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Referee: D. Gallagher. Carrying on from where he left off last season, with a litany of bad decisions, many of which unfairly hampered Derby, including the booking of Valakari for seemingly doing more than looking at Glass.
Ably assisted by linesmen of the "wait until the ref has indicated before raising flag" school.

Teams: 

NUFC (normal home with white socks): 
Given, Barton, Hughes, Dabizas (Goma 45 mins), Domi, Dyer, Solano (Charvet 80 mins), Speed, Cordone, Cort (Glass 32 mins), Shearer.
Subs n/u: Harper, Kerr.

Booked: None
Sent Off: Barton (78mins - serious foul play.) As a result of Barton's dwelling on the ball, Deon Burton was definitely through on goal when old centre parting attempted to relieve him of his shorts in a move he presumably picked up from watching the wrestling on the telly.  

DCFC (change kit of all dark blue, similar to our current away one): Poom, Blatsis (Morris 85 mins), Bragstad, Elliott, Higginbotham, Eranio (Sturridge 66 mins), Powell, Valakari, Johnson, Burton, Strupar, 
Subs n/u: Schnoor, Oakes, Murray. 

Booked: Valakari 35 mins, Johnson 39 mins, Sturridge 86 mins. 

Goals:

4 mins. Solano was played in down the right and was allowed time and space to cross for Carl Cort to muscle in front of Bragstad to head across Poom and back into the opposite corner. 1-0
45 mins. A ball through the middle gave Strupar the chance to bear down on Given. Hughes got a challenge in but the ball bounced kindly for the Belgian who finished "with aplomb" as Motty put it. 1-1
46 mins. Glass crossed fairly poorly from the left but Powell's miscued clearance fell to Cordone, who side-stepped one challenge before cooly side-footing into the far corner of the Gallowgate. 2-1
55 mins. A corner was worked across the box to Glass, who controlled and then dispatched a fantastic curling effort over Poom. A stunning strike, but Derby eyes had it that a Speed foul on Powell seconds before had presented him with the chance. 3-1
83 mins. Pretty poor defensive work again as Johnson turned in a low cross from just six yards out, after Valakari was unmolested by defenders on the right side of the penalty area. 3-2

Match facts:

First home win at our first attempt for four seasons (97/98 beat Sheff Weds 2-1, 98/99 Charlton drew 0-0, 99/00 Aston Villa lost 1-0.) 
Largest attendance for any match at St.James' Park since 18.2.76 (Bolton in the FA Cup 52,760) and for a league match since 26.12.73 (Leeds 55,638.)
First appearance of Brian Kerr as a substitute for the senior side (wasn't required.)
Home Debuts: Carl Cort, Daniel Cordone.
Number of fans to watch NUFC so far this season (two games): 118,804


They said: Red-faced referee rapper Jim said: 

“We don't always want to be recovering, we’d rather be in front but, with five senior players out, there were some plusses out there.

Newcastle scored a good goal at the start but we started to play well, drew level and should have been in front by half-time.

The third goal was a very poor refereeing decision, to be honest. It was a foul on Powell. At 2-1 we were always in it. Then they lost a player and we had a couple of moments and we got the two goals but it was just too big in the end at 3-1.”

About his end-of-match finger wagging at the ref, he commented;

“I told him he had given a poor performance,” It was not one incident but generally.”

We said:  Uncle Bobby commented: 

"Jim Smith did some great changes, went very much on emphasis in attack - took off defenders and put on attackers and had a go at us and obviously was looking to get a result. So we just held out in the end. But I'm satisfied with the spirit and morale of the side. We fought like tigers in the second half and at the end when it was close, our spirit and our quality kept us going and we got three points."

About Warren Barton's red card; 

“The referee was quite correct, I would have wanted the same situation had it been in reverse. I've got to be honest about it. Warren Barton knows he was tugging away and the guy was free and he's impeded him. No, the referee was quite correct."

And on his own man of the match, Kieron Dyer;

"He's got this terrific little engine, I don't know where he gets his petrol from - I could do with some of that.

"The one thing which you look for in a player is ability on the ball and he has that, but he showed the other side of his game, the running and the energy level that you require to press the ball when you defend. He was all over the pitch. He was marvellous."

Waffle: 

Quite what Bobby Robson said to his boys at halftime in this match will remain a closely guarded secret, but he couldn't have had more impact on their performance if he'd locked the door and taken the pin out of a hand grenade.

The subsequent onslaught was enough to knock the Rams sideways, and the two goals we scored ultimately secured the points and allowed us to invoke the spirit of times past by shilly-shallying about. But it just wouldn't be the toon if the final few moments of the game weren't an unnecessarily jittery climax. Bobby Robson was actually only 47 when he took the job last year....

In the opening period, the team had rampaged forward in a manner reminiscent of Keegan's United sides but then progressively worsened, partly through injury, but mostly through ineptness. Defensively, the poor showing at Old Trafford continued, despite a reshuffled formation and altered personnel. Returning at left back was Domi, who appeared to spend large tracts of the game contemplating the architectural merits of the upper tiers of the new stands, while Dabizas looked less than masterful from the off, and unwisely carried on after sustaining knee damage before limping off at the tail end of the half. At least Hughes looked calmer and more suited to his central defensive role, while Barton still seems to be in holiday mode.

Of course, even mentioning uncle Alan in less than flattering terms is a crime punishable by being tied to a chair and ducked in the Leazes Park lake, but in truth he didn't look particularly happy throughout the night. 
His most telling contributions were actually in holding the ball to let the clock tick down and aiding his beleaguered defence, rather than leading the charge forward. That said, he did look a certain scorer as he drew his foot back to shoot in the second half, only to have the ball spirited away by a defender, and also had a valid penalty claim rejected in the opening minutes. However, his general play and demeanour were more reminiscent of immediate pre-Robson displays, rather than the thirty goal rampage thereafter. Maybe he's depressed by the less-than-glowing reviews of his first big screen role.....

Derby will count themselves unfortunate not to have finished the first half a couple of goals ahead, despite being theoretically weakened by five missing first choice players. However, their weaknesses were exposed by our second half mini-demolition of them, only for the advantage to swing back to the visitors after Barton deservedly went the distance. A late Sturridge effort flashed narrowly over the bar causing hearts to miss a beat all round the stadium, but it ended up in the crowd and United survived to claim all the points. 

A game of three halves then, almost, with our defence suspect for all of them, the difference being they just came under less pressure for the middle period as we held the ball further upfield. Inevitably, Robson has more injury worries with only two games gone and less options than ever in attack, but if he can reinvent the careers of other discards such as Stephen Glass, then he may not need the chequebook just yet. In defence however, something has to be done quickly, otherwise all the lovely goals and forward moves in the World won't be reflected in our points tally. 

So, to drag out some well-worn cliches from the book of football and mismatch our metaphors, the easily fooled will remain so, but the shadows of former days still extend across the green shoots of recovery. But we're off and running with three good goals in the net, three points in the bag and a win on the board, and you can't ask for more than that. 

Just remember the good bits of this game, not the rest. 

RE: The Stadium:

First impressions of the stadium once inside were of its expected vastness but comparative brightness, due to the materials used to construct the roof allowing the maximum natural light in. By contrast, the single tier corners of the Gallowgate and Leazes ends constructed in the mid-90's with solid roof structures seemed gloomy, even on a fine evening such as this.

Support from the crowd was slightly less than the full-frontal sonic assault predicted by many, but a few pedestrians in the Haymarket no doubt wondered why they could hear what sounded like a jet engine at around 7.49pm, when Cort popped the ball in the Leazes net.Our early dominance petered out and things quietened down as the first half wore on, with a late equaliser for the Rams prompting some booing on the halftime whistle. 

Two quick goals in the second period livened things up considerably, and a couple of raucous renditions of "The Blaydon Races" were supported by all four sides of the ground, including the upper echelons of the Milburn, quite frankly sounded bloody marvellous.

So, good in parts, but the true depth of passion and support that can still be produced by a geordie crowd in times of need wasn't displayed tonight. When it does, that promises to be truly memorable.

Biffa