The honeymoon continued for Graeme Souness and his side, as his first home league game had a happy ending for all concerned - except old boy Gary Megson. However, were it not for some hot-blooded gallic intervention from Monsieur Robert, plus the premature ejection of a Baggie, we could have been facing an annulment due to our failure to consummate the marriage.

After a first half that saw us string together the occasional passage of decent football, but frustratingly fail to test Hoult in the Albion goal, muted applause greeted the departure of the teams at half time - had Sir Bobby been present, he may have reflected that after a goalless 45 minutes more than once his charges had been jeered from the SJP pitch.....

From the off we looked very narrow going forward, despite the forays of Carr and Bernard down the flanks and with the visitors defending in numbers it made for a congested afternoon in the midfield. In terms of threat to Given's goal, the much-vaunted Earnshaw proved to be a little off the pace and wasted his best opening through miscontrol, while his partner Kanu ploughed a lonely furrow up front, vainly trying to inspire his colleagues and expending large amounts of energy galloping around the field - he never had to run around this much at Highbury.

A change to introduce some orthodox wide play seemed odds on at half time, but the front trio of Kluivert, Shearer and Bellamy re-emerged to reprise their first half roles: the Welshman trying to work the channels but never quite getting his runs timed right or his passes away at the right pace, the Dutchman meandering through midfield but never quite on the front line and the Englishman continually looking for something approaching a chance to seize on.

Things did change in the second half though, Souness picking up on the fact that Bellamy was twisting his face as much as he apparently did his ankle and was in danger of letting his frustrations get the better of him. That allowed the rested Robert a chance to strut his stuff, having apparently impressed in training and he supplied the missing ingredient - runs to crucial areas towards the byline and well-struck crosses, be they pull backs or swooping early efforts.

By the time Albion were reduced to ten men, our fluidity wasn't solely due to the numerical advantage and once Jenas started to emulate Robert on the opposite flank we looked increasingly potent as the game wore on and gaps began to appear in the Baggies' backline.

Throw in some tantalising play from Milner and his first goal, and by the end even Horsfield's late goal wasn't enough to spoil the mood of increasing optimism across the stands. There was even a quick chorus of the Blaydon Races sweeping round for a second or two - giddy stuff.

Trees weren't pulled up, but we stuck to our task and the crowd didn't start giving players stick (probably a good thing though that Dyer and Shola were absent, as there's nowt more galling than seeing players apparently coasting when things aren't going quite according to plan).

Another three points were duly collected from what was a must-win game and it's normal service here on Tyneside - at least for the moment. There are enough average teams still to come up here and try to stonewall us and we continue to have enough talent to get past them, even if it's not always as instant as some would like.

As to whether this was pretty - it's purely in the eye of the beholder. If meaningless sideways 40 yard passes are a thing of beauty to some, then seeing someone in a black and white shirt fight to get to the byline and then sweep the ball back for a colleague to bang it home is the Mona Lisa for this correspondent. And there's nowt enigmatic about hitting the back of the net - whether it's a goal bonus or not, it's always the money shot for wor lot.

Points collected, goals scored, smiles on faces. Cloughie was right - it is a simple game. Now let's see whether our good fettle and form survive a visit to a desolate wasteland where heathens wait to frustrate and antagonise us at every turn - that's Birmingham City, not Sakhnin.......

Whether our fitness and fortune is still intact after the next three hours of football remains to be seen - both games promise to tax us more than the Albion. Stand by for the next dispatch from the trenches, brought to you from a backstreet boozer in downtown Tel Aviv. 

Let's hope we're not singing what a waste of shekels.