CCFC (normal home - blue & white stripes reminiscent of Huddersfield - no wonder they were crap..):  
Hedman, Edworthy, Shaw, Williams, Hall, Telfer, Palmer, Eustace (Hadji, 60 mins), Chippo,  Roussel, Bellamy (Aloisi 69 mins)
Subs Not Used: Kirkland (GK), Breen, Normann
Booked: Chippo.
Sent off: None

NUFC (normal home with black socks):  
Given, Charvet, Hughes, Goma, Domi (Griffin 20 mins), Dyer, Lee,  Speed, Glass (Gallacher 46mins), Cordone (Kerr 88mins), Shearer.
Subs Not Used: Harper, Gavilan.
Booked: Glass (13 mins - illegal challenge on Edworthy.)
Sent off: None

Goals:

30 mins. Charvet sandwiched by two Coventry defenders as he broke into the right side of the City box at the Nicholls Street end. He duly tumbled for a slightly fortunate penalty that incensed Williams, one of the alleged offenders, who stood over Charvet making his feelings known. Shearer stepped up and slotted home the penalty for his 200th League goal. 1-0

Halftime: CCFC 0 NUFC 1

58 mins. Another Coventry assist doubled the Newcastle advantage, as Richard Hall attempted a clearance inside his own area, but only managed to cannon the ball of the shins of the lurking Dyer. Gallacher saw the ball arrive at his feet 10 yards out and popped it home against his former employers to the great delight of his current colleagues and fans. 2-0

Full time: CCFC 0 NUFC 2

Match facts:

Landmark: 200 League goals for Alan Shearer, all in Premiership (or First Division.) Breakdown: Southampton (23) Blackburn (112) Newcastle (65) 
Senior Debut of Brian Kerr coming on as an 88th minute substitute.
Number of fans to watch NUFC so far this season (four games): 192,486 (an average of 48,122)


They said:  Resisting the temptation to spit his dummy out, wee Gordon moaned:

''It was a game where we didn't get the breaks. We had them when we won at Manchester City but not tonight. 'We had more shots on target than in that game and the effort was spot on but our technical level was still not what we want it to be.''

When asked about the penalty award that led to the first goal, he rather bizarrely observed:

Coventry player Paul Williams went for the jugular however:

“I am devastated about the penalty. The referee has been conned into giving it and it’s scandalous. Anyone can go and watch it on television and see that I have not touched him, yet he has gone down.

Unfortunately these are the things that are creeping into football now. It is spoiling the game and maybe if we had gone in 0-0 at half-time, it may have been a different result.

It was a big body blow for us but that’s the way it went. A couple of decisions did not go our way and I’m just devastated that we didn’t collect the points. 

No one was thinking about how we could have been top of the table, but it would have been nice to get on nine points and get up there.

It doesn’t matter how I played against Alan Shearer, I am so gutted that we haven’t got the three points."

We said:    A clearly delighted Uncle Bobby commented:

"To get to 200 goals is a phenomenal effort on his part but he also held the ball up well and had good movement. To get to 200 is a relief to him. He got his 300th in all competitions at St James' Park against Arsenal and got a thunderous ovation.

Had he got the 200th league goal at Newcastle tonight the ovation would have gone on for three minutes. It's a milestone. It's 20 goals a year for 10 years at the highest level - and you've got to remember he missed two full season with his cruciate injury and broken ankle.''

I am aware that we are top of the table but it doesn't mean anything at this stage. But I did say to the players today that if this was the last match of the season and we had to come to Coventry to win the championship, would you be able to win tonight's game.

That was the question I posed to my players and they all said 'yes' - and I said 'well that's what you've got to do'. I told them to use that philosophy and we were highly motivated.

This time last year we had one point from seven games, now we have got nine from four matches so there is a marked improvement and we are heading in the right direction.

We also have had a lot of injuries and we are managing to cope with those injuries.'

'I don't think it was a polished performance but it was an effective performance and the team functioned.

We were a bit lucky early on when Craig Bellamy hit the bar for them and we could have conceded two goals in the first 10 minutes from shaky defensive play.

But we recovered and after that didn't really give much away and got a good ricochet for the second goal although Kieron Dyer worked like a dog to get the ricochet.''

Meanwhile Wor Al beamed as he discussed life with his 200th league goal, third bairn and first table-topping position in four years:

"It can only get worse after this ! We are delighted after being bitterly disappointed at Old Trafford on the first day and in the three games after that we have played well and deserved the nine points.

Without being too boastful there is someone making a milestone up for me every week. I am pleased it (the 200 league goals record) is out of the way and I'm off the mark for the season. The three points are more important and keep our little run going.

Coventry started off the brighter side and it could have been 2-2 in the first 20 minutes, If the shot that hit the crossbar had gone in it could have bee a different story. I think we were worthy winners and we won the 50-50 challenges that you have to."

We are certainly not getting carried away with Newcastle United being top and I've said before that we won't win the Premiership this season.

But if we can keep improving as we have done, then who knows where it will get us?

There is a marked difference to this time last year. It took us something like 10 or 11 games to get to nine points but this time we've got nine from four. We are delighted with our start and long may it continue.

Now I need a good sleep to be honest, because with the baby just coming I've had a couple of sleepless nights."

Asked about his view of the penalty, he said:

"Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't. But Laurent says it was and that's all we can take from it, but it was a 50-50 decision."

Waffle: which is aptly named for tonights game - if you want crisp descriptions and kick by kick analysis, don't bother reading this.....  

49 games gone under the stewardship of the grey-haired magician then , and 24 victories chalked up, hopefully setting the stage for some overdue score-settling against Chelsea when the big 50 is reached at St.James'.

In those fifty games, we've gone from a relegation-threatened joke to a table-topping team, without the injection of cash that Rudi and Kenny frittered away on a succession of costly duffers.

So, everything's rosy in the garden, then....well, not quite.

Call us miserable old cynics if you will, but even the briefest acquaintance with Newcastle United causes the development of an inbuilt resistance to anything resembling contentment and expectancy. Quite simply, we've achieved an awful lot in terms of attitude and foundation-laying in the last year, but our progress is impressive partly for the reason we had fallen so far behind in such a short time. We've not really got a great deal to shout about. Yet.

One undeniable achievement of last season was to safely avoid relegation, and actually remember that football is meant to be an entertainment, but in terms of the rest of the Premiership (and one team in particular) we've now just moved up a level from being second rate. 

By now I can almost hear the click of fingers on keyboards, as outraged readers write in to say "what about beating those red swines 3-0 last season ?" but that is precisely my point. Newcastle fans (and possibly players) lapped up the hyperbole ladled out by the media after that one scoreline, but at the end of the season, which United was parading an invisible trophy down Gosforth High Street ? Again. The Championship wasn't lost or won at St.James' that day, it was won by winning at the likes of Bradford, Southampton and Derby. 

Through the efforts of Bobby, we're now just about back to where we were on the field when Kevin Keegan's team became Kenny's team at the start of August 1997. Of course the Stadium is now much improved in terms of it's money-making potential and the youth programmes are starting again to produce non-imported talent, but we're only putting in place what previous administrations have neglected.

Victories over poor teams like Coventry are most welcome, occupying first position in the league at anytime is lovely, but Millwall, Carlisle and Bristol City fans all enjoyed their moment in the spotlight before promptly disappearing back to where they came from. Admittedly, the chances of that happening to us are remote, but equally remote is the possibility that we'll be holding the Premiership trophy aloft come May. We have yet to prove that we can consistently beat inferior teams, and our lack of luck or ability to rise to the biggest of occasions is now well-established (going back to Wembley '74 if you adopt a real broad brush approach. 

One of our problems is that we're too eager to celebrate something (as much a human failing as a Geordie one) but one which we seem particularly susceptible to. Cast your mind back to the last time we topped the Premiership, and a raft of Xmas cards with toon players holding the trophy appeared, as well as the truly disgraceful "you look like champions" record, which in a particularly crass act was played over the St.James' Park PA. At least in those days we could hear the PA ....

"NUFC.com wet blanket sensation" could be a rivals headline I suppose, (if such a thing existed...) but it's more a case of stealing the scouse mantra "Calm Down, Calm Down." The only things in our trophy cabinet since we entered the Premiership are Manager of the Month awards, and the Northumberland Senior Cup. Achievements more worthy of polite applause than high-kicking song and dance routines....  

Bobby has learnt lessons from his lifetime in football, hopefully the Newcastle crowd can follow his example. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was the toon. Decidedly unsexy it may be, but the three points we took home from Highfield Road are three less we need to avoid relegation. Dreams of cups and continental jaunts are for future months.... 

Biffa