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Newcastle United	2 - 0	Crystal Palace
Half time:	1 - 0
Score Sheet:
Shearer (40) Acuņa (76)
	Teams
Given Hughes Elliott Distin Dabizas Solano Dyer Bernard Speed Shearer Bellamy		Kolinko Gray Symons Popovic Granville Thomson Riihilahti Hopkin Mullins Morrison Kirovski
Substitutes:
Acuņa for Speed (54) LuaLua for Solano (84) O'Brien for Dyer (84)		Rodger for Hopkin (81)
Subs not used:
Harper Ameobi		Berhalter Harrison Kabba Carasso
Bookings:
Distin (47)		Hopkin (63)
Sendings off:
n/a		n/a
Referee: Mike Riley (Leeds) No flare-ups for the disciplinarian to judge, so he confined himself, in the company of his flag wavers, to disallowing perfectly good goals - Morrison for Palace, Shearer for the toon.
Attendance: 38,089 Palace came, saw, sang the usual "insert team name till we die" and "shall we sing a song for you", lost shut up and scurried away back sarf. Occasional attempts from small pockets of singing to get the atmosphere going - they failed for all but a few seconds after half time.

40 mins A trademark Alan Shearer blast from just outside the area, as Nobby knocked a free kick sideways and the man powered the ball through a gap between the edge of the wall, goalkeepers fingers and post. Magic.  1-0

Half time: Newcastle 1 Crystal Palace 0

76 mins After another Newcastle attack had broken down on the edge of the Palace area, a Beardsley-esque trap and turn enabled the unlikely figure of Aaron Hughes to win the ball. Clarence Acuņa finished the move with a shot into the top corner of the Gallowgate goal from 12 yards.  2-0

Full time: Newcastle 2 Crystal Palace 0

Uncle Bobby said: 

"I'm delighted we gave a solid performance. We gave a pretty good performance, it was never over and it was never easy. Shay Given made two very good saves and he was made man-of-the-match because of that, but that is what he is there for. 
"We didn't make any serious personal errors at the back which has meant we've kept a clean sheet as well, which is good after recent games.

"All credit to the players. We worked from start to finish and we needed to win after losing two on the trot. If we had lost another one we are suddenly on a banana slide.

"I thought we had a clear penalty in the first half when Olivier Bernard was tripped and their keeper pulled off one of the saves of the century when he rushed back into his goal to save Bernard's shot after being basically out as full-back on the left trying to tackle Craig Bellamy."

On Dyer:

"Kieron didn't really get into the game in the first-half for us, but eventually got his rhythm. He's been out for ten months, but he's done amazingly.

"I wanted to take him off early in the second half, but when Gary Speed got injured we couldn't. Both he and Rob Lee are facing a battle to be fit for Saturday now.

"Funnily enough Kieron was at his best when we did take him off. It took him a while to get going. He'd been like a three-legged horse at training on Friday, but he pulled something from somewhere after Gary's injury.

"As soon as it was 2-0 we took him off, but he's some player. When that kid gets really fit he is going to be some player, I can tell you."

On Acuna:

"I thought he did fantastically well. He took the goal well, he showed he is a great recoverer of the ball, that he can fight for the team and that he wants play for Newcastle United. He's done well for me since he came here."

On Shearer:

"He's on two legs now, instead of one. All last season he was having trouble with his knee, but not any more. He gave a commanding, top-notch, top-class centre- forward display. He led the line well, he held the ball up well, he made good runs, brought people into the game and got his usual goal."

Trevor Francis said:

"Newcastle were worthy winners and I thought Shearer had a wonderful game.

"He is still playing well, he takes up such good positions and is very difficult to defend against.

"He is still very dangerous and is an excellent player. He's also improving as a television pundit as well!"

"We gave a good account of ourselves. Whilst it was 1-0 we always had a chance, but the pleasing thing was the way we worked hard, and kept our discipline and shape.

"Overall we did the best we could and I tried to be as positive as I could with the team's formation.

"Newcastle have so much ability and what strikes you is the pace they've got all over the field. I've got no complaints with my players. They all worked hard, but Newcastle were worthy winners.

"I talked to Clinton Morrison and he was convinced his goal was onside, but I was more disappointed with the first goal, because the ball struck Tony Popovic on the chest and he's got a mark there. The free-kick was given for handball and it led to an excellent finish from Alan Shearer."

Our 3rd FA Cup home win over Palace in recent years, all in the 3rd round (1-0 in 1987/88 and 2-1 in 1998/99)  

Now 11 games since we were last beaten at home in the FA Cup (1-2 by Forest in 4th round 1996/97.) The last time we failed to score in an FA Cup tie at St.James' Park was in 1988/89 when we drew the 3rd tie - second replay - with Watford 0-0)

Clarence Acuna's 1st FA Cup goal, his 6th in all and his 2nd at St.James' Park, both at the Gallowgate end. First Chilean to score an FA Cup goal for us (or anyone) since George Robledo's Final winner in May 1952.

6th consecutive game in all competitions that Alan Shearer has scored in - but not his best run, which was an 8 game sequence starting in September 1996 against his old club Blackburn (note that this was 8 consecutive appearances i.e. there were games in between that he didn't play in. 

If he scores against Leeds he'll equal the run of 7 set by Len White in 1960 and equalled by Paul Goddard in 1987. He's already done the 7 trick before (1996) but it was in 7 consecutive appearances by him rather than 7 toon games.  

However Les Ferdinand managed a run of 8 in 1995.

In the great scheme of things, not an FA Cup tie to live long in the memory, save for another belter from Alan Shearer as he seemingly sets his sights on scoring enough for a second commemorative video.

After the horrors of previous generations (Bedford, Chester, the "H" word) it seems that finally we've lost our fear of playing lower league sides at home. This result wasn't as comfortable as it should have been, but like the Brentford League Cup game and last season's Leyton Orient victory we stayed on course and ultimately took the game without any real problems.

The opposition will no doubt point to the bad decision that cost Palace an equaliser and to an early point-blank stop from Given when it seemed easier for Riihilahti to score, but our lot could also count themselves unlucky, especially Shearer. That's now twice in three games that he's been denied what looked like perfectly good goals at the Gallowgate end by baffling decisions. This time apparently Dabizas pushed someone before he crossed from the right - absolute balderdash.

Palace huffed and puffed and, as is normally the case in these times, were deprived of their borrowed players due to the cup-tied rule. Try as Trevor Francis might though, he couldn't convincingly claim that his side had done enough to knock us out of our stride, and our profligacy combined with Kolinko's efforts kept the score down. God help these lot if they ever find themselves in the Premiership.

Had Palace sneaked a goal the alarm bells would no doubt have started to clang, at least in the stands, but happily they didn't and we were left with an untried confidence in our lads that had they been in danger they'd have increased their goal tally to ensure a 4th round passage.

Now, in much the same way as the Worthington Cup almost sneaked up on people, an eminently winnable tie against Darlington or Peterborough would suddenly propel us into the 5th round, and the interest level would grow immeasurably. How many of those who didn't go to this game would be holding their hands out for semi and final tickets though?

The sentimental vote continues to be with Bobby from the so-called neutrals in the country, and in much the same way as people spoke fondly of a League Cup final victory being a fitting reward for him, then so the FA Cup would be also, only rather more acclaimed by his Tyneside public. 

Now the Wembley semi option has (thankfully) been removed, it only takes a couple of favourable draws to put us right back in the queue of Cardiff hopefuls - if the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal keep drawing each other and knocking each other out, we could still have a distraction from our league campaign....
    
Biffa

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