Coventry City (a) Premiership
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Date: Wednesday 6th September 2000, 7.45pm Venue: Highfield Road Conditions: Heady Admission: £tbc Programme: £tbc |
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Coventry City |
Newcastle United |
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0 - 2 |
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| Half time: | 0 - 1 | |
| Score Sheet: | ||
Shearer
(30pen)  Gallacher (58) |
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Teams |
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Hedman Edworthy Shaw Williams Hall Telfer Palmer Eustace Chippo Roussel Bellamy |
Given Charvet Hughes Goma Domi Dyer Lee Speed Glass Cordone Shearer |
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| Substitutes: | ||
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(60)
Hadji for Eustace (69) Aloisi for Bellamy |
Griffin
for Domi (20) Gallacher for Glass (46) Kerr for Cordone (88) |
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| Subs not used: | ||
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Kirkland Breen Normann |
Harper Gavilan |
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| Bookings: | ||
| Chippo | Glass | |
| Dismissals: | ||
| None | Barton | |
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Attendance: 22,109 - 1,500 below capacity - the away section was full. |
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Goals |
30 mins. Laurent
Charvet was sandwiched by two home 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 kick award that incensed Williams, one of the alleged
offenders, who stood over Charvet making his feelings known. Alan Shearer
stepped up and slotted home the penalty. 1-0
Half time: Sky Blues 0 Magpies 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 Keiron Dyer. Substitute Kevin 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: Sky Blues 0 Magpies 2
We Said |
Bobby Robson:
"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.''
Wor Al discussed 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."
On the penalty:
"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."
They Said |
Gordon
Strachan:
''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.'
On the penalty:
"From where I was standing it looked like a penalty, but everyone who has
seen it on television has said it wasn’t, so I can see why Paul Williams is
upset.
"If the player has dived I am not going to say he has dived - that is up to
other people to decide. I can’t change the way people play. Some of the best
dives I’ve seen recently - and I am not saying it was a dive - have been from
British players, so you can’t point the finger at foreigners."
City 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."
Stats |
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Alan Shearer netted his 200th League goals, all in Premiership (or First Division.) Breakdown: Southampton (23) Blackburn (112) Newcastle (65) There was a senior debut for Brian Kerr coming on as an 88th minute substitute. City v Magpies - all-time: 2000/01 won 2-0 Shearer(pen),
Gallacher |
Waffle |
If you want crisp descriptions and kick by kick analysis,
don't bother reading this.....
49 games gone under the stewardship of a grey-haired magician. 24 victories
chalked up, hopefully setting the stage for overdue score-settling against
Chelsea when the big 50 is reached at SJP.
In those 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 NUFC 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 type "but 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 one scoreline,
but at the end of the season, which United paraded an invisible trophy down
Gosforth High Street? Again.
The Championship wasn't lost or won at Gallowgate 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 restoring what previous administrations 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; 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