3mins: Kieron Dyer galloped away onto an Obafemi Martins flick that came from a defensive clearance and bent a low shot beyond Paul Robinson into the Gallowgate goal. 1-0

7mins: Obafemi Martins got his ninth of the season with a close-range header from a right-wing Scott Parker cross. 2-0

15mins: Spurs got a foothold back in the contest when Danny Murphy totally mis-hit his shot only for it to deflect off Steven Taylor and leave Shay Given helplessly wrong-footed. OG was the verdict. 2-1

34mins: Emre was fouled and forced to leave the field for treatment. From the resultant free kick sent in to area by James Milner the ball bounced in the six yard box as Robinson failed to gather, allowing Scott Parker to head home from close range. 3-1

Half time: Newcastle  3 Spurs 1

Full time: Newcastle 3 Spurs 1

Glenn Roeder said:

"It is a huge win. I asked the players to find a performance, a fighting performance.

"It was important we got off to a good start, to get in their faces, and we got a couple of goals up very quickly.

"We had to survive for a period, the boys showed their fighting qualities, and we got the third to kill the game off."

"I have been saying it for a few weeks, a period which has lasted two months, we have had horrific injuries."

"They have grown stronger, because they are a tight group; injured players have been willing the others to go out and play well.

"They are a pleasure to work with every day and I think over the last ten weeks we have shown that and to be halfway through with 25 points after where we were ten weeks ago is a fantastic achievement."

Martin Jol said:

"It was a disappointment. He could not start and it was just three or four minutes before the start.

"We had a good team, so it wasn't a problem. He turned and twisted his knee and felt a twinge.

"Hopefully it will not be that long, hopefully he will be fit for Tuesday.

"I don't think it (the start) had anything to do with Jermain Defoe.

"We were a little bit unfortunate, the second goal was offside, we did not play worse than them, but they showed a bit more determination possibly.

"Newcastle this season, sometimes they are good, sometimes not, but today they looked good.

"It is a task to pick the players up, but we have to forget this game."

It was just one of those days when there seemed to be positive vibes around the city. 

Yes, we'd had a remarkable and unpredictable run since that Sheffield United debacle but we had just suffered a bit of a gut-wrenching cup exit a few days earlier.

Maybe it's just the sight of Spurs turning up at St. James' that gladdens the heart - nine victories over the Cockerels in their last twelve visits is a fine record over a side that like us, considers itself to be one of the wannabe big boys.

We also have some excellent recent memories to draw on; Robert's spectacular double, the FA Cup victory where we rode our luck, the 6-1 FA Cup battering when Shearer and Big Dunc caused havoc and then there was Keegan's swansong - the 7-1 creaming of Gerry Francis' side.

Just two unlucky 1-0 defeats against the Champions had spoilt our run in the league and cups so our confidence was justifiably still pretty high. But Spurs had some form of their own - five straight wins since they lost 3-0 to their North London rivals, Arsenal, and that included one on the road at Manchester City - their only Premiership away success this season.

Our injury situation hadn't really worsened coming into this game but despite being in the squad Celestine Babayaro and Damien Duff weren't really in contention. Spurs also had some casualties, including ex-Mag Jermaine Jenas but for the visitors to lose Jermaine Defoe in the warm-up was a real blow for the Londoners.

Incidentally, is there any reason why the stadium PA announcer gave the visiting lineup in goalkeeper/defenders/midfielders/attackers order while ours was listed in squad number order? 

Happily it wasn't long before said announcer was making another pronouncement - Kieron Dyer as scorer of the game's first goal. Spurs were on the attack early but when the ball was hoofed upfield, Martins did well to control the ball and find Dyer with a measured pass.

There was still a lot for our in-form midfielder to do but he had the defenders on the back foot sufficiently that he could pick his spot from the edge of the area and Robinson could only watch the ball easily find the back of the net.

It was similar to Dyer's strike against Arsenal that did so much to inject some belief and confidence into the side and into his own game and also reminiscent of the one he got against this lot in the 6-1 victory seven years and a day previous to this match, when he was a promising 20-year old....

It was a start that few of us had expected but just four minutes later it was doubly unexpected that we scored again. Parker and Milner combined well down our right with the winger surprisingly playing it back to Parker inside the box. Parker had plenty of time to look up and pick out Martins in the six yard box who had no problem in heading past Robinson.

We were on fire and threatening to run away with things. Spurs looked ragged and we were chasing in packs, hunting down anything in a blue shirt and then moving forward with menace when we had possession.

The unconvincing Berbatov had sprung our offside trap but prodded the ball into our side-netting but Spurs had posed us no major threat and for them to get a goal back when they did  and the way they did was unjust to say the least.

I'll be amazed if Defoe's late replacement, Danny Murphy, gets to keep the Spurs goal as his mis-hit from a right wing cross was going nowhere near the goal when it bounced up and hit Taylor before totally wrong-footing Given. If he does keep it then Shearer has new evidence for a re-trial of his late strike that won the famous 4-3 win over Manchester United.

(NB: A subsequent PL review years later did give it as an OG).

Inevitably that knocked a little bit of the stuffing out of our lot and gave Spurs some renewed hope that they could get something out of this game. But having said that they never really threatened to get back on terms before we restored our two-goal advantage.

Emre had his heels clipped on the left edge of the box and as he received treatment off the pitch, Milner forced Robinson into a save at the foot of his post. The England 'keeper spilled it and Taylor tried to get a foot on the rebound. In the scramble the ball fell to Oba who swivelled and shot but it was blocked only as far as Parker who nodded over a pile of bodies into the Gallowgate goal.

Once again the feel-good factor returned and the half ended in positive fashion with crowd and team on something of a crest of a wave.

Spurs were out early for the second period and, as expected, they started the second half intent on reducing the deficit.

We seemed only too keen to help them and as well as we'd started the first half, we began the second half badly and were lucky to be still two goals in front on the hour. That was mainly down to the visitors being too poor to capitalise on our errors, Berbatov again failing to find the net when through on goal.

At the other end we created very little, a Martins snapshot probably being the closest we came to extending the lead and when Emre and Dyer both left the pitch to be replaced by Sibierski and Rossi we looked even less likely. The transfer deadline day additions to the squad were distinctly uninspiring, with Rossi failing to end his loan spell memorably at St. James'.

To be fair, neither of them needed to do anything spectacular - we were simply intent on not throwing away the three points that were in the bag by the eighth minute and after surviving the shaky start to the second half we were never really in any danger of doing that.

But there was a memorable ending for Newcastle fans and it came from an unexpected source. Given was struggling with his kicking and had handed over goal-kicking duties to Peter Ramage but with three minutes remaining, he was withdrawn and replaced by a goalkeeper who last played for us nine years ago. The welcome for Pavel Srnicek from the near-capacity crowd was ear-splitting.

Ironically, the two goal-kicks he scuffed were probably worse than anything Shay had hit earlier but he comfortably claimed a cross to great cheers.

It was a sufficiently lifting moment to carry us to final whistle which was greeted with a hearty roar as three more Premiership points were collected. With trips to Bolton and Everton and a home game against Manchester United to follow they could well be the only points we get over the festive period, so anything less would have been worrying.

The sponsor's man of the match was announced as Dyer which was also warmly applauded. I didn't particularly disagree and couldn't come up with a better suggestion which I took to be a good sign. The recent strength of this side has been its collective spirit and all-for-one attitude and we no longer require a big name to dig us out of a hole.

Glenn Roeder and his team deserve great praise for turning things round so dramatically after the home defeat to Sheffield United. The arrival of Nigel Pearson also seems to be massively linked to the upturn in fortunes.

We're certainly not out of the woods yet but some sensible transfer dealings in January combined with some returns from injury could see us establish a top half spot. However, three straight defeats and an FA Cup exit by the time the festive decorations are stored back in the loft could severely dent our optimism. We need to keep this run going.

Niall MacKenzie

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