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Blackburn Rovers (a) Premiership
Date: Saturday 19th October 2002, 3.00pm Venue: Ewood Park Conditions: wet
and wild - and the weather |
|
| Blackburn Rovers | 5 - 2 | Newcastle United |
| Half time: | 2 - 1 | |
| Score Sheet: | ||
(5 pen) Dunn
(8) Dunn
(55) Taylor
og
(65)(Griffin)
(74)Taylor
|
Shearer (36 pen)
Shearer (48)
| |
 |
||
 |
Teams |
 |
|
Friedel Neill Berg Taylor Johansson Gillespie Flitcroft Dunn Thompson Ostenstad Yorke |
Given Griffin Dabizas O'Brien Hughes Solano Jenas Speed Robert Shearer Bellamy | |
| Substitutes: | ||
|
Tugay for Gillespie (66) Matt Jansen for Yorke (66) Corrado Grabbi for Ostenstad (78) |
Bramble for Griffin (75) Viana for Robert (75) Bernard for Hughes (79) | |
| Subs not used: | ||
|
John Curtis Alan Kelly |
Harper Ameobi |
|
|
||
| Bookings: | ||
| None |
Speed Robert
| |
|
||
| Sendings off: | ||
| None |
Dabizas (Deliberate handball)
| |
|
||
| Referee: Alan Wiley Spot on for the Dabizas decisions, unfortunately. Hard to blame him for our demise, but he revealed an inconsistency with yellow cards, several stern challenges from home defenders going unpunished when equivalent toon action was pulled up. Credit to him for giving the Shearer penalty - many of his colleagues would have blithely waved play on. | ||
| Attendance:
27,307. As usual a good toon turnout, with around 4,000
mags in the Darwen end, across the full upper section, and one half of the
lower. Home sections had large areas of empty seating, especially in the main stand. |
||
|
||
5 mins After confusion in the United area caused by Given dropping a Neill cross, Dwight Yorke's goalbound shot was handled on the line by Dabizas. He was red-carded and Dunn stepped up to send Given the wrong way from the penalty spot 0-1
8 mins Ostenstad and Gillespie combined in front of the Newcastle defence to find Dunn in space on the right of the visitor's box and his low diagonal shot passed underneath the sprawling Given 0-2
36 mins The hint of contact via a hand from defender Neill on Shearer as Solano sent over a deep cross was all the former Rovers man needed. Shearer protested and Wiley pointed to the spot. In went number 300 in typical style, and although the home fans had jeered the initial award, there was widespread applause from all four sides of the ground as Friedel retrieved the ball from the opposite side of the goal to that which he'd dived to. 1-2
Half time: Blackburn 2 Newcastle 1
48 mins A simply outstanding piece of finishing that the away contingent were better-placed to appreciate than the TV cameras. Robert's well-struck corner looked to have been hit beyond Shearer, but although heading away from goal he summoned up enough power to head it firmly home at the near post. One newspaper writer correctly compared it to the Milburn goal in the opening seconds of the 1955 FA Cup final 2-2
55 mins A Thompson corner from the right fell to Dunn, who saw his goalbound shot bounce off Robert's shoulder and loop over O'Brien, for the lurking Taylor to sidefoot in past a helpless Given 2-3
65 mins Given made a good save from Gillespie's header but failed to capture the ball, seeing it squirm away, bounce off Yorke and then finally hit Griffin before trickling back over the line. 2-4
74 mins Another Thompson
corner, and this time it was Gosforth-born Shearer who failed to match the
jump and header of Cramlington-born Taylor as his effort easily beat a
seemingly punch drunk Given. 2-5
Full time: Blackburn 5 Newcastle 2
|
We Said |
Sir Bobby said:
"We haven't given a totally poor performance and I can't have a go at the players for their effort. You cannot afford to have a player sent off after five minutes.
"Blackburn, overall, deserved it, but we were equal to them for long spells. We were bound to crack at some point.
"Keith Gillespie was challenging with Andy Griffin and he's pushed
Griffin so it should have been our free-kick but the referee's given a
corner. But what made it worse for us was that Taylor also scored later on
with a free header from a corner and that's rank bad defending whether you
have 11, 10 or nine men on the pitch.
"We lost it at the beginning of the match when you realise you have
to play with 10 men for 86 minutes. It was handball and he has to go.
"And yet for the last 20 minutes of the first half and the first 15
of the second half we were equal to Blackburn. They were creaking and I
had visions of us getting at least one point and maybe three.
"The match really hinged on a poor decision."
And of the Toon goalscorer:
"It's a colossal achievement and you have to remember the time he has missed through three serious injuries. It's quite remarkable what he has achieved.
"It will take some catching, it's
a wonderful record and he has a few more in his locker."
Shearer himself commented:
"I would be happy with my
two goals if we hadn't lost the game. I said before the game I would be
perfectly happy not to score and win the game and that is exactly how I
still feel.
"At the moment it means nothing to me because we haven't got the three points. That is all I'm thinking about, not the landmark I've reached.
"I'm pleased but there won't be any celebrations. I'll probably look back in midweek and feel pleased, but at the moment I'm enormously disappointed with the result and the way in which it came about.
We've been conceding too many goals this season. There might be an excuse against Blackburn because we played virtually all the match with 10 men, but to achieve something we have to cut out the silly mistakes and we have to stop gifting teams goals against us.
"We had a right good go at it, but it was an uphill battle from the moment Nicos was sent off and we went a goal down from the resulting penalty. It was just instinct for him to put his hands up, but it is one of those things.
"We made it
hard for ourselves, we gave them goals through silly mistakes and you
cannot afford to do that at the best of times, let alone when you are
playing with 10 men. They didn't win it, we handed it to them.
We showed great character in pulling it back to 2-2, but
when you analyse their goals we have to be disappointed with them.
"I was pleased with the reception and it was fitting I got the 300th goal there as I scored a huge chunk of the goals total at Ewood Park.
"I had a feeling I would get one here, but it would have been better in better circumstances."
|
They Said |
Graeme Souness paid tribute to Big Al:
"I'd like to say how wonderful it
is that Alan has scored his 300th goal and where else but here? We should remember what he gave
to this club.
"He's the greatest English centre-forward that I've ever
seen. There is not a single bigger reason than him for Blackburn winning
the Premiership. I knew he would score today, I thought we might have to
score twice to win the game, but maybe not three.
"Nobody should score 300 goals at
this level, it's ridiculous.
"We played some wonderful football but got a bit sloppy for 15
minutes just before half-time and let them back into the game.
"People will
point to them going down to 10 men but I choose to look at the way we
played and we kicked on in the second half and found another gear, in fact
the gear we had for the first 30 minutes of the first half."
|
Match Stats |
Alan Shearer notched his 300th career
goal in club football (and his 301st soon after).
Next big landmark is his 100th Premiership goal for Newcastle -
he's currently on 99.
Some random stats about those 99:
66 at St.James' (36 Leazes end, 30 Gallowgate
end)
33 on the road
22 successful penalties.
Scoring table (who he's got them against):
8 Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday
7 Coventry, Middlesbrough
6 Southampton
5 Aston Villa, Blackburn
4 Chelsea, Derby, Everton, Leicester, Liverpool, Man Utd,
Nottingham Forest
3 Arsenal, Bolton, Ipswich, Spurs
2 mackems, West Brom, West Ham, Wimbledon
1 Barnsley, Bradford, Charlton, Crystal Palace, Man City
The only teams to have escaped so far are: Birmingham, Fulham &
Watford.
The 24th time in all competitions (3rd time against Blackburn)
that Shearer has notched two goals in a match for Newcastle and failed to
complete his hat-trick. His five goal haul against Sheffield Wednesday and hat
trick against Leicester are the only two exceptions.
And after that.....A hat trick will take him
on to 131 goals in all competitions for Newcastle, beating his 130
for Blackburn.
We remain rooted on 499 league wins away from home (all league
games as NUFC)
This is only the second time Newcastle
have conceded five goals in a match in the Robson era - 5-0 away at
Arsenal in December 2000 being the other.
Andy Griffin made his 50th Premiership appearance in his native
Lancashire, and his 40th start for us while Shay Given made
his 150th Premiership appearance for Newcastle (and league start for us).
And a fat lot of good it did either of them.
|
Waffle |
Well, we've not had one of these for a while have we?
Having barely drawn breath from the first whistle we found ourselves two
goals behind and one man down, staring down the barrels of a good-old
fashioned towsing.
At that stage Rovers looked like rivals to Arsenal's crown, such was their
swagger as they steadily began to pull our depleted backline apart by the
good-old fashioned maxim of pass, move and repeat. And although Cole was
missing, inevitably a former player (in the shape of Gillespie) was acting
as puppet master.
But in front of the usual sizeable away following, Newcastle then indulged
in a slice of flattering-to-deceive revivalism to equal anything they've
conjured up in recent years.
From the far end of the ground the penalty that gave us a toehold in the
game looked like a trademark piece of opportunism from Shearer, but TV
showed that the decision was bang on and the challenge from Neill needless.
Bet Souness had a quiet word about that one at the interval....
That we then came out for the second half and drew level was stretching
the bounds of credibility, as was the fact the home side looked to be
rocked back on their heels by our riposte.
Things then of course began to spiral wildly out of control as Given's
penalty area became the Twilight Zone and the ball became magically
attracted to the back of Shay's net.
Any other team would have lost by three goals and maybe scored one - but
not our lot.
No, we have to have the tragic misfortune and charge towards the abyss
followed closely by the exultation of an heroic comeback. Then, within the
blinking of an eye, the next instalment of the disaster movie as the
locomotive hits the buffers.
Epic stuff - in widescreen technicolour. And they let bairns in to watch
this. Life is a rollercoaster, watching this lot anyway.
Now putting aside the events on the field, please believe me when I say
that I had planned to rip the proverbial out of the Ewood crowd even
before we came away defeated and pointless.
We may moan from time to time about a paucity of atmosphere in St.James',
but God forbid that we ever adopt the idea of the ridiculous
amplified drummers Rovers have, who dutifully beat out a rhythm for the
poor Ewood saps to clap along to.
Two words - bloody unbearable. Only exceeded in the Premiership by Me Mark
Page and the Teesside clowns with their happy clappy Pigbag-based
nonsense, when surely it should be something by the Chemical Brothers...
And while we're into pure fault-picking nastiness, can I also voice once
more my total opposition to the practice of over-made-up, barely-dressed
teenage girls gyrating across football fields in the name of
"entertainment".
The fact that pre-match rain and hail threatened to disrupt the Ewood
chapter of the junior Stepford Wives as they mimed to a warmed- over
sixties dirge proves that even the Almighty was turning his nose up at
this unedifying spectacle - and doing his best to drown the little
buggers.
The people at football clubs who organise this stuff should be on some
government register and their parents should be thoroughly ashamed of
themselves.
If I want to pay to watch this, I'll order videos out of the back of the
Sunday Sport and do it in my own living room. Other sports and other
venues prosper without this sort of twaddle - why do some football clubs
insist on it?
Two words - Tabloid mentality. Three more - dirty old men.
Bring back the police dogs jumping through flaming hoops and parachutists
breaking their legs. Good old fashioned family entertainment, like Michael
Barrymore. Awright?
This goes firmly in my personal football room 101, along with David
Mellor, Bryan Robson and silences for the death of people you never knew,
or gave a tinkers' cuss about.
And one more thing....is it a rule that most mindless, idiotic,
uncoordinated urchins and barmpots sit at the front of stands with a large
open area in which to cavort at moments of high emotion, in the manner of
the demonically possessed?
That the mackems have such areas isn't a source of as much irritation to
me as the Ewood variety. On wearside one doesn't get quite the same birds'
eye view from the upper tier of the crippled, infirm and plainly mad
indulging in what appeared to be deranged line-dancing to celebrate their
goals as goes on at Rovers.
The occupants of the front sections of the Walkers Steel stand are
genuinely insane.
Two such young clowns took it upon themselves to come up to the pitchside
advertising in the second half and abuse Robert with both words and the
universal two-fingered gesture.
Meanwhile stewards nearby rummaged in their pockets for fluff-encrusted
Werthers Originals, paying no attention whatsoever to what was going on in
front of them.
And those bloody drummers were still bloody drumming.
Never mind a gallic shrug, Robert should have emulated Monsieur Eric,
climbed over and kicked the little tinkers halfway to Clitheroe. After
all, it wasn't as if he had much else to do, apart from try and provoke
the referee into waving a second yellow card in his direction....
May I also harp on at length about the frankly baffling half time penalty
shootout featuring a normally-dressed man wearing clowns shoes, in which
about 30 penalties were taken into a goal the size of the average phone
box and the competition finished 1-1.
And can I mention the half time appearance by four England players to
advertise some upcoming game - except nobody actually ever said what sport
it was.
The presence of a huffy mascot who refused to chuck his rugby ball to
anyone (and looked oddly reminiscent of World Cup Willie) may have pointed
to the fact it was rugby of some sort, but I bet it was actually the world
drumming championships.
Football conclusions in a nutshell:
Give Harper a go in the first team or he'll be away.
Persist with Jenas and he'll improve as he learns to play 90 minutes.
Try hypnosis on Robert as most other things seem to have failed.
Play Shearer when he says he wants to play, rest him when he
doesn't.
Never bother putting Shola on the bench again if LuaLua is available.
Give Viana a go in the middle, not stuck on the wing after warming him up
interminably.
Do what you like with Dyer, I'm almost past caring.
Don't ask two-bit unofficial website writers to try and make sense of
the defence.
Or whether they like drummers and dancers.
Biffa