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Match Report 2001-02 - Leicester (a)
Premiership
| Leicester | 0 - 0 | Newcastle United |
| Half time: | 0 - 0 | |
 |
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| Score Sheet: | ||
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Teams |
 |
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Walker Impey Sinclair Laursen Davidson Savage Izzet Oakes Rogers Akinbiyi Scowcroft |
Given Hughes Distin Dabizas Elliott Solano Dyer Speed Robert Shearer Bellamy | |
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| Substitutes: | ||
|
Flowers for Walker (24) Stewart for Oakes (88) |
None | |
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| Subs not used: | ||
|
Heath Reeves Jones |
Harper O'Brien Acuna Ameobi Bernard |
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| Bookings: | ||
 Savage
(14) Impey (89)
|
Solano (21) Distin (26)
| |
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| Sendings off: | ||
| None | None | |
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| Referee:
Alan Wiley (Burntwood).
Not a lot to get wrong, so not a lot to get excited about. |
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| Attendance: 21,354.
Third highest of the season so far - 500 less than their game against
Liverpool. Perhaps the main highlights were the topical "Where's Your Taliban?" and "Town full of Terrorists" chants from the toon fans, prompted by news that the Leicester police had arrested a number of suspected Bin Laden sympathisers in the town the previous day. Rather oddly, a scheduled half-time on-pitch demonstration by the army was amended so that no weapons were displayed - maybe the authorities thought there were still some pockets of resistance hiding in the Filbert Street caves..... |
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None!
Half time: Leicester
0 Newcastle 0
Full time: Leicester 0 Newcastle 0
|
We Said |
Uncle Bobby said:
"You can't play brilliantly every Saturday. There is no way anyone can do that. But what you have to do when things aren't 100% right is to contrive a victory. Manchester United have done it and we haven't."
"In the second half we did pick it up a bit and I said at half time that Leicester might not be able to sustain their high energy level of performance and that actually happened.
"We got our act together and we had the better chances but they fought like foxes and overall I think they deserved a point."
"'When you are going to win a championship, you have to pick up victories when you are not at your best and we have failed to do that, so from that point of view it is disappointing.
"'But I have to say that we were fortunate to go in at half time on level terms. They really chased every ball and we didn't match them for effort in that first half, which was strange. I'd say that was our worst 45 minutes of football this season and I told the players that at half time.
"We picked it up in the second
half and Alan Shearer missed the sort of chance he would normally take
with his eyes closed. That was a shame, but I think it would have been
unjust for Leicester if they had come away with nothing.'
From Soccernet:
Robson then started to waffle as only he can. Were it not for the fact his side are challenging for the Premiership title, he would surely be written off as a senile pensioner, but let's give his comments some respect. 'I thought Showcough (Scowcroft to you and me) gave us real problems. Then their No.22, I can't say his name so I'll give you his number gave his all. (That was Akinbiyi, by the way). Well, what can I say? He chased every ball, really I suppose he did. Fair play to him, good luck to him.
'You'd have put your house on Liverpool beating Southampton today wouldn't you. Well you'd be homeless tonight. I don't know. Yes I'm disappointed, but it's not a bad point. I'd have wanted more, but I've got less. It's a shame, but it's not a hindrance. Look at Man United, they have won when they didn't play well. Oh well, they are a good side.'
With that, old Bobby left the bemused press to work out what he was going on about. Despite his ramblings, he had barely been asked a question. 'Thanks chaps, see you at our next game, whenever that is,' was his parting shot.
|
They Said |
Dave Bassett uttered:
"We can't score goals for love or money. I've been wanting to say that they couldn't score in a brothel but that's not the thing to say in this day or age.
"It is frustrating because since Boxing Day our scoring record has been pathetic. We had one or two decent chances today but couldn't manage the final finish.
"Overall I was pleased with the performance but we just needed that break in front of goal."
"The
players proved they want this club to stay in the Premiership by their
performance against a good Newcastle side.
"If we had won this game, no one could have argued that we were fortunate or didn't deserve the three points. The fact that we haven't won means it has made survival that little bit more difficult. But it's not over yet.'
|
Match Stats |
First 0-0 draw since the first leg of the Intertoto Cup Final in Troyes - over five months and 30 games.
First 0-0 draw in the league this season - last one was against Arsenal (h) on May 15th.
We had scored in the last 13 Premiership
games before this match - our last blank was back in October against
Spurs.
Now 7 clean sheets for Shay Given in 23 Premiership
games this season.
For Nolberto Solano it was his 150th appearance for Newcastle (139
starts and 10 subs in all competitions.) He's managed 26 goals in that
time.
Bobby Robson is still looking for his 60th success in all
competitions as Newcastle boss.
Robson Newcastle managerial stats: P124, W59, D29, L36
So far this season we've used a comparatively small number of 20
players in the Premiership, with one (LuaLua) only having come on as sub, never
having started a game.
Filbert Memories:
1. Riot game 2.5.92 - Toon fans standing on their seats to see
over the fence and the most almighty crack when Peacock opened the scoring and
scores of chairs gave way under the strain of pogo'ing geordies. Later
in the same game, City louts invading the pitch and David Kelly diving into the
away section to get away from his former fans.
2. Various games - police escorts to the railway station, featuring
broken factory windows and aerial bombardment from motorway overbridges.
3. 29.4.98 Alan Shearer (boot) Neil Lennon (face)
4. 25.8.85 - back in the first Division - big Jack, sunny day, too much
Everards Tiger and goals from Carney, McCreery and Waddle. Toon fans dancing
with stewards in front of the old away standing end.
5. 21.8.94 Winning 3-1, and Robbie Elliott's chicken dance.
|
Waffle |
Crumbs of comfort:
1. We kept a clean sheet and claimed a point.
2. We picked up no injuries (but Lee remains on the sidelines nursing
his ego)
3. Leeds and Arsenal drawing on Sunday was a handy result, especially
if the Gunners can somehow stumble at Leicester in midweek.
4. Short of an unfavourable cup draw and / or a nationwide
construction workers strike this was the final time we'll have to suffer
the medieval delights of the away end at Filbert Street.
Right then, that's the positives out of the way, now full steam ahead into
the moaning...
Newcastle reproduced a display plucked seemingly from a repository of old
match films, taking the reels out of a battered metal tin marked
"inept footage part XXIV" and replaying it again before a
contingent of toon fans who'd seen the movie before and knew how it ended,
unfortunately.
Yes, through the ages generations of toon followers have learned to know
and loathe one of these games, where nothing actually happens and some
hours later, the spectators are at a loss to explain where ninety minutes
of their lives vanished to. And we're not blaming the drink, for once.
For almost as long as we've been coming to his chamber of horrors, we've
dredged up displays like this from time to time, often after an almighty
effort to smite a feared opponent has drained the life out of us in the
previous match. In much the same way as we fell 0-2 here the week after
the famed "Howay 5-0" victory, so our post-Leeds firework
display this week consisted of a couple of sparklers and some big rockets
that failed to ignite.
It's possible that a little bit of rotation could have freshened things
up, but after the total football that destroyed the sour Yorkshiremen last
week, eyebrows would doubtless have been raised in the direction of the
manager had he done so. Perhaps Robert could have made way for Bernard,
but after the £10m man had told his website readers that he was firing on
all cylinders and ready to rock, surely the bottom placed side were
victims-in-waiting for his gallic thrusts down the wing? Wrong.
After appearing before the game in what were probably a pair of black and
white boots but from a distance looked like spats, we were treated to a
soft-shoe shuffle from the Frenchman in the first half as he seemed
somewhat perturbed by the ramshackle surroundings and opponents, just as
his countryman Ginola had a few years before.
After the break he was slightly more alert and showed what he's capable of
by slinging over a great cross for Shearer to nod wide. That and a dribble
and shot aside though, much of the time he idled as other less artistic
talents tried to find a way towards goal to test the reflexes of Flowers.
However, Robert did tackle back in the second half and
won the ball, and it may have been my imagination but I'm sure he glanced
back over his shoulder just to see if Bobby was nodding his head in
approval.....
It's possible to belittle the side for their end product on Saturday, but
at least the defensive components of the team kept working away, even if
they had the odd scare (Given once in each half) and as ever Dabizas
played like his life depended on it.
Far too many attacks were being spearheaded by defenders for my liking
though and in the second half as we gained the upper hand, it seemed as if
every move had to involve Aaron Hughes and his variable distributive
skills somewhere along the line. I'm not blaming the lad, it's just that
he was filling a role that certain other colleagues should have been
employed in - it's not like we were down to 10 men, but messrs Dyer,
Solano, Robert and Bellamy at times all seemed as if they'd wandered off
somewhere.
Just to stay with the Peruvian for a while, there are times when it's not
a glamour game and the camera isn't on him that he just doesn't look like
his batteries are in. Once or twice in the first half he seemed to
hesitate when faced with what looked from the sidelines like a 50/50
ball. He's no Steve Carney or even Clarence Acuna in that sort of
situation, but like the Bradford away game last season he leaves himself
open to criticism for an apparent lack of effort.
Nobby deservedly took the applause
and indulged in ritual shirt kissing a month before at Leeds, but today he
hot-footed straight down the tunnel at the final whistle as if he was
blocking someone in the car park. Obviously the backing from the away
section wasn't deserving of recognition - not enough trumpeters perhaps?
Enough - before this gets totally off the point. Suffice to say that a
performance as unremarkable as the surroundings, and one that like Filbert
Street will hopefully be banished from the memory very soon. No worse than
that, no cause for alarm, yet.
Dragging ourselves back into a positive state of mind, it's a timely
warning, much like the Charlton away blip, that what teams lack in poise
and flair they can make up for in nuisance value and effort. That won't be
enough to save the Foxes this time, but it reminds our lot that all our
apparently easy run-in will see us pitted many times against teams who
will challenge us to break them down. We simply have to be able to do so -
it's difficult to play on the break and counter-thrust against a side who
aren't coming at you.
It's easy to get things out of proportion, and had we won this by a single
goal, no doubt the consensus would have been that we were showing the mark
of champions by sweeping up points despite under-performing.
The fact we couldn't achieve that shows that we're still some way off the
finished article, but taking a point at least shows we're heading in the
right direction. As for Leicester, it couldn't happen to a nicer team.
Biffa