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Middlesbrough	1 - 4	Newcastle United
Half time:	1 - 1
Score Sheet:
(4) Cooper		Shearer (34 pen) Dabizas (59) Robert (62) Shearer (76)
	Teams
Schwarzer Vickers Fleming Southgate Cooper Johnston Mustoe Ince Greening Deane Windas		Given Barton Elliott Hughes Dabizas Robert Acuna Solano Lee Shearer Bellamy
Substitutes:
(32) Crossley for Windass  (77) Job for Johnston		O'Brien for Barton (79) Ameobi for Shearer (81) LuaLua for Bellamy (81)
Subs not used:
Gavin Wilson Nemeth		Harper Bassedas
Bookings:
Ince		Lee (18) Bellamy (31) Given (40)
Sendings off:
Schwarzer (31)		None
Referee: Graham Poll (Tring). His reading of the two penalty incidents seemed logical - ours was a genuine goalscoring opportunity while theirs saw Ince moving away from goal and two of our defenders covering back on the line. As uncle Bobby said, Poll didn't take their penalty..... However, the same couldn't be said for the fourth official and the linesman in front of the dugouts, who completely ballsed up the Windass substitution. For some unaccountable reason, once Schwarzer had disappeared down the tunnel, Crossley was allowed to enter the field of play, thus restoring the home side to an illegal 11 men.  After much hand-waving and dissent, the subs board was belatedly raised a second time and Windass left the field of play. No doubt the refs observer in the stand will be mentioning this farcical interlude in his report....
Attendance: 30,004. Just over 5,000 spare seats in the Riverside, with whole rows unused in the South East and South West corner sections. By the end of the game there were barely 5,000 home fans in the ground, the drift away having started when Robert struck the third goal. The toon contingent in their usual corner surpassed last season's turnout of dust masks with some lads even turning up in full protective suits, to the bemusement of the police photographer, who seemed intent on getting a snap of everyone in the away end with a mask over their mouth. He was on a while....

4 mins:  Clarence Acuna was penalised for a challenge on the United left between the touchline and penalty area. Ince sent a swinging cross over that Cooper diverted past Shay Given with his head, via what looked like the shoulder of Nicos Dabizas.  0-1

34 mins: United turned defence into attack with a vengeance, as a dazzling piece of control from Laurent Robert on the edge of his own box saw the ball back-heeled to Craig Bellamy. 

He tore away from the Boro defenders en route for goal and slipped a through ball to the supporting Robert just over halfway. The Frenchman bore down on Schwarzer and tried to take the ball round to the left before going down after minimal contact was made by the 'boro keeper. 

After referee Poll had red-carded Schwarzer and finally calmed things down, Crossley faced Alan Shearer from the spot and the striker placed his penalty into the bottom left hand corner of the goal - not the hardest shot he's ever hit... 1-1

(40 mins - Greening penalty saved by Given)

Half time: Boro 1 Newcastle 1

59 mins:  Robert picked up the ball on the left and elected not to take on Fleming, crossing instead from a deep position. The ball bounced across the six yard area perfectly for Nicos Dabizas to turn it home in front of the celebrating toon contingent. 

Crucial to the goal had been the dummy runs by two toon players to the front post, that distracted the Boro rearguard and 'keeper.  2-1

62 mins:  Comic cuts from the lumbering Vickers, as he botched a backpass to Crossley, allowing the lurking Laurent Robert to seize the opportunity, rounding the non-challenge of Crossley and firing home. The Frenchman celebrated his first goal in England by blowing kisses to the crowd before being besieged by jubilant team mates.  3-1

76 mins:  Yet again Robert was the architect, dashing towards the home defence down the left and slipping a perfect pass to the unmarked Alan Shearer on the right hand edge of the box. In his own inimitable fashion, he cracked in a first-time effort before standing arms aloft in front of a delirious away section in typical celebrational pose. 

A facsimile of Euro '96 and that goal at Wembley against the Dutch. 4-1

Full time: Boro 1 Newcastle 4

Uncle Bobby spoke:

On Shearer and his withdrawal when on a hat trick:

"Shearer did very well for 75 minutes or so on his comeback and scored two clever goals - the second goal of his is a great strike. 

"I have had a long chat with Alan and I told him in my opinion it will take a month. I told him I might have to keep taking him off but it won't affect his reputation or credibility. I want to get him right and on the top of his game.

"I think Alan had a feeling he might get three, but I didn't want to take every ounce of energy out of him because we have a game on Wednesday. I was happy with what I got out of him. Two goals, he can hold the ball up, he brings people in and he's got good movement. 

On Laurent Robert:

"The players have got to get the ball to him, but he also has to learn how to get the ball himself. see little things in him that we have to teach him and improve him in certain aspects of his play.

But on the ball, no, I don't think I can improve him on that because he has this great vision and this left foot. He knows where to plonk it and he can plonk it."

Two goal Shearer praised both Robert and Solano:

"I've never hidden the fact that I love playing with two natural wingers, one on the left and one on the right.  Laurent doesn't have to beat players, he can move it and whip it in like he did for Nicos' goal.  

"For the first time in three or four years since David Ginola left, we now have that - and two good ones at that."

Shay Given spoke about the two penalty incidents and said:

"The referee was right. The first penalty was a long way away and I didn't have the best view. I knew Laurent had taken the ball past Schwarzer and obviously Mark brought him down. What I couldn't see was how many men were back on the line.

"That was the key as far as my card was concerned. When Ince came through I tried to get alongside him in a bid to force him wide but when I went for the ball he nicked it away.  

"It was probably a penalty but both Aaron Hughes and Warren Barton were back on the line. If you're the last man then it's an automatic red card. I'd also sent Ince well wide and he wasn't going to score. I pointed that out to Mr Poll and he told me straight away there would be no sending off."

Steve McCLaren said:

"I thought we were excellent until the penalty incident where Mark Schwarzer was sent off. The passing and movement was excellent, Dean Windass was causing problems up front and Allan Johnston and Jonathan Greening were doing well with their movement.

"It was perfect, we'd scored early from a set piece and we were playing as we thought we can play. Then once again the wheels come off, certain decisions and defining moments have gone against us.

"I think the jury is still out on with the two penalty decisions, I would need another look. I would say both incidents looked the same but were treated differently. But the decision certainly changed the game.

"Decisions are going against us and we appear to be in that rut at the moment, but there is a determination from myself, the staff and the players, that we'll come out of this better staff, better players and better people because of it."

It's now six league games in this ground without defeat and 24 years since we last lost a top league fixture on Teesside.

In all competitions we're 11 games unbeaten - two Premiership last season, six intertoto games and three Premiership this time out. Last loss was in May away at Liverpool.

Alan Shearer's 94th Newcastle goal was his first away from home since the previous visit to Boro last October, and his 95th the first at the "away" end of this ground - he'd notched his previous three at the other end. All told, he now has seven goals in all competitions for us against the Boro.

Al's goals came 308 days after his last for Newcastle.

Laurent Robert became the seventh Frenchman to score for us in the Premiership (Ginola, Saha, Guivarc'h, Domi, Goma, Charvet). Franck Dumas was the only Frenchman to play league football for us and not score (Olivier Bernard hasn't played in the league yet.)

Nicos Dabizas struck for his ninth United league goal and 12th in all competitions (107 starts). His last goal came at home to Southampton in January 2000 (a 5-0 win) and his last away goal secured a point away at Watford in November 1999. He was also on target at the Riverside in December 1998 (when we drew 2-2.)

Six league goals scored so far this season by United:

1. Acuna v Chelsea from a Robert free kick.
2. Bellamy v mackems from a Robert pass.
3. Shearer  v smogs after a Robert run.
4. Dabizas v smogs from a Robert cross.
5. Robert v smogs shot.
6. Shearer v smogs from a Robert pass.

Spot a trend...? 

This was all ultimately hilarious of course, as goals rained in, smoggies skulked off home and songs were lustily sung. However, at around 3.20pm on Saturday, our boys were on the sort of sticky wicket that the Australian pace bowlers would have loved, and looking as if we were holding our bat upside down.

Despite being welcomed to the arena almost apologetically by their own diminishing band of followers, Boro set off at a rate of knots from the start and gained early reward with their first goal of the season. Newcastle then struggled to get a toehold in the game, principally because they couldn't gain possession of the ball.

With Lee seeming to labour in midfield, Solano and Robert bystanders and Acuna wandering forward, Boro dominated the central areas in the early stages. At the back, Hughes and Dabizas looked equally bemused by the lumbering pairing of Windass and Deane facing them, especially when the two attackers swapped sides thus blowing our defensive strategy completely out of the water. Barton's covering at this point was to prove crucial as Boro looked to double their advantage.

Had referee Poll spotted Elliott's attempt to grab Deane's crown jewels in the box, things could have deteriorated still further - although Greening's subsequent awful spot kick attempt may have meant that a 2-0 lead wouldn't have been as inevitable as it should have been.

The game was to be turned on it's head by the combination of Robert and Bellamy smuggling the ball from one end to the other and once Schwarzer had gone off and Shearer converted from the spot, things looked much better. Windass was sacrificed and thereafter the home side were only glimpsed as an attacking force. Interestingly, after Schwarzer was dismissed, uncle Bobby called Hughes to the touchline and appeared to be issuing him with instructions - maybe he was confirming Aaron knew which way we were kicking.... 

After the break, we endured a further fifteen minute spell when it looked as if ten man Boro were holding us without too much danger, until that man Robert started to make headway down the left and the Boro backline got twitchy. Sure enough, his early ball into the area caused panic and allowed Dabizas to convert, then within moments his first goal condemned McClaren to another blank return and caused a stampede for the exits by disillusioned smoggies.

The toon fans of course loved it, having been in good voice since the start of the game. Robert's stylish performance garnered a number of chants, including "remixed" versions of the Philippe Albert and Terry Hibbit ditties from previous decades. The early cries of "small town in Yorkshire" and "sell all your tickets" were then joined by some new versions of old favourites - namely "Steve McClaren on the dole" and "there's only one Bryan Robson."

By the time the fourth goal went in, the scattering of home fans who'd stayed on to see the debacle through to the bitter end were being serenaded by the toon fans la-laing the Pigbag smoggie theme, which didn't go down at all well....

With the game won, Bellamy and Shearer were withdrawn to ovations, and the comedy duo of LuaLua and Shola entered the fray. Meanwhile, possibly oblivious to the fact we'd made our allowed three replacements, Christian Bassedas continued to warm up on the sidelines.  

Whether our two replacement strikers had agreed beforehand to try and perform all their tricks and flicks we'll probably never know, but their showing was seemingly inspired by the Chuckle Brothers  - to me, to you etc. as they juggled and passed the ball around, seemingly oblivious to the fact there was a match on. As the rest of the team joined in the keep ball routine (to the cheers of the travelling fans), it was hard to imagine we'd ever been in trouble in this game. We had.

After the final whistle, getting out of this hellhole was remarkably easy this year, with most of the home fans long gone, and even the throwback loons who normally congregate looking for aggro had slipped back under their stones for another season.  

So, ultimately a comfortable and deserved victory, but one which owed it's foundation to the ability of the referee to correctly call what he saw, and the inability of Alen Boksic to stir himself from his chaise longue and earn his money. There were a lot of good things to take away from this game for Bobby Robson, principally Robert's form, Bellamy's improvement and Shearer's goalscoring, but question marks remain over the defensive formation and personnel at this point.

Final word to Robert, who watched as Barton came from the bench to lead the applause of the Toon support and hand his T-shirt to a fan. Our new French star then turned back from joining the rest of his colleagues in the dressing room and peeled off his shirt before trotting back to the Mags and chucking it in among them. 

Another great ovation followed, and although the player wasn't fully aware of what was being said/sung, there's no doubting he appreciated the sincerity of the support and praise he was afforded. 

Isn't it nice for once that we've brought in a player who has lived up to expectations (so far) and shown only good things? Knowing our luck, Keane will probably break his leg next week....
 
Biffa

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