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January Fixtures

February Fixtures

Newcastle United V Aston Villa

There was a fantastic atmosphere on Wednesday night and some of it seems to have lingered on for todays game. There was air of expectancy around St James's park as the players from Newcastle's Nine Nationalities take on the 11 Englishmen of Aston Villa.

The line up

Subs Harper, Hughes, Brady, Anderson, Pearce

Smashing start for Newcastle United as Shearer ends his goal drought after just 3 minutes. It is set up by Stephen glass who beats Stevie watson on the left hand side. Glass crooses perfectly to Shearer , who nods in what will be his first game in 8 league games. Villas 3 centre backs which include 17 year old Gareth Barry and Gareth Southgate just cant cope. it's just a matter of time until we get a second. It almost comes in the 22nd minute when Shearer once again nods the ball past Oakes, The ref saw some pushing and disallows the goal . In the 27th Minute Newcastles hard work pays off . Shearer passes the ball to Glass who storms into the box. He takes it to the dead ball line before passing back to the oncoming the Temuri Ketsbaia who bangs in his forth goal of the season past the hapless oakes. Villas defence is crumbling and after Ehiogu goes off after being kicked in the head by Shearer, Villa revert to a 4 - 4 -2. It doesn't make a lot of difference though as newcastle continue to press forward. We almost get a third when Speed finds Solano breaking down the right. Solano cross finds kets with space and time, but he hits it with his wrong foot and slices it over the bar.Half time it's 2 - 0 and Newcastle look on course for 3 points after one of their best half this season.

Hamman almost gets a goal in the first minute of the second half. Its another Free kick , he blasts it from 35 yards but the keeper just gets a slight touch on in. Things then go a bit flat and on the hour mark against the run of play Paul Merson shoots from 25 yards out . Given has no chance and It's 2 - 1. Kets seems to have taken a bit of a knock and is replaced by Anderson. Shearer who is having a fantastic game gets another chance on the 75 minute mark. The shot is well on target, but young Barry just deflects an almost certain goal just wide.3 Minutes later glass breaks free, Once again he takes the ball to the Bye line and pulls it back for Shearer whose header hits the bar. Glass is really class today on the left wing and would normally have done enough to be man of the match if it hadn't been for the wonderful performance of Shearer. On the right wing Solano had had a fair day but is so tired that he has to be replaced with 10 minutes to play by Garry Brady. His introduction almost gets another if it weren't for the useless Adde. Brady had broke clear on the right and made a great cross for the head of Adde. It was easier to score than to miss, but miss he did. The last 5 minutes were a bit nervracking but we held on for a deserved win and a much needed 3 points. the crowd certainly did there bit and even gave Steve watson a great reception when he came off with just a couple of Minutes to play. it was though the other geordie that will make all the headlines. ALAN SHEARER IS BACK TO HIS VERY BEST, Newcastle have turned the corner . The only way is up.

Riks ratings in Red

A tribute to a local hero, on his big night 27/01/99

Newcastle United 3 - 0 Bradford City

Another strange team selection today by the unpredictable and flu ridden Ruud Gullit. Domi and Dabizas both kept their places in defence. It was nice to see Griff back in the team, however he moved Charvet to centre back and dropped Hughes to the bench. In Midfield Lee was still unfit so Hamman again started with Solano and Speed on either side. Brady continued at Left wing despite Stephen glass being available again. Upfront Kets deserved to be Shearers strike partner after his pretty good game last week.

It was a bit of a shaky start for Newcastle. Solano and Griff looked uncomfortable and there early error lead to Bradford almost getting a goal in the fifth minute from Lee mills. Given blocked the shot and Dabizas made it safe. Newcastle's first real chance came from a 30 yard shot from Nobby. The goalkeeper proved that he wasn't going to easy to beat with a fine save. Bradford held there own in the first half hour, although neither team had many goal scoring opportunities. There was a penalty claim in the 27th minute. Bradford's Jamie Lawrence broke into the area. Given was alert enough to come forward to claim the ball and when Lawrence fell over the keeper it looked like the "Curse" was about to return. Referee Paul Durkin didn't give a penalty, he must be the only ref that doesn't have it in for us at the moment.

Just after the half hour mark the game changed direction, Hamman broke forward and laid a ball off to Shearer, he continued with his run. Ketsbaia was the recipient of Shearers pass and hammered it towards goal. Walsh could only parry the ball into the path of the lanky German, who broke his duck for newcastle with a calm finish. Minutes later he could have had his second as his 25 yard shot looked destined for the bottom corner. Once again their keeper made a fine save. Newcastle's nerves now settled and we took control of the game. Griff still looked a bit rusty and Poor Brady just didn't look up to it, but the rest of the team started to play as a team. On the stroke of half time Bradford nearly snatched an equaliser. It came from a Peter Beagrie corner, Stuart McCall got his head to the ball only to be denied by the woodwork.

The Second half brought a strange substitution. Stephen Glass came on to put some life into the left hand side where Domi had been more lively as full back than Brady had as winger. Instead of pulling Brady off, he was moved to the right wing and Solano was brought off. We looked much better on the left in the second half, as for the right...nothing.

Bradford had another chance to equalise after 5 minutes. Blake, who was in an offside position pulled clear of Charvet, who had looked uncomfortable in the centre of midfield al afternoon. he was free on goal with only given to beat, but hit the ball well wide. A minute later Shearer showed him how it should be done. He spun away from Westwood, his marker to latch onto the end of a Ketsbaia pass.Then holding off Westwood simply by outrunning him, he flicked the ball around the hapless keeper to the delight of the toon army. Ruud Gullit appeared from his sickbed for the first time today, to salute the man whom he apparently had had a training ground argument with the previous day. The Toon army responded with the usual "Shearer, Shearer, " chants and the old "Tell me, mar, weer gannin te Wemberleee"" songsheet was brought out ,dusted down and sung with pride by the toon army faithful. We were not going to be disappointed this week like we were last. Bradford had a huge black guy called Darren Moore who looked almost like an American football player in their ranks. He played as a centre back and denied newcastle another goal half way through the half by clearly fouling Kets who was just about clear on goal. The same man mountain almost scored himself a few minutes later. His shot from close range was brilliantly saved by given. The afternoon finished on a high when with just 5 minutes to go Kets deservedly got his name on the Scoresheet. It was a simple pass from Hamman, that gave Kets the opportunity to make it 3 Nil , a chance that he didn't waste.

 Just about the whole team looked a lot more comfortable than it did last week. Domi was particularly cool and by the later stages Griff had shown that he is well on the way back to becoming our regular right back. I would question weather Charvet should play as a centre back when Howey and Hughes are fit. I certainly think that Brady is not ready for this level yet. A few more months hopefully improving in the reserves would be the best course of action for this youngster. Perhaps i am not looking hard enough but fail to see why Anderson has been picked ahead of Kets for the last 3 months, If we can't get another top forward in then the Bald Headed One should play week in week out.

 After this good win Gullit should stop making wholesale changes each week We play Villa next week, why don't we just play the same team with the exception of Solano starting as right winger and Hughes or Howey into the centre of defence instead of Charvet. It's surely time to start playing a more settled side week in week out.

Riks rating in Red

Subs not used Harper, Barton, Anderson, Hughes

(17th January) Charlton Athletic 2-2 Newcastle United

 Gullit has made 6 changes from last week. Out is Adde supposedly with a virus. Hughes and Charvet go onto the bench along with Perez, Dalglish and Barnes. Stephen Glass and Rob lee were both injured yesterday, in a Pre match interview Ruud said what we all knew. He Says "Newcastle united sold some good players and replaced them with ones that weren't as good." (who could he mean?) His problem is that he has a lot of mediocre players that no one wants to buy. Despite having 50 pro's on the books our midfield today looks very toothless, perhaps though our luck will change and we can pick up the 3 points that we desperately need.

Starting Lineup

Not the best of starts for Newcastle as Charlton look the most positive in the opening minutes. Dabizas is lucky not to give away an early penalty after a sloppy tackle. Then in the 14th Minute, Barton makes a fine clearance from his box,. It finds Shearers head on the half way line and he directs it on to Ketsbaia. Kets runs the length of the pitch and just outside the Charlton area takes a speculative shot. Amazingly it goes in under the stand in Charlton keeper. perhaps this was going to be our day after all. We start to get our act together and in the 27th minute we should be two up. Both Ketsbaia and Solano are onside to the right of the penalty are, all kets has to do is pass it sideways to the advancing Solano and it would be number two. He chooses to shoot and it goes across the face of the goal..what a waste. Newcastle still look the better team and Charlton don't get their first shot on target till the 42nd minute. Harper deals with it comfortably. Charlton finish off the half with a second shot but once again Harper does well.

The second half is hardly underway when Dabizas is given a yellow card for a poor tackle. Newcastle still continue to dominate the game and 14 minutes into the second half it's 2 -0 .It comes from a solano cross. Once again shearer heads it on into the path of Ketsbaia who instantly shoots. The keeper can't hold it, the ball falls to Solano who blasts it into the net. Newcastle are comfortably cruising towards a win, but in the 60th minute are woken up when an overhead kick by Andy Hunt is dramatically saved by harper. Hunt is injured and is replaced by 36 year old mark Bright. He is on for less than a minute when he gets on the scoresheet. It comes from a long throw which is flicked onto Bright head and its 2 - 1.

After the goal Charlton look more threatening. In the 70th minute Ruud makes a change. He brings on Charvet as right back, moving Barton to right wing and Solano over to the left. It makes little difference, Newcastle still look weak in midfield and creativity is an unknown word. The game takes a dramatic change for the worse 6 minutes later. Unluckily Dabizas is sent off for nothing more than a foul. Gullit brings off Solano and puts Hughes into the back 4 . For the last 10 nailbiting minutes it looks as though Newcastle 10 men would hold out. Dalglish was brought on for a very tiered Ketsbaia with just a couple of minutes left. As we went into injury time it looks like our luck had finally changed. Charvet made a clearance off the line. Slow motion pictures afterwards showed that the ball had actually crossed the line. Our luck was in as the ref was about to blow his whistle for full time. Then with the last kick of the ball the curse of Newcastle struck again. Charlton's new signing Martin Pringle got the better of Howey and equalised for Charlton.....Bollocks, Will our luck ever change?

 Riks Ratings in red

Next week it's Bradford in the cup followed by a couple of easy games. Aston Villa at home then Leeds away.

For the first time this season we are looking beneath us to see just how poor the bottom 3 or 4 teams are. we could have done with those points today but it wasn't to be. We'll just have to pick ourselves up and get on with it.

Are we that far short of being a good team?

(9th January) Newcastle United 0 - 1 Chelsea

Ruud Gullit pulls a suprise in his team selection once again. The subs bench has Warren Barton, Rob lee, Nicos Dabizas , Steve Harper and new Loan Signing Lou Saha.

The team seems to be a 3-4-3 formation.

Riks Ratings in red

Its a great start for Newcastle united, after just 3 minutes Hamman takes a shot from a free kick 35 yards. out De Goey makes a good parry and Speed s follow up goes out for a corner. 2 minutes later Speed crosses to Shearer who heads it into the path of Adde, The shot is a good one but Lebouf clears it off the line with what looks like his arm. The ref waves play on and Chelsea can breathe again. Newcastle are rampant , Hamman, Out to prove that he is worth a regular place is particularly lively. He tries a volley in the 10th minute, but once again we are out of luck, the ball goes just over the crossbar. mid way through the half New boy Domi shows some skill in slipping between two Chelsea defenders his shot is not the best and De Goey makes a comfortable save. The new formation appears to be working well and there is only one team in it in the opening half hour. Speed almost opens the scoring when he shoots with his left foot from 20 yards. the keeper has no chance but Chelsea are saved by the woodwork.The ball comes back off the crossbar and falls to Adde, Chelsea defend well once again and Newcastle get yet another corner kick. We are doing everything right but the ball just wont go in, perhaps Ruud is right when he says the club has some kind of curse. For most of the half Chelsea have done nothing, then in the 28th minute, Wise gets a cross in and Petrescu unmarked at the far post puts Chelsea into an undeserving lead .

The second half starts as lively as the first. Once again we get a free kick in the first minute. Hamman once again gets a good shot on goal, this time it's a fantastic save by De Goey. Chelsea have everyone behind the ball , they are quite happy to sit back and soak up the pressure then try to hit us on the break. They do manage a break 10 minutes into the half but it's well saved by Given.

Gullit puts Luis Saha (No 18 ) on for Adde in the 55th minute , he is a bit of a Patrick Kluivert look alike, some say he has just been brought in to help Domi to settle in, He is the same age and nationality, I think he is just cover in case (heaven forbid) anything happens to Shearer. He seems to be a big lad with a lot of pace, unfortunately it would take time for him to settle in and time is what we don't have. 15 minutes into the half and Aaron Hughes almost gets a red card as Chelsea make another break, luckily its just a yellow. The last thing we want is a third game on the trot ending with 10 men. Chelsea are starting to look comfortable, the more the game goes on the more they start to push out. They get 3 shots at goal all saved by Shay Given . Gullit brings off Solano after 60 minutes and puts on Rob Lee to steady the ship. The longer the game goes on though the less likely we look to score. Hamman and Hughes were probably the best players on the pitch today. Hamman had his best game so far . If only one of his shots had gone in then we would have been happy with a draw. It was a game that we didn't really expect to win but it would have been nice to have upset the bookies. We were certainly the better team in the first half but were much worse than them in the second. Next week should see us having a better chance of getting 3 points down at Charlton, especially if we can get MATT JANSEN up front with Shearer . If we were to get a double deal by Bringing home Stevie Stone then I think we could be a force to be reckoned with and Ruuds revolution could finally start.

The next six league games will be very interesting, Three against Top clubs and 3 against the Bottom 3. If we can get 9 or 10 points by the end of February I won't be too unhappy.

FA CUP 3 rd round, the big boys enter the competition and Newcastle United play Crystal Palace.

final Score Newcastle United 2 Crystal Palace 1.

Bad news awaits the fans as rumour has it that Big Dunc is out for 8 weeks, Surely that will mean a return for little Dalglish?

Nope its Anderson again upfront with Shearer, Solano makes a welcome return for Georgiadis, Lee is still out so it's Hamman again (today minus his polo shirt ,along with Adde). Speed and Glass complete the midfield. At the back a suprise sees NO Howey. Dabizas and Hughes are the central partnership, Charvet is at the right and man of the moment (centre parton ) Warren Barton, who has just signed a new 3 1/2 year contract yesterday is still at left back.

It's a bit of a quite start not only on the pitch , but also in the stadium. A near capacity crowd are rather subdued in the first 10 minutes with both sides gently probing each other. Then in the 14th minute of the game all hell is let loose. The incident starts with shay given coming out of his area to challenge fan Zhiya. Fan Zhiya had appeared to be offside and to handle the ball the referee waved play on as the ball came off the Chinaman onto Shay Given and out of play. The Assistant referee H M Webb (henceforth to be known as TWAT ) started to wave his flag . The ref consulted him then beckoned Given towards him. 36, 500 fans erupted in disbelief as Reed (henceforth to be known as Dick Heed) sent off a disbelieving Shay Given. despite the game being held up for a good few minutes the sending off stood. Stephen Glass was sacrificed for Steve Harper and the game restarted. The noise level was unbelievable with Newcastle again down to 10 men through another poor refereeing decision. The players were taken by suprise and within a couple of minutes there lack on concentration ended up with Steve Harper getting the ball out of the back of the net after a good headed goal by lee Bradbury.

Newcastle closed the gate and went to a 4 - 3 -2 formation for the rest of the half in which neither team looked likely to score. the nearest we came was in the 38th minute. Gary Speed who had been insignificant until that point had a thunderous shot from 30 yards tipped over the bar by Kevin Miller. Half time saw the fans anger there feelings towards Dick Heed and TWAT, they were given a Police escort off the pitch for their own protection.

The second half saw a change in the formation. Warren Barton took up a position on the left wing and Solano was out on the right, with 3 now at the back. It had an immediate affect, with just 3 minutes played Speed got the Equaliser. It came from a warren Barton free kick on the half way line. Shearer chested the ball into the path of Gary Speed who stuck the ball in the back of the net with his wrong foot. Palace responded by introducing Toon Fan Matt Jansen to search for a winning goal for them. This bloke next to me was going on and on about how good he was and how he was bound to score, he did make some good runs and looked very threatening, but Hughes coped well and snubbed out Jansen at every opportunity. We should have been two up in the 51st minute Dabizas's header from a solano cross was first cleared off the line, It returned to Solano whose next cross found the head of Shearer,, the ball hit the post. It was a great spell for Newcastle but the ball just wouldn't go in. We were nearly caught on the break , Morrison cut through our defence, but Harper came out to claim the ball. Indeed the same situation arose twice more later in the game. harper was once again on fine form and may have been in contention for man of the match had it not been for a truly memorable performance by warren Barton.. He was on his own on the left and was up and down the pitch like a Yo Yo for much of the match. He is a different player to the one that the fans would jeer not so many weeks ago.

 The second goal came once again from some good work by Center Parton on the left. He crossed the ball into the path of Shearer in the 68th minute, it was a fantastic pass and shearer couldn't fail to score. The crowd were ecstatic, Justice had been done and despite the efforts of TWAT and Dick Heed , it was our destiny to win. "There's only one warren Barton " rang round the ground as the workaholic Barton continued to run his socks off. He was absolutely knackered and was taken off to a standing ovation in the 83rd minute.

As the final whistle went a mixture of Boos for TWAT and Dick Heed (Shearer's words not mine) and applause (for the magnificent 10) who now progress to the next round where they face BRADFORD CITY AT HOME

Riks ratings in red

Subs not used, Ketsbaia , Pearce, Brady