Newcastle 1 Arsenal 0
att: 35000ish
Usual back four, Bartram in for Seaman. Morrow deservedly in midfield
with the udeserving Jensen. Merson and Helder on the wings and
Wright
and Hartson up front. Pretty good opening to the game with
Newcastle
looking very threatening. At times the defence appeared to be all
at
see with Dixon making two bad mistakes that nearly led to goals.
Bartram however, was proving that he is a fine shot stopper,
producing
a string of memorable saves. He held on to a couple of fierce
drives and tipped one long range shot wise. Newcastle had their
first good shout for a penalty when Bould appeared to block Kitson
inside the box. The referee however decided that the offence was
outside. Merson got booked for pretulantly throwing the ball down
and Elliot got away with a brutal assault on Helder. In fact the
linesman was quiet at home with his black shorts and socks, just
forgot
his black and white shirt, as he gave a string of dubious decisons
to Newcastle. As the game wore on we however began to look more
dangerous. Jensen had a rather weak effort that was at least on
target and Merson was enjoying a lot of space in midfield. Merson
played a nice ball through to Wright on the edge of the box he
jinked
inside the hopelessly sold Elliot but just as he was about to shoot
from about ten tards out, Elliot quiet blatantly tripped him. To be
honest I never even looked at the ref because it was just such a
cert
pen of which the linesman had an absolutely perfect view. Wright
was
also clearly in a goalscoring oportunity and Elliot sure to be sent
off.
Incredibly the ref waved play on. How the hell he thought Wright
would
dive when clean through and about to strike the ball is beyond me.
I suspect Newcastle have very few penalties awarded against them at
St James' and very few of their own players sent off. Just to prove
the referee was mere incompetant than biased he turned down a
string
of Newcastle penalties that may have been given. Having turned down
the
Wright one, it was hard to see what offence would prompt the ref to
point to the spot. Anyway 0-0 at half time was a bit unlikely as
both sides had a number of chances. The second half saw Newcastle
dominate a bit more with the odd occasional break. Wright had our
mest moment when Sirnicek (sp?) came out of his goal and failed to
collect Wright picked the ball up on the left edge of the box and
turned and lobbed the keeper in one movement, very similar to a
goal
he scored at Norwich in the CCC last season. The keeper however
recovered to touch the ball onto the bar. Newcastle had a string
of good chances but came up against Bartram in inspired form.
Kitson
had the best chance when the ball broke to him on the edge of the
six yard box. His side footed placement was brilliantly saved low
at
his feet by Bartram. As the game wore into the last ten minutes all
hope of win and gone as the boys tired dramatically. Clearly the
events of Thursday were beginning to have an effect. Newcastle were
lining up to have shots but Bartram saved anything that got passed
the inspirational Tone and Bould. Parlour replaced Helder and Eddie
replaced Hartson as we clearly tried to hang on for a point. It
seemed as the clock ticked around to the ninetieth minute that a
well earned point had been achieved. Then Beardsley who had been
completely anonymous for the entire match picked the ball up twenty
five yards out and screamed a shot into Bartram's top right hand
corner. Absolute choker. Newcastle were the better side and had a
number of chances but I thought the sheer effort of our players
deserved a point. Once again we fail to win after playing on a
Thursday. The penalty that was turned down was particulalry
annoying
when you consider the iffy pen that one the early game at Highbury.
Two tough away games and the two predicted defeats. But in each we
have had blatant penalties turned down and scarcely deserved to be
beaten. Hopefully our luck will change and we will get an
outragously
lucky victory on Weds night.
The journey home was brightened somewhat with Liverpool beating
Man U 2-0. Bruce was also booked and misses four games including
the
semi. He then managed an own goal. Bit of a shame that of all the
nasty characters in the Man U side that one of there genuinly
decent
blokes should suffer in this way.
Everton also managed a very late goal at QPR to win. Hopefully they
will win their next couple and be in extermely confident mood for
April 9th.
Report by Trevor Collins
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