90 mins Cunningham's disputed free kick was brought forward 10 yards after Hugo Viana's refusal to approach the referee for his booking after kicking the ball away was deemed to be dissent. Stern John hit it past Shay Given from close in. 1-1

Full time: City 1 United 1

Sir Bobby commented:

"How the referee decided Craig Bellamy fouled Kenny Cunningham, I don't know.

"Cunningham took a chance in trying to nick the ball in front of Bellamy, who simply rolled him. It was a foul for us!

"How can a player going for the ball foul a player behind him? He'd have to be superhuman. Then Hugo Viana tells me he didn't hear the whistle, so he had a pot-shot at goal.

"But that was deemed as dissent and meant Mr Styles moved a free-kick which wasn't warranted 10 yards forward and into more dangerous territory."

"I thought Savage was lucky - extremely lucky - in the first half. Worse still, the referee then somehow managed to book Bernard himself for a nothing foul."

"We had the game won but then defended poorly at the back post and lost two points. I am very angry that we have lost them at a critical stage of the season against a team we are battling for fourth place."

"I suppose `if' is the biggest word in football. But if we had held out here we could have been laughing and looking down at everybody tonight."

"It was a picture goal from Gary. Ambrose did some good work on the right and Gary took a pot-shot and hit it well - it was a beautiful strike.

"And Darren did alright. He was a little bit nervous but he can only get better. He's got great feet."

Steve Bruce said:

"I thought we deserved something out of the game because we had two or three good chances before the equaliser.

"The conditions were awful with the rain and a howlng wind, but we contributed fully to a game full of incident.

"We were looking for someone to score a goal and I'm delighted for Stern because he was disappointed to not make the starting line-up."

There was a first start for Darren Ambrose after being restricted to substitute outings since his arrival from Ipswich last March. It was also his first Premiership start, having made one brief sub appearance at Highbury for his old club.

Seventh away draw this season for us in the Premiership. We've also lost two (Arsenal & Chelsea) and won two (Fulham & Boro) on our travels to earn 13 points from 11 games. That figure was 9 points from 11 games last season (2 wins, 3 draws, 6 defeats).

A run of eight consecutive league and cup games without a caution or sending off came crashing to a halt with four yellow cards for our lot. 

Perhaps I'm just suffering from seasonal depression but just about everything regarding this game seemed miserable.

The queues of traffic leading to the ground, the inability to park anywhere in the dark and dingy backstreets. The howling gales and driving rain and especially the venue. This has never been a nice ground to visit.

There's always a menace about the place and I've always seen and heard plenty to justify putting Bluenoses up there with Leicester, Wolves and Boro as primeval Premiership followers, not forgetting those Nationwide Neanderthals, Stoke and the mackems of course.

St.Andrew's used to be particularly dismal, with its high banks of concrete terracing and nasty corrugated roofs. Those stands have gone now but for some reason the current lego design seems to have lost none of its charmlessness. 

The away supporter is warmly welcomed by having to queue up to enter a side-gate manned by ticket-checking stewards. Once through that ordeal we dodge reversing, fume-belching, coaches up to a line of turnstiles with particularly vicious bars that seem to catch some part of your anatomy as they revolve you towards the lines of plod. Three this year, although none seemed keen to check my pockets.

After that, there's nothing. Just what appears to be the back of a deserted building - the sort of surroundings you might see if you take a shortcut down a back alley round the back of Eldon Square. It's only the signs pointing towards block numbers and the roar at the top of the stairs that suggest that there's a football pitch anywhere near at all.

The away end isn't bad. Decent sight-lines and seats that this ample frame was able to squeeze into - at half-time anyway - with the full 90 minutes viewed, as usual, from a standing position. That's not a complaint, I prefer it that way, it just makes me wish they'd take the plastic bits away and charge me half the price.

It was a relief to see Woodgate and Dyer amble from the corner flag to our left onto the pitch - pre-match rumours had filtered through that both were late absentees. Utter tripe of course - two words which were about to become a common theme for what was about to unfold.

I fully expected to beat this lot. They have a first eleven that is getting progressively stronger but this wasn't their first eleven. With Dunn, Dugarry and Upson missing, the home starting line-up looked particularly weak, only Forssell gave me any cause for concern. They were certainly there for the taking. 

Conditions were admittedly poor for football. The swirling wind in particular didn't help but why then did both teams try so many driven long balls that found the touchline with a regularity that would have pleased Newcastle Falcons watchers? Post-match luminaries suggested that the weather didn't favour the passing game. Nonsense. Close control and short-passes on a greasy surface was exactly what was required, with the wind causing havoc anywhere above three foot off the ground.

The trouble with that sort of approach against these lot is that they snap away like ankle-biting terriers. Again, that shouldn't be problem if speed of thought and some fleet-footedness left Savage and his talentless tormenters swiping at thin air, or as early additions to the referee's notebook. Unfortunately neither us nor the ref were bright or good enough to bring about either scenario.

Our passing was poor, and their ability to break up our play by battling harder than us started to sway the contest. Neither side deserved to be in front with just two long balls into both penalty areas causing any sort of trouble in the first half. Forssell somehow missed his header and Shearer narrowly glanced his wide but it was a major shock when Gary Speed fired us into the lead.

Our build-up play was tidy for a change but when Ambrose trotted backwards and laid the ball off to Speed, few could have expected a rapier-like strike from the Welshman's boot which flew in off the post. There seemed to be a split second of incredulity before the celebrations started and it was only the raised hands of Shearer in front of goal that signalled my own riotous revelry.

That knocked the stuffing out of the home side and when we got to the break in front, it brought back memories of our game here last year when a certain Nolberto Solano found the back of the net from distance and Shola Ameobi clinched the points with a late bundled effort.

All we needed to do after the break was sit tight and pick them off with the pace of Dyer and the "great feet" of Ambrose. We even had Bellamy ready to come on near the end if required. But we let them charge at us right from the off and within a minute the Brummies had hit the bar and the home crowd sensed a comeback.

Woodgate didn't help matters with an awful backpass and although a sluggish Given was able to save, Johnson did well to miss an empty net by so much. Our goal led something of a charmed life and our inability to string more than two passes together meant we were constantly under pressure.

Bellamy's introduction for Ambrose with fifteen minutes remaining gave us something to work on and both he and Shearer had chances to find unmarked colleagues in the middle to get the killer second. The chances weren't taken but we seemed to have got away with it as injury time approached. 

Exactly where three minutes came from remains a mystery but when Bellamy was penalised after contact with Cunningham on the halfway line, it shouldn't have been a problem. Viana had only been on for a minute or two but in getting himself booked and gifting the opposition a ten-yard advancement, suddenly our nerve was about to be tested.

The ball into the box seemed hopeful but it somehow evaded everyone except Stern John who finished neatly at the far post to send those home fans who had bothered to stay right on the to the end of the game into raptures, hailing what appeared to be the point that saved their season. The celebrations from the blue dugout and the other three sides of the ground seemed out of all proportion for a side that had only salvaged a point against mediocre opposition.

The away dugout was also animated and blue but it was only the air that had changed colour, as our staff directed their anger at referee Rob Styles. The official was his usual appalling self but to blame him for our own shortcomings would be wrong. Bellamy and John Carver made their points forcefully at the final whistle but even they would struggle to argue that we deserved to leave with all three points.

It looks certain that we'll be back at St. Andrew's next year, unfortunately, but hopefully Shearer can finally get his goal against this lot and we can send them back to the Nationwide with a relegation battle on Steve Bruce's CV, keeping him well away from Tyneside.

Wishful thinking....

Niall MacKenzie  

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