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Newcastle United	2 - 1	Blackburn Rovers
Half time:	0 - 1
Score Sheet:
Bernard (65) Speed (70)		Dunn (34)
	Teams
Given Hughes Elliott Distin O'Brien Solano Lee Bernard Speed Shearer Ameobi		Friedel Curtis Berg Short Neill Gillespie Flitcroft Tugay Duff Dunn Jansen
Substitutes:
Dyer for Lee (46) LuaLua for Ameobi (59)		Hughes for Jansen (26) Taylor for Hughes (70) Grabbi for Curtis (78)
Subs not used:
Griffin Harper Dabizas		Kelly Mahon
Bookings:
n/a		Hughes (45) Dunn (45) Neill (55)
Sendings off:
n/a		n/a
Referee: Steve Dunn - arrogant, ignorant.... and they were his best features. New words will have to be minted to truly encapsulate the inefficiency and breathtaking cock-eyedness of both flag wavers.
Attendance: 50,064 - highest crowd to watch any Toon v Rovers game since 52,497 saw the last Rovers league win on Tyneside, a 5-1 opening day success in season 58/59. A number of former United players were paraded to the crowd on the pitch at half time: John Craggs, Keith Dyson, George Lackenby, John McNamee and Alan Shoulder. One unkind soul commented that he'd sworn he'd seen Marcelino out there at the same time...

18 mins Rovers broke forwards towards Given in the Leazes end goal and a long-range effort from Tugay bounced in front of Shay and looped on to the top of the crossbar. As it returned to earth almost on the line, toon target David Dunn was able to squeeze it home, with him, Given, Hughes and crucially the ball all ending up in the back of the net.  Having lost a boot in the melee, he picked it up and ran away waving it in celebration in a Pythonesque "Life of Brian" type way.  1-0

Half time: Newcastle 0 Blackburn 1

65 mins A rattling good Olivier Bernard strike with his left foot from a central position outside the penalty area, and a fabulous way to open his Newcastle account. 1-1

70 mins Seconds after having played his keeper into trouble with a lazy back pass, Gary Speed appeared at the other end of the ground on the right flank as an over-hit Elliott Elliott cross reached him, and looped a header from a narrowing angle back over Friedel into the opposite side of the goal. Not dissimilar to the effort from Poyet at the same end in the Spurs home game, except that Poyet meant his..... 2-1

Full time: Newcastle 2 Blackburn 1

Uncle Bobby said: 

"I am being honest when I say that we cannot win the title. I would like to be able to say that we have such a fantastic team that we will win the title, but I can't. I think that we have a very good squad and that we will challenge and threaten the title. We will stop people coming here and picking up three points easily.

"If we finish anywhere in the top seven I will be pleased with that and I think that we will be good value for money."
 
"We were able to bring on Kieron Dyer at half-time to replace the injured Rob Lee and Lua Lua was able to come on after Shola Ameobi had picked up a thigh injury," he added.
"Both players have got electric pace and they both contributed to a different performance by us in the second half.

"Alan Shearer played another 90 minutes after a hard slog on Wednesday and he also played last week. He gave another huge performance again today with a battling, solid centre-forward display. He held the ball up really well and brought people into the game all the time. It is just a shame that he couldn't get a goal that his performance deserved."

"Blackburn are a hardworking side who defended brilliantly. We knew it would need an extra special performance to win once they went ahead."

Speaking about the Bernard strike:

"A fantastic goal - If Giggs had scored it, we would have been leaping into the air."

King of the Kickers Graeme Souness said:

“We’ve been to some difficult places this season and done well - as long as we keep believing we’ll be ok. It was a poxy (winning) goal because Gary didn't mean it.

“This is a very difficult place to come, but on another day, we’d have gotten something from the game. We knew we were going to be put under some pressure at St James' as you usually are with the fantastic support they have.

"We weathered it quite well - they got a good first goal, no complaints, but the second was rather fortunate - it was an over-hit cross and Gary Speed just headed it back across and it carried to the far corner, deceived everyone and dropped in.

"We were causing them problems and we got our goal. The only thing I am disappointed in is the way they came on to us - we were getting exposed - and, when we broke on them, we didn't punish them."
 

United swept past the 50 goal mark in all competitions this season, and have now notched 51 in 26 first team games (Premiership, Worthington Cup and Intertoto Cup)

Olivier Bernard became the 8th Frenchman to score for United in the Premiership, joining monsieurs Ginola, Saha, Guivar'ch, Charvet, Goma, Domi and Robert in this elite band. Distin had a go at making it a French debut double, but his headed efforts were narrowly off-target.

We missed out on the honour of scoring the 10,000th goal in the history of the Premiership, and by the time Bernard's goal came, it was the 10,005th. Didn't stop close on 50,000 celebrating it heartily though....

Our win extended the winless sequence that Blackburn have endured on Tyneside in the league to 18 games since 1958/59. We've won 10 while there have been 8 draws.

The victory took us to 30 points for the season so far, which compares reasonably well with our more recent Premiership returns:

1993/94: 31 points after 18 matches (9 wins, 4 draws)
1994/95: 32 points after 13 matches (10 wins, 2 draws) 
1995/96: 31 points after 12 matches (10 wins, 1 draw)
1996/97: 30 points after 16 matches (9 wins, 3 draws)
1997/98: 32 points after 24 matches (9 wins, 5 draws)
1998/99: 31 points after 24 matches (8 wins, 7 draws)
1999/00: 31 points after 25 matches (8 wins, 7 draws)
2000/01: 30 points after 20 matches (9 wins, 3 draws)
2001/02: 30 points after 16 matches (9 wins, 3 draws)

Shay Given couldn't mark his 150th appearance for the club with a clean sheet, but could at least celebrate a victory. Since debuting against Sheffield Wednesday at SJP in August 1997 he's made played in : 119 PL, 12 FA, 4 LC, 1 LC sub, 14 UEFA = 150.

Well, now, this was a strange one.

This is exactly the sort of game that United rarely win. Following a decent away win that put us at the top end of the table, a disappointing and frustrating home game would have been typical. Examples are too numerous to mention but Graeme Souness knew that a hard-working and combative performance might just reap some rewards for his Rovers side and he was almost right.

The first half saw us have the majority of possession and at times we knocked the ball around reasonably well in midfield but breaking down a resolute defence was another matter. In games like these we need something more than is currently being offered by Shola Ameobi. His languid style wasn't troubling the Rovers defence one iota and Shearer was also having a tough time, playing with his back to goal and being clattered at regular intervals.

One of those occasions saw a disgraceful scything down of Shearer by Neill which went unpunished by ref Steve Dunn, who had a particularly poor game. Shearer looked in real trouble but after lengthy treatment he ran off the knock. Another saw a trip by Short on Al that allowed Nobby Solano to have a pot-shot at goal which wasn't too far off target.

At the other end Rovers threatened very little and for a change Matt Jansen didn't look like he was going to bother us greatly. The main worry came from a nasty collision between Given and O'Brien which looked to have left the defender in a daze but he was able to carry on. 

Jansen left the field after a clash in the box and on came the grey-haired Wales manager, Mark Hughes, who soon brought back untold unpleasant memories with more niggling, moaning and general petulance. But against the run of play, Rovers took the lead. Tugay, who was their main real threat, was given an acre in the middle of our half to line up a vicious shot. Shay kept it out but it looped up into the sky and re-entered the earth's atmosphere with Dunn, Given, Hughes and the ball all ending up in the back of the net. It seemed like it had to be a foul at the time but ref Dunn looked at his linesman who indicated a goal. Subsequent TV replays suggested nothing untoward.

Sylvain Distin was having a reasonable game at the back and looked an able replacement for Dabizas. Bernard scampered through on the left edge of the box but his cross only found Speed at the near post who couldn't turn it in.

Turning things round didn't look likely but Dyer's warm-up on the pitch at half-time was slight cause for optimism. Rob Lee, who had mopped up well defensively, didn't return for the second period and we started fairly brightly. Clearcut chances were still rare but when LuaLua replaced Ameobi the crowd suddenly lifted and we started to put one or two moves together. The best ending with Bernard narrowly heading wide after a lovely flowing move.

But he was able to get his first senior goal minutes later when a superb turn and shot created something from very little. The winner was just as bizarre as the Rovers goal. A cross into the middle had been headed out to Robbie Elliott on the left. For some reason he thumped the ball a mile high and Speed's attempted nod back looped over Brad Friedel.

Shearer had a couple of late chances on the break, the first flashing narrowly wide, the second he refused and crossed to LuaLua who comically missed his kick, which Dyer had also done earlier.

But it was our inability to get out of our half that caused concern. For the last 20 minutes Rovers pinned us back in our own area and that they didn't equalise was down to more luck than judgement. It was very similar to events at Charlton - taking the lead seemed to induce a nervousness of the ball that was baffling.

But we held on and the result was all important with, as it turned out, Leeds, Liverpool and Arsenal all failing to grab three points. I think we just about deserved the win but our third place still seems to be something of a false position. A false position that becomes ever more gratefully accepted as the rest of the leading pack falter.
 
Niall Mackenzie

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