Main Page

Quick Links
   
Fixtures
   Reports
   Players
   Transfers
   Rumours
   Table
   Stats
   Reserves
   Academy

The Rest
   
Archives
   Club info
   Fanzines
   Last Season
   SJP
   Unlikely Lads
   A-Z Index

 

 

Season 2001-02 
 Match Report 2001-02 - Leicester (a) 
 Premiership


This match report is brought to you by a Cheese and Onion Slice. Robbie Savage, like the cheddar in this melt, was mature enough to stay on the pitch, so no Red Leicester comments.
(Click food for details)


Date:
Saturday 19th January 2002, 3.00pm.

Venue: Filbert Street

Conditions: Bright and dry winter afternoon soon gave way to oncoming gloom. 

 


Leicester  0 - 0 Newcastle United
Teams
 

Goals

None!

Half time: Leicester 0 Newcastle 0

Full time: Leicester 0 Newcastle 0

We Said

Uncle Bobby said:  

"You can't play brilliantly every Saturday. There is no way anyone can do that. But what you have to do when things aren't 100% right is to contrive a victory. Manchester United have done it and we haven't." 

"In the second half we did pick it up a bit and I said at half time that Leicester might not be able to sustain their high energy level of performance and that actually happened. 

"We got our act together and we had the better chances but they fought like foxes and overall I think they deserved a point." 

"'When you are going to win a championship, you have to pick up victories when you are not at your best and we have failed to do that, so from that point of view it is disappointing. 

"'But I have to say that we were fortunate to go in at half time on level terms. They really chased every ball and we didn't match them for effort in that first half, which was strange. I'd say that was our worst 45 minutes of football this season and I told the players that at half time.

"We picked it up in the second half and Alan Shearer missed the sort of chance he would normally take with his eyes closed. That was a shame, but I think it would have been unjust for Leicester if they had come away with nothing.'

From Soccernet:

Robson then started to waffle as only he can. Were it not for the fact his side are challenging for the Premiership title, he would surely be written off as a senile pensioner, but let's give his comments some respect. 'I thought Showcough (Scowcroft to you and me) gave us real problems. Then their No.22, I can't say his name so I'll give you his number gave his all. (That was Akinbiyi, by the way). Well, what can I say? He chased every ball, really I suppose he did. Fair play to him, good luck to him.

'You'd have put your house on Liverpool beating Southampton today wouldn't you. Well you'd be homeless tonight. I don't know. Yes I'm disappointed, but it's not a bad point. I'd have wanted more, but I've got less. It's a shame, but it's not a hindrance. Look at Man United, they have won when they didn't play well. Oh well, they are a good side.'

With that, old Bobby left the bemused press to work out what he was going on about. Despite his ramblings, he had barely been asked a question. 'Thanks chaps, see you at our next game, whenever that is,' was his parting shot.

They Said

Dave Bassett uttered:

"We can't score goals for love or money. I've been wanting to say that they couldn't score in a brothel but that's not the thing to say in this day or age. 

"It is frustrating because since Boxing Day our scoring record has been pathetic. We had one or two decent chances today but couldn't manage the final finish. 

"Overall I was pleased with the performance but we just needed that break in front of goal."
 

"The players proved they want this club to stay in the Premiership by their performance against a good Newcastle side.

"If we had won this game, no one could have argued that we were fortunate or didn't deserve the three points. The fact that we haven't won means it has made survival that little bit more difficult. But it's not over yet.'

Match Stats

First 0-0 draw since the first leg of the Intertoto Cup Final in Troyes - over five months and 30 games.

First 0-0 draw in the league this season - last one was against Arsenal (h) on May 15th.

We had scored in the last 13 Premiership games before this match - our last blank was back in October against Spurs.

Now 7 clean sheets for Shay Given in 23 Premiership games this season.

For Nolberto Solano it was his 150th appearance for Newcastle (139 starts and 10 subs in all competitions.) He's managed 26 goals in that time.

Bobby Robson is still looking for his 60th success in all competitions as Newcastle boss.
Robson Newcastle managerial stats:  P124, W59, D29, L36

So far this season we've used a comparatively small number of 20 players in the Premiership, with one (LuaLua) only having come on as sub, never having started a game.

Filbert Memories:

1. Riot game 2.5.92 - Toon fans standing on their seats to see over the fence and the most almighty crack when Peacock opened the scoring and scores of chairs gave way under the strain of pogo'ing geordies. Later in the same game, City louts invading the pitch and David Kelly diving into the away section to get away from his former fans.

2. Various games - police escorts to the railway station, featuring broken factory windows and aerial bombardment from motorway overbridges.

3. 29.4.98 Alan Shearer (boot) Neil Lennon (face)

4. 25.8.85 - back in the first Division - big Jack, sunny day, too much Everards Tiger and goals from Carney, McCreery and Waddle. Toon fans dancing with stewards in front of the old away standing end.

5. 21.8.94
Winning 3-1, and Robbie Elliott's chicken dance. 

Waffle

Crumbs of comfort: 

1.
We kept a clean sheet and claimed a point. 
2.
We picked up no injuries (but Lee remains on the sidelines nursing his ego) 
3.
Leeds and Arsenal drawing on Sunday was a handy result, especially if the Gunners can somehow stumble at Leicester in midweek. 
4.
Short of an unfavourable cup draw and / or a nationwide construction workers strike this was the final time we'll have to suffer the medieval delights of the away end at Filbert Street.

Right then, that's the positives out of the way, now full steam ahead into the moaning...

Newcastle reproduced a display plucked seemingly from a repository of old match films, taking the reels out of a battered metal tin marked "inept footage part XXIV" and replaying it again before a contingent of toon fans who'd seen the movie before and knew how it ended, unfortunately.

Yes, through the ages generations of toon followers have learned to know and loathe one of these games, where nothing actually happens and some hours later, the spectators are at a loss to explain where ninety minutes of their lives vanished to. And we're not blaming the drink, for once.

For almost as long as we've been coming to his chamber of horrors, we've dredged up displays like this from time to time, often after an almighty effort to smite a feared opponent has drained the life out of us in the previous match. In much the same way as we fell 0-2 here the week after the famed "Howay 5-0" victory, so our post-Leeds firework display this week consisted of a couple of sparklers and some big rockets that failed to ignite. 

It's possible that a little bit of rotation could have freshened things up, but after the total football that destroyed the sour Yorkshiremen last week, eyebrows would doubtless have been raised in the direction of the manager had he done so. Perhaps Robert could have made way for Bernard, but after the £10m man had told his website readers that he was firing on all cylinders and ready to rock, surely the bottom placed side were victims-in-waiting for his gallic thrusts down the wing? Wrong.

After appearing before the game in what were probably a pair of black and white boots but from a distance looked like spats, we were treated to a soft-shoe shuffle from the Frenchman in the first half as he seemed somewhat perturbed by the ramshackle surroundings and opponents, just as his countryman Ginola had a few years before. 

After the break he was slightly more alert and showed what he's capable of by slinging over a great cross for Shearer to nod wide. That and a dribble and shot aside though, much of the time he idled as other less artistic talents tried to find a way towards goal to test the reflexes of Flowers.

However, Robert did tackle back in the second half and won the ball, and it may have been my imagination but I'm sure he glanced back over his shoulder just to see if Bobby was nodding his head in approval.....

It's possible to belittle the side for their end product on Saturday, but at least the defensive components of the team kept working away, even if they had the odd scare (Given once in each half) and as ever Dabizas played like his life depended on it. 

Far too many attacks were being spearheaded by defenders for my liking though and in the second half as we gained the upper hand, it seemed as if every move had to involve Aaron Hughes and his variable distributive skills somewhere along the line. I'm not blaming the lad, it's just that he was filling a role that certain other colleagues should have been employed in - it's not like we were down to 10 men, but messrs Dyer, Solano, Robert and Bellamy at times all seemed as if they'd wandered off somewhere.

Just to stay with the Peruvian for a while, there are times when it's not a glamour game and the camera isn't on him that he just doesn't look like his batteries are in. Once or twice in the first half he seemed to hesitate when faced with what looked from the sidelines like a 50/50 ball. He's no Steve Carney or even Clarence Acuna in that sort of situation, but like the Bradford away game last season he leaves himself open to criticism for an apparent lack of effort.

Nobby deservedly took the applause and indulged in ritual shirt kissing a month before at Leeds, but today he hot-footed straight down the tunnel at the final whistle as if he was blocking someone in the car park. Obviously the backing from the away section wasn't deserving of recognition - not enough trumpeters perhaps?

Enough - before this gets totally off the point. Suffice to say that a performance as unremarkable as the surroundings, and one that like Filbert Street will hopefully be banished from the memory very soon. No worse than that, no cause for alarm, yet.
 
Dragging ourselves back into a positive state of mind, it's a timely warning, much like the Charlton away blip, that what teams lack in poise and flair they can make up for in nuisance value and effort. That won't be enough to save the Foxes this time, but it reminds our lot that all our apparently easy run-in will see us pitted many times against teams who will challenge us to break them down. We simply have to be able to do so - it's difficult to play on the break and counter-thrust against a side who aren't coming at you.  
 
It's easy to get things out of proportion, and had we won this by a single goal, no doubt the consensus would have been that we were showing the mark of champions by sweeping up points despite under-performing. 

The fact we couldn't achieve that shows that we're still some way off the finished article, but taking a point at least shows we're heading in the right direction. As for Leicester, it couldn't happen to a nicer team.
  

Biffa

Reports
 
Back to Main Page


Page last updated 22 January, 2012