Newcastle United Football Club - Match reports

Season 1999-00
Celtic (Scotland) (a) Friendly

Date: Tuesday 27th July 1999, 7.45pm
Live on Channel 5

Venue: Celtic Park

Conditions: The heatwave continues.

Admission: Ł16

Programme: Ł1.50 for a slim volume

Celtic		Newcastle
	2 - 0
Half time:	0 - 0

Score Sheet:
(50) Tebily (62) Viduka

	Teams
Kerr Boyd Mahe Mjallby Tebily Riseth Larsson Moravcik Viduka Berkovic Lambert		Ziegler Charvet Marcelino Goma Domi Solano Dumas Speed Serrant Ketsbaia Shearer

Substitutes:
(46) Petta for Moravcik (73) Blinker for Berkovic (88) Burchill for Larsson		Robinson for Shearer (61) McClen for Solano (64) Maric for Serrant (64) Hughes for Dumas (89)

Subs not used:
Wieghorst Johnson Gould McKinlay Bonnes Brattbakk		Perez Barton Kerr Coppinger Beharall

Bookings:
None		Speed
Dismissals:
None		None

Referee: R.Orr (Kilbarchan, Scotland)

Attendance: 59,252 including around 3000 away supporters, housed in the South East corner of the ground - having been over in the North East corner last time here in 1995. For a close-to-capacity crowd there were a good few little gaps where green seats were visible. Given that season ticket holders gained free access though, the attendance figure was for tickets "sold" as opposed to actual bums on seats. Around 55,000 were here - still one hell of a crowd.

Goals

Half time: Celtic 0 Newcastle 0

50 mins: Recent signing Olivier Tebily atoned for his own goal boob in the previous game against Leeds by rising unchallenged in the box to head home an Eyal Berkovic corner. 0-1

62 mins: Mark Viduka was fed by Berkovic and advanced into the United box, the ball sitting up for him courtesy of a lucky rebound. The Aussie shot for goal from about eight yards and a fortunate deflection off goalkeeper Marc Ziegler in goal saw the ball nestle in the back of his net. 0-2

Full time: Celtic 2 Newcastle 0

We Said

Ruud Gullit said:

"We gave away a goal from a corner and that gave them confidence but I felt that later on we played well again, and could have created a lot of opportunities. I was pleased with what I saw."

They Said

John Barnes:

"I was much happier tonight than on Saturday. I thought everyone was excellent. We played in more crosses - Vidar Riseth had more himself than anyone else and he was in the full-back position.

"If we can pass the ball as well and quickly as we did tonight, I'll be happy. I had told them that they had to move the ball quicker than they did on Saturday and I thought they did very well. In fact, I thought the first-half performance overall was better than the second half.

"If we had not won tonight we would have gone into the Aberdeen game without confidence."

Stats

Pre-season pitch time (in minutes):

Andersson 37+0+90+0+0+0+0=127 (1 goal)
Barton 90+45+45+90+45+90+0=405 (1 goal)
Beharall 0+45+45+0+21+45+0=111
Caldwell 0+14+45+0+0+0+0=14
Charvet 90+45+90+45+90+90+90=540
Coppinger 90+14+0+49+0+90+0=243 (3 goals)
Dabizas 0+45+0+0+25+0+0=70
Domi 0+0+90+90+90+0+90=360
Dumas 90+45+90+90+0+0+89=404
Dyer=0+69+45+90+0+0+0=205 (1 goal)
Glass 90+0+0+0+0+0+0=90
Goma 90+45+90+90+90+0+90=495
Griffin 90+0+30+0+0+0+0=120
Gullit 0+0+0+0+0+45+0=45
Hamilton 0+0+0+0+0+45+0=45
Hughes 0+45+0+0+65+90+1=201
Kerr 53+21+45+0+69+90+90=278
Ketsbaia 0+90+90+90+90+0+90=450
Lemmens 33+0+0+0+0+0=33
Marcelino 0+90+0+45+0+0+90=225
Maric 0+76+0+90+90+90+26=372
McClen 90+45+90+41+45+0+26=337 (2 goals)
Perez 57+90+90+90+90+90+90=507
Robinson 0+0+0+0+21+90+29=140 (2 goals)
Serrant 90+45+45+0+69+90+64=403
Shearer 0+76+0+0+0+0+61=137 (1 goal)
Solano 0+0+0+0+0+0+64=64
Speed 0+45+90+90+90+45+90=450
Ziegler 0+0+0+0+0+0+90=90

Prominent were Celtic's "gang of three", Terry McDermott, John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish.

No further comment is needed for a trio of ex-United employees who made a good few quid out of us, often for the barest of efforts - the latter still pursuing us for his pound of flesh, sorry, unfair dismissal compensation claim.

Terry Mac was granted a quick burst of "Terry Mac", Barnes was totally ignored and Kenneth inspired a lusty chant of "Dalglish fucked it up."

Goalkeeper Marc Ziegler made his debut, having joined Newcastle for a week from Bundesliga outfit Stuttgart. The 23 year-old is rated in the 500k bracket and instantly identified as a continental 'keeper after appearing in a peaked cap and fisting away one cross.

United reverted to black socks so as to avoid clashing with the hosts.

Waffle

No matter what the occasion, it is always a pleasure to visit this fantastic football stadium.

That feeling was unfortunately not shared by the "No Surrender" brigade from Newcastle tonight, who seemed to think it was England v Scotland, or Ireland, or possibly an Orange Walk.

Thankfully the flag waving died down after a while, although frequent choruses of "Hullo Hullo, we are the Geordie boys" offended locals for the Hun-related tune rather than the content.

Added to this, a couple of jerks in the home end with mackem shirts on helped stoke up a full-on atmosphere that kept things on the boil and the extra police reinforcements on their toes.

The 35 minute second half "Ruud Gullit's Black and White Army" chant, complete with standing up, handclaps and shirt-waving managed to distract half of the main home stand from the game and even generated a round of applause from some home fans.

Given that level of vocal backing, it's an even greater pity that none of the players or staff even bothered to cross the halfway line upon the final whistle to show their appreciation.

There were no reports of trouble apart from some differences between fellow Toon fans which resulted in at least one ejection. The popularity of half Celtic/half United scarves meanwhile was indicative of less friction between the two sides than in previous times.

Nothing new say really about the team; Nolberto Solano was easing himself back in, we just about held our own in the first half and created two notable scoring opportunities, while Didier Domi showed one or two flashes of inspiration with forward gallops.

Once behind, there looked little chance of a fight back, especially when Alan Shearer was withdrawn after an hour and replaced by Paul Robinson - had this been a proper game they would doubtless both have been on together.

Overall, the same things showed through again: a disturbing lack of pace in the whole team, a defence still learning how to play together and an absence of bite and creativity in forward areas.

Despite conceding twice, the new keeper looked to have potential, while Silvio Maric performed to his usual standard, namely looking out of his depth. The manager opted not to play himself today.

Anyone watching this game as a neutral would have noted the lack of forward runs into space that players in stripes made compared to their hooped equivalents - although the hosts turned out a first choice team and begin their league campaign on Sunday.

I'm still not overly optimistic for ours, though…

Biffa

Page last updated 19 November, 2019