Half time: Newcastle 0 Middlesbrough 0

Full time: Newcastle 0 Middlesbrough 0

Graeme Souness said:

"We were the better team tonight. 

"The first half was a scrappy affair, I felt, but in the second half we managed to find another gear and we had the better chances.

"Their goalkeeper made an excellent save from young James Milner and Charles should have scored at the end. I do not know what the corner count was, I do not know what the possession was, but I felt that we bossed the second half, and given the team we had out, I am very pleased with that.

"As a manager, you cannot ask for any more than total commitment, 100% effort from your players, and I got that again tonight, as I did at Manchester United, as I did at Norwich."
 

Steve McClaren commented:

"We are in the driving seat. It is up to us, but we have got three very hard games and that might change after the weekend because of other teams.

"If we carry on showing the same spirit that we showed last night and we have done over the last five games, then it is possible.

"We would have liked the three points but it was important we did not lose it. But the biggest thing for me was the performance.

"That was the most important thing. You need to go into the last three games on the back of decent performances.

"We have collected eight points from the last five games, so we are on a bit of a run and this result has meant we continue that.

"We saw how they performed against Manchester United. They were full of attitude and commitment, and we knew it would be the same. What pleased me was the way we matched them.

"It was always going to be decided by one moment. We had two glorious moments, and Newcastle came back strongly.

"It took a magnificent save and a miss at the end to get what we hope will be a valuable point at the end of the season. We would have loved three points, but felt it was important if we weren't winning to not lose it.

"We've been trying to give Stewart a rest for a while. He's played every game and with three important games coming up we felt it was the ideal opportunity where we could do that, and maybe use Stewart in the later stages when the game opened up."
 

First, the good news. 

We ended a run of five defeats in all competitions, kept our first clean sheet in six league games and secured the point which removes any lingering chance of our being dragged into the relegation places, save for an outlandish set of results.

However, that wasn't much consolation for over 52,000 fans inside St.James' Park as this clash of the Intertoto titans was a typical end-of-season affair, in which skill and inspiration were at a premium.

United had opened brightly, attacking the Gallowgate End and gaining some early reward down the left flank through the efforts of Dyer (ironic, given his infamous aversion to playing on the wing in the reverse fixture).

However it quickly became clear that his fitness was insufficient to allow him to continue and he made way for Ameobi five minutes before the interval - who could have scored with his first touch, had he been able to head a football properly....

That meant that the Magpies had returned to the same eleven players that had started at Old Trafford, Ramage continuing at right back and Carr again utilised in the midfield holding role.

What chances we did create fell to Milner, who twice found himself in front of goal but at an awkward angle to get a clean shot away.

The second half followed a similar pattern as Souness persisted with his selections and left Robert and Kluivert on the bench.

Hasselbaink came close to grabbing his usual goal against us, but made a hash of his attempted lob over Given, who had little else to do all night.

And at the other end we wasted what possession we did have by failing to get decent crosses over from wide positions, as the smoggies kept a clean sheet on Tyneside for the first time in the Premiership.

Milner did manage one well-struck effort from the edge of the box, but Australian 'keeper Brad Jones was equal to it and made the save of the night to palm over his crossbar.

The lively N'Zogbia also came close to scoring, blasting narrowly over from Ambrose's corner and then in added time racing into the box to reach Shearer's centre, only to fire over the bar from close range.

Given the unavailability of a large number of players for varying reasons and our brittle confidence, this was never going to be a classic - but that didn't make watching it any easier.

The patience is holding so far, as people can see the effort evident in the contributions of a side that has played eight games in 25 days and is now half-made up of fringe players.

But quite simply the end of the season cannot come quickly enough for us to regroup and reinvent ourselves, while attempting to dismantle and rebuild a squad with limited resources and no European carrot to dangle in front of prospective signings.  

Biffa

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