was in the act of calling Franck Dumas a ponce for not hitting an inviting ball first time, when the Frenchman took a step sideways before burying a 25 yard shot in the top left hand corner of the net.

The "Stoke Evening Sentinel" deservedly called it "a quality long range strike". 1-0.

44 mins: A free kick deservedly award between the United area and touchline looked to have been over-hit by Graham Cavanagh. However youngster Dean Crowe was lurking beyond the far post and swung his foot at the ball. What looked like a shot instead picked out Anders Jacobsen, who stooped to nod home from close range on his debut.

The Norwegian defender on loan Sheffield United becomes the first player with a degree in Political Science from Oslo University to score against United, probably. 1-1.

Half time: Potters 1 Magpies 1

67 mins: Probably the best move of the game saw Paul Robinson, Brian Kerr and Carl Serrant all involved in getting the ball into the area and the pace of Robinson making the difference.

There was an element of fortune as his shot was deflected in, but that old adage about buying tickets for the raffle or whatever still holds true - if you don't shoot you won't score, Silvio. 2-1.

Full time: Potters 1 Magpies 2

We Said

Ruud Gullit said:

To follow

They Said

Gary Megson:

To follow

Stats

Pre-season pitch time (in minutes):

Andersson 37+0+90+0+0+0+0+0=127 (1 goal)
Barton 90+45+45+90+45+90+0+90=495 (1 goal)
Beharall 0+45+45+0+21+45+0+28=139
Caldwell 0+14+45+0+0+0+0+0=14
Charvet 90+45+90+45+90+90+90+0=540
Coppinger 90+14+0+49+0+90+0+0=243 (3 goals)
Dabizas 0+45+0+0+25+0+0+0=70
Domi 0+0+90+90+90+0+90+=360
Dumas 90+45+90+90+0+0+89+45=449 (1 goal)
Dyer=0+69+45+90+0+0+0+0=205 (1 goal)
Glass 90+0+0+0+0+0+0+0=90
Goma 90+45+90+90+90+0+90+0=495
Griffin 90+0+30+0+0+0+0+0=120
Gullit 0+0+0+0+0+45+0+52=97
Hamilton 0+0+0+0+0+45+0+38=83
Hughes 0+45+0+0+65+90+1+90=291
Kerr 53+21+45+0+69+90+90+45=323
Ketsbaia 0+90+90+90+90+0+90+0=450
Lemmens 33+0+0+0+0+0+0+0=33
Marcelino 0+90+0+45+0+0+90+62=287
Maric 0+76+0+90+90+90+26+90=462
McClen 90+45+90+41+45+0+26+90=427 (2 goals)
Perez 57+90+90+90+90+90+90+0=507
Robinson 0+0+0+0+21+90+29+28=168 (3 goals)
Serrant 90+45+45+0+69+90+64+90=493
Shearer 0+76+0+0+0+0+61+90=227 (1 goal)
Solano 0+0+0+0+0+0+64+62=126
Speed 0+45+90+90+90+45+90+0=450
Ziegler 0+0+0+0+0+0+90+90=180

United made their first visit to the Britannia Stadium.

Franck Dumas scored his first goal for the club.

For the second game running, there was forced return to black socks.

After encountering Tommy Burns (and Kevin Dillon) at Reading and John Barnes (with Kenny Dalgish and Terry McDermott at Celtic, tonight's familiar face on the home bench was Gary Megson.

Meanwhile, a Newcastle reserve side faced a Boca Juniors XI in a kickabout at Blyth's Croft Park - with Nicos Dabizas and Rob Lee both featuring.

Waffle

Fourteen days after beginning in the Netherlands, the eighth stop of Newcastle's marathon pre-season saw Rudi and the boys swap cross the England/Scotland border yet again.

Quite how the players felt is uncertain, but a post-Celtic drinking session and ridiculously early departure from Glasgow did little to improve my outlook.....

The Potteries may be no nicer, but Stoke's new ground is certainly an improvement on their old midden - it's a refreshing change for our arrival not to be greeted by crowds of barbarians.

There were also a small number of plus points to be taken from this game, not least a first win in five attempts. For variety, here's our take on tonight's performers:

Ziegler: one fine stop and an odd but effective kneed clearance. Kicks straight, unique at United.
Hamilton: possibly our best player before the injury and made a couple of well-timed challenges.
Marcelino: evaded injury.
Hughes: improved when in a full back role rather than central defence.
Barton: erm…..nice hair.
Solano: a second game in 24 hours. Perhaps reprising his left wing role for Peru is worth a go?
McClen: had a couple of decent shots, confidence improving.
Dumas: a good goal and no great opponents to steamroller.
Shearer: unlucky not to get a goal, building up fitness.
Maric: an inspirational performance, taking the game by the scruff of the neck***
Serrant: Not Premiership class, his pre-season contribution could tempt someone into buying him.
Gullit: dismissed reports of a competitive playing comeback post-match.
Kerr: Not robust enough but has gained experience and will hopefully develop in the reserves.
Robinson: With a soft Swede and a crocked Scot as competition, he should play in the Premiership.
Beharall: No Reading-style cockups at least…
Coppinger: No sense in tiring him out - he's only got little legs….
Perez: Didn't play, Hooray.

**** in my dreams unfortunately. As soft and fitful a contribution as one might expect.

Whether we're ready for the opener against Aston Villa remains open to question, but if nothing else tonight we showed up more as an offensive unit against third tier opposition. United summoned up a dozen shots, of which five were on target and two counted.

There was to be a second "one off" sighting of Ruud Gullit in action, although he wasn't quite as inspirational as last Saturday and probably began to remember why he packed in after an hour of running around.

The manager has to take the Maric Miss award for an effort that was about thirty feet high and wide, requiring the replacement of ball for the match to restart.

The defence have got to improve with time, especially when they build up a rapport with a regular goalkeeper and Shearer is apparently injury-free and ready to play. For that be grateful.

Work on the buildup and set piece defending remains a priority: in the continued absence of Stephen Glass, it looks like money will have to be spent on a wide man.

The form and promise of Robinson (and to a lesser extent pal Coppinger) meanwhile will certainly make for an interesting start to the season if Duncan Ferguson is still sidelined.

And after lions at Livi, Dundee and Reading, Stoke at least displayed some originality with their mascot - a blue hippo (short for hippoPottermus, apparently). Unless the crowds return in their thousands to fill all those new seats here, a white elephant might be more appropriate….

Biffa

Page last updated 19 November, 2019