Saturday December 23rd 2006
NEWCASTLE UTD 3 TOTTENHAM HOT 1
NEWCASTLE: Given (Srnicek 87), Solano, Taylor, Ramage,Huntington, Dyer (Rossi 77), Butt, Parker, Milner,Emre (Sibierski 66), Martins.
Subs Not Used: Luque, Edgar.
TOTTENHAM: Robinson, Lee, King, Dawson, Chimbonda, Murphy,Huddlestone, Zokora (Mido 66), Ghaly, Berbatov, Malbranque.
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Davenport, Assou-Ekotto, O'Hara.
Att: 52,079
Injury-hit Newcastle produced a top drawer performance to make the Premiership sit up and, at long last, show we can be a force in this league. The way United started this match had everyone believing Christmas had come early.
The boys in black and white hit Spurs with a first-half blitz that almost took the roof off the magnificent stadium. Glenn Roeder made the rallying call and his players responded.
We were critical of Kieron Dyer after the Chelsea game, suggesting he didn't look interested. But perhaps we have been over-the-top because the midfielder must be finding it hard to get back to 100% fitness after such a long lay-off. But he set the tone with a superb third-minute opener, that was so like Peter Beardsley it was uncanny.
Dyer broke in from left-midfield and had the Spurs defence in sixes-and-sevens. They backed away, and the England international did the Beardsley 'Indian dance', showing no indication of which side he was going to take until the final split second. And that split second was all it took to plant the ball inch-perfect past Paul Robinson. A delightful piece of genius.
It was 2-0 within four minutes when Scott Parker exchanging passes with James Milner before crossing for Martins to head home his sixth Premiership goal in five games. So much for those Scouse pundits Mark Lawrenson and Phil Thompson who suggested Roeder had bought a knacker when he paid £10m for the striker.
But Spurs halted the one-way traffic and grabbed a lifeline on 15 minutes, but it was more through good luck than good management. Danny Murphy's strike from a Pascal Chimbonda cross was far from clean and Shay Given looked to have it in his back pocket, but it struck (of all people) Steven Taylor in the face and wrong-footed the goalkeeper. Taylor has been fabulous in recent games, and it was a shame he had to put his name on the goal.
However, it was opposite number Robinson who was left red-faced 11 minutes before the break. He could not hold Milner's free-kick and although he atoned for the error with excellent reaction saves from first Taylor and then Martins, Parker headed the loose ball into the empty net to make it 3-1.
Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov was a threat to UNited's rearguard and he might have reduced the deficit within three minutes of the restart. The powerful frontman got himself between Taylor and Peter Ramage to run in on goal, but with Given advancing, he poked his right-foot shot wide of the far post.
Tottenham threw everything they had at the Magpies, but got little change from a defence comprising three youngsters and a winger.
As the Londoners threw men forward, Newcastle looked to hit them on the break, and it took a good save from Robinson to deny Martins a second goal of the afternoon with 10 minutes remaining.
There was a change in the home goal three minutes from time when crowd favourite Pavel Srnicek, making his first appearance for the club in more than nine years at the age of 38, replaced the injured Given to cap a superb afternoon for the Toon Army.