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Boro 2 Newcastle United 2 by Francis Kerr
Newcastle travelled 30 miles down the A19 to Middlesbrough in the hope of taking all 3 points and closing the gap on Sunderland. A win would put Newcastle into 9th place , Bobby Robson fielded his strongest lineup with what on paper looked like a 4 -4 - 2 formation. It took a few minutes and an early goal by Boro for us to realise that Newcastle were in an unfamiliar 5 - 3 - 2. of: :-
Juninho took advantage of Newcastle's uncertainty at the back sneaking in between Solano and Barton and latching onto a cross by Colin Cooper. The smallest man on the pitch should never have been allowed to head past Given, but with only 5 minutes on the clock it was Boro 1 Newcastle 0. Newcastle responded immediately with Kieron Dyer evading the shackles of marker Curtis Fleming to reach a Rob Lee pass, but he shot wide . The next move forward saw Solano and Dyer combined down the right again to grant Gary Speed the perfect opportunity to grab his 11th of the season with a right-foot drive past Mark Schwarzer. 10 minutes played Boro 1 Newcastle 1. Eight minutes later and Newcastle would do the unthinkable, It's been over a year since Newcastle last won a game after going a goal down, but all that looked likely to change . Alan Shearer was at the centre of the action, and his header from Solano's cross gave Pistone his chance to give Newcastle the lead, and a goals avalanche looked likely. This was a very open derby, and Bryan Robson aimed to stop Dyer by switching Fleming and Cooper back to their more familiar sides. The action did not let up, and the restored Hamilton Ricard was giving Nikos Dabizas a torrid time in the Newcastle defence. The Colombian first tested Shay Given with a 24th-minute shot and then should have done better two minutes later when outpacing the Greek international before missing the target. Then Newcastle's Temuri Ketsbaia - back in the side for his first start since December 9 - tried his luck from long range but Schwarzer got down well to save. Given had to save from Ricard after a Pistone error and Gianluca Festa thought he had equalised on 39 minutes after thumping Andy Campbell's pass goalwards, only to see centre-back Warren Barton clear from the line. The second half things tightened up ... a little and it looked as if Newcastle were going to get that illusive win. United missed a couple of chances with Dyer and Pistone looking for his second ever goal, realising that his first was lucky and he should do what he does best, defend and try to create chances for the strikers . Boro did have their moments with Campbell hinting a six-yard shot straight at an exposed Barton on the line after good work from Ricard, and then saw Juninho fail with the rebound. Then in the 66th minute the big Italian defender headed Christian Ziege's free-kick firmly down into the ground only to see the ball bounce over the goal with Given hopelessly stranded. With 12 minutes to play Newcastle had regained there composure and Dyer was in possession . Ince Clearly fowled him but Mike Riley allowed play to continue, Juninho then took the ball from Ince crossed for Festa who's diving header earned the smoggies an undeserved equaliser. Newcastle closed up shop, played 3 subs in the last 10 minutes to run the clock down and settled for the single point. Bobby Robson was furious with the officials , After the match he refused to comment on the game incase he said something that he would later regret. Many thanks to Francis , for his report. |
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