Wednesday December 6th 2006
NEWCASTLE UTD 3 READING 2
NEWCASTLE: Given, Solano, Taylor, Ramage, Babayaro, Milner,Butt, Emre, N'Zogbia, Sibierski, Martins (Rossi 89).
Subs Not Used: Srnicek, Luque, Huntington, Pattison.
READING: Hahnemann, Murty (Bikey 90), Sonko, Ingimarsson,Shorey, Oster, Sidwell, Harper, Hunt (Little 36),Doyle (Lita 81), Ki-Hyeon.
Subs Not Used: Federici, Gunnarsson.
In retrospect this win was as "vital" as everyone said prior to the event. Three points is saying the obvious, but the team needed something to build on ... and something to put distance beween us and the pack of rabble fighting for scraps at the foot of the table.
Nobby Solano said this week "we will be hard pushed to get into the Champions League", and after the laughter stopped, the penny finally dropped. At least the fellow is looking up the table, rather than down.
The media can argue after the demise of such a big club as Leeds United that "no club is TOO GOOD to go down", but we ARE too good to go down! PERIOD!
You have to feel for Glenn Roeder. I'm not saying he is the right man for the job, and I'd safely say the majority of Toon fans feel the same way, but you look at the injury list and wonder. He has two goalkeepers injured - and one has just returned from a serious operation. His entire defence is "on the sick"; the key inspiration in midfield Keiron Dyer players about one game in five; and the strike-force is out until the 2007/8 season!
His hands are tied, but he soldiers on and never moans about the situation he is in.
Once again the crowd was down on capacity, as 48,182 attended. Gaps at the back of the Milburn and up in the Gods next to the away support. But then again, Reading are hardly the team to attract the masses. You cannot doubt what Steve Coppell has done, but they are on a honeymoon period and I'm sure the Premiership will get wise to them.
However, give them their moment of glory. And in all fairness it took a superb strike six minutes from time to prevent the Royals from climbing to the dizzy heights of third place.
Newcastle started so well, but it ended up being another agonising 90 minutes before the job was done.
The win takes us out of the bottom three and into 15th place, and puts the Smoggies down amongst the pack. Which can only be a good thing.
It's ridiculous to even contemplate it, but the Reading fans easily outsang the Toon Army for the first 20 minutes. The club had asked for the fans to "swing their scarves" as the teams left the tunnel, and many did. The others decided the best place for a scarf on such a cold night was around the neck.
United had the first chance of the game, Sibierski met an inviting James Milner cross unopposed, but aimed his header straight at keeper Marcus Hahnemann.
But the Frenchman was up to the job when Nolberto Solano ran on to Emre's beautifully weighted pass seven minutes later, and Sibierski planted an unstoppable header past the goalkeeper.
Martins fired high over four minutes later after being played in by Sibierski's clever back-heel, but he was desperately unfortunate not to open his account on Tyneside when he headed against the bar from another Solano delivery 10 minutes before the break.
Newcastle then had a period when their infamous defensive ineptitude came to light.
There was an element of misfortune about the way Harper's 37th-minute shot deflected off Solano and beyond the helpless Shay Given to level the scores.
But the way in which they fell behind three minutes before the break was all down to Celestine Babayaro.
He failed to clear the ball on the edge of the penalty area and although Shay Given managed to palm away substitute Glen Little's driven cross, Emre missed his tackle on Harper and the midfielder stabbed a shot into the bottom corner.
Steve Sidwell even had the confidence to attempt to lob Given from 40 yards but the Irishman scurrying back towards his line as the ball dropped wide.
But the Magpies were back in it on 57 minutes after Martins went down under Ibrahima Sonko's challenge in the box after exchanged passes with Sibierski and referee Rob Styles pointed to the spot.
After arguments of who was going to take it, the Nigerian stepped up to slam the spot-kick to Hahnemann's left before celebrating with a spectacular tumble.
Sibierski thought he had restored his side's lead two minutes later after he ran on to Emre's pass and rounded Hahnemann before shooting home from a tight angle. But the offside flag ended his joy.
But Emre chose the perfect moment to collect his first league goal of the season, surging towards the Reading box before unleashing an unstoppable shot, to win the three points.