Half time:  Newcastle 1 Tbilisi 0

56 mins The lead was doubled when a Robert corner wasn't cleared and Craig Bellamy had the relatively easy task of volleying home from the penalty spot  2-0

Full time: Newcastle 2 Tbilisi 0

Graeme Souness said:

"I think we dominated the game throughout, we've scored two goals, but we're really a wee bit disappointed we didn't score more. We had many chances tonight and we only took two. Our approach play was good, our creativity was good, the only thing missing was the clinical finishing, which hopefully we're saving for another game.

"But we're sitting with six points, and that's where we wanted to be at this point.

"Our attitude was spot-on tonight. We asked them to make sure that they gave Tbilisi respect and they did that. The only thing I'm disappointed in is that we had so many chances and we're going home with a 2-0 win.

"Their team worked very hard, but we were ready for the challenge and they had to defend very well at times to stay in the game. The next game will be a difficult game. We can put this competition out of our minds for a period of time, but yes, we're where we want to be at this time. 

"It will be great to have Nicky (Butt) back from suspension for our next European game. He's a top player, and you always want to have your top players available.

"We know that if we are going to progress in Europe that there will be some tough games along the way, and that's where you need people like Nicky Butt. He's an experienced performer at this level and we will need to have him around.

"Looking at the wider picture, we'd prefer to finish top and play one of the teams who finish third in another group, rather than face a side coming out of the Champions League.

"When I moved over here from Blackburn we had a few training sessions and realised how quick the lads here were doing things, and that is no criticism of Blackburn. But in the dressing room there is also some banter which is great. The thing about top players is the banter is more cruel.

"You can't get away with anything here. If there is a bad haircut or clothes or whatever, it is dished out. A dressing room at a big club like ours can be a cruel place."

Dinamo coach George Geguchadze commented:

"It's our first time in European football and on this stage, young footballers have to show that they're capable of competing this level. Unfortunately, I can't say that my players were good enough tonight.

"Of course I understand that it's impossible on this stage to beat Newcastle United, but every team must try to be as good as possible."

And so the bandwagon started rolling again after encountering a slippy patch near the M6 last weekend, as our second UEFA Cup mismatch made it another rollover week, whilst filling the pubs and emptying the stands.

Faced with recent toon crowd stats, the casual observer would almost believe that we'd returned to a world of peasoupers, national service, BSA motorcycles and a marked reluctance to sully oneself with matches against Johnny Foreigner that squared with the FA's previous isolationist policy. 

Certainly the fact that 15,000 more fans opted to watch Norwich's second visit to Tyneside in two months than the debut appearance of a team from Georgia would lead one to suspect that we were a region of Eurosceptics - or Bernard Matthews addicts. 

The answer, as ever, is that a variety of factors combined to keep bums off seats - factors which are all too evident to the most casual of observers, but seemingly hidden from the one-eyed view of our masters in the Barrack Road bunker.

It wasn't half term, the game was on the telly, we've got four home games in eleven days, the slightly more sexy Chelsea are in toon next week for a game season ticket-holders have to fork out for, Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat etc. 

All decent enough reasons to see the attendance fall below expected levels, but surmountable obstacles, given some common sense, imagination and a will to rise above a policy motivated by nothing more than short-term greed. And what did we do to tempt people in? Put the prices up.  

Despite the healthy 42,000 turnout against Norwich (including a large number of youngsters) ticket prices for both this and the Chelsea Carling Cup home tie saw a stuck fiver on the adult price, a doubling of the bairn's tarrif to a tenner and an increase on OAP seats by a whopping £12.  

So a family of five who watched Kluivert & Co. beat the Canaries taking their three bairns as a half-term treat had to find an extra £25 to repeat the exercise tonight or against Chelsea - not counting visits to the club shop, programmes or the food outlet... and that's just the money spent in the ground.

The result? The season ticket holders who never come to Cup games let their seats go as ever - and nobody else from the toon army shadow battalions came forward to fill up the spaces. In other words, our crowd rotation policy was a singular failure.

And although some will no doubt have kept a shekel or two aside for the Chelsea Carling Cup game, that may well be at the expense of a night out at the Sporting Lisbon UEFA home game, which threatens to be a dead rubber at any price on the door. Note that due to our perennial gloominess we'll avoid mention of the fact we could potentially also have another home Carling Cup tie before the rapidly-approaching festive season.... 

After seeing just over 30,000 turn up for the Sakhnin game, the club reacted by cutting prices for Norwich, but were incapable or unwilling to understand that not squeezing every last farthing from their fans isn't a crime and once again upped the ante - only to fall on their faces. Good. 

This policy didn't work in the Champions League two seasons ago - more people attended the Norwich game than turned out for home ties against Feyenoord, Kiev or Leverkusen. So the missing thousands will be tempted back for an inferior European competition will they? Niet.

Another missed opportunity then - no, make that 15,000 missed opportunities. 15,000 vacancies for potential consumers, potential subscribers, call them what you like and no attempt made to bring them on board. Pay our prices or **** off - we'd rather leave the seats empty is the message.

Of course it's not the money for many - the price increase is merely symbolic - how many people refused to pay an extra fiver for this game and went down the pub to watch it, spending as much over the bar as they would have if they'd attended? It's just another two fingered salute from the boardroom to those who remain loyal and stump up the price demanded by the club.

There's some good old-fashioned economics involved there, but shouldn't we expect better from a club allegedly concerned with their public image and ever-eager to load the papers and official publications with yet more "we're black and white as well" soundbites and platitudes? 

No, the faces change but the attitude remains the same - fleece the daft bastards, one can almost hear those in charge saying - in an echo of the shirt rip-off comments recorded a few seasons ago.
 
Those who choose to follow the club far and wide have to accept being the victims of highway robbery on our travels, as the Premiership as a whole shows no interest in pursuing a sensible pricing policy. But to see such curmudgeonly behaviour from Newcastle officials, always eager to toss off more platitudes about being cut from the same cloth as their fans, just sticks in the throat. 

Anyway, on the the game and it was entertaining enough stuff, but in the way that an amateur dramatic society rendition of a stage favourite garners applause for at least being vaguely reminiscent of the real thing.

We scored twice against a team who came to lose, but could have doubled the tally of five we managed last season against the superior opposition from Breda. A defence that made up in numbers what it lacked in prowess didn't present much of an obstacle, but as the game wore on we became increasingly prosaic and in the case of Robert, almost lost the plot entirely as by the end, even a four yard pass was beyond him. Most of the rest at least looked bothered about this game, but he wandered round throughout the night to no great effect, making a vain plea to the bench to be allowed off, despite us having already used our three subs.

Kluivert ghosted around the field with a precise touch here, a graceful flick there, but never quite got zeroed in on the target. Meanwhile, both Shearer and Bellamy increased their goals tally, but the latter didn't really look in great fettle throughout.

Of the rest there's little to say, other than that Milner's appearance off the bench provided a welcome lift, with some more trademark dribbles reminiscent of wing play from a former age. Would that Robert could bother himself to reproduce this against opposition of this calibre when he really should be filling his own and his colleague's boots.   

Biffa

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