What an afternoon: super game, good atmosphere, and what a terrific performance from the Toon. Villa, to their credit, came to win and made a meaningful contribution to a very enjoyable game of footy - despite another dodgy refereeing perormance - but were never really in it.

No doubt about this one, the lads we really up for it, right from the off. Some excellent individual performances, but more a smashing all round team performance.

Lee and Speed bossed the midfield, well supported by a rejuvenated Solano who was much more lively than recently.

Bellamy, Shearer and Solano combined well throughout to cause Villa all sorts of problems. Some of Shearer's touches were sublime, constantly bringing colleagues into play, at seemingly at the centre of everything. He looked a lot sharper than for some time, and his goal was an absolute screamer into the top corner from the opposite corner of the box. He appeared to just swing his foot at it - so whether it was intentional or not perhaps we will learn from the tv replays.

Bellamy created huge uncertainty in the Villa defence and could, perhaps should, have scored 4 or 5, but continually got into excellent forward positions and took his two goals superbly. His first was a picture goal as he took a delightful chip from Elliot inside the box and thundered it into the top corner of the net.

Another clean sheet, and another terrific performance from Andy O'Brien - what a signing this lad has been. We made a few fairly characteristic errors, but supporting defenders and midfielders invariably snuffed out any danger. Annoyingly, the majority of errors that we keep on making are simply the result of players over-elaborating, and/or trying to be too clever in dangerous positions.

Up into 3rd now, an assured performance, and a clean sheet - now if we could only achieve a degree of consistency.......................

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

Answers

A prayer answered!

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

Great game today. Must agree about Shearer. He knew where everyone was all the time. Nearly all our breaks came form one of his touches, He seemed to be playing a lot deeper which was very effective.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

Hm...not sure about Solano, busy as he was...see my comments on the other thread. interesting that for all we crave wide play, the danger today was created by fast breaks up the middle. Assists - Elliot 1 (from central position), Lee 2. Solano/Robert...0 (not entirely their fault, granted).

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

But Lee put in a single cross and Elliott only put one in as well.

Saying Robert was the poorest player makes it seem as if he was really bad, but he linked up well (ish) with Bellamy at times, although he should have took Delaney on more to get him sent off.

Solano though, put in a number of top drawer crosses that could have easily resulted in goals. Not our best player certainly, but he played pretty good.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

Shearer knew exactly where that shot was going. How McQuoites could put a long range poke that everybody and his granny can put away these days, ahead of it as goal of the day, is beyond me.

A thoroughly enjoyable game and a solid all round performance with Bellamy exceeding all expectations. I won't have a wrong word said against any of them. Three nil says it all for me - the few lapses there might have been cost us nowt, and are past history now. With just about any other keeper than Schmeikel, it could have been half a dozen.

I might even see me way clear to shedding a tear or two for Mr. Barton because I don't think he'd have made any difference against spors and he most definitely wasn't missed today. It says something that he's now not even on the bench. If we keep playing the way we did today - er, yesterday - we might not see him again.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

We moved the ball around really quickly with none of the fannying about that has slowed so much of our play down. As a result, the ball was being worked down both flanks like quick-silver which is why we got the space to cut through the middle for the goals. They had defenders sucked out wide all the time and had to drop the others deeper through naked fear of Bellamy who got a single offside flag all afternoon. It would have been counter-productive to get to the byline and cross since Speed and Lee were holding and Bellamy is better with the ball at feet than jumping (for obvious reasons) which meant that Villa were prudently marking Shearer whenever the ball went wide. If you watch Shearer's goal you can see the Villa players trying to work out which winger Lee is going to lay it off to and Al calmly steps into the space afforded by Bellamy's marker playing him onside. Dink, whack, bedlam :-) On that level I'd say the wingers bought us space all afternoon and might need to be viewed as more of a nuclear deterrent on the day.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

Erm i seem to be the odd one out!!...after watching the full game on TV I thought we were awful for most of the 1st half.Crosses going nowhere ....Shearer at least twice offside tooooooooo slow...getting caught ambling back which could have proved costly...and to be honest at half time i'd only have kept O'Brien and Bellamy. To think Villa were top was beyond belief. Second half of course was a different story. Amazing what a bit of confidence will do. Should we lose Bellamy and O'brien though..we'd struggle i'm sure.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

Agree with Clarky. O'Brien was excellent-gets better with every game. Bellamy was great and frightened them every time he had the ball. AS was superb. Great performance. (Give Bob Lee a contract please)

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Just back in range of the PC, so it's probably all been said already. But that never stopped me before and it won't this time either!

The day promissed to be a cracker, with a record BBS turn-out in The Straabeery expected. With this in mind, the Stealth Astra was parked-up in Blyth and I made my way to Toon by bus. As expected, the pub was packed, with BBS representation being made by regulars Softie, Dougal, Screacher, Pit Bill, Steph, Kats and Dr Bill (hoping nobody was going to make a repeat of Spores!). This motley crew was supplemented by appearaances from Sting who was hoping to keep his 100% record since making a brief return from Oz and his minder Min. A late appearance from Dan-Dan the Blah-Blah man completed the line-up, with a non-appearance by Mysterious Terry - unless my theory about he and Dr Bill being one and the same person is actually true. An alternative theory is actually that it was indeed Mysterious Terry who was in the pub with Dr Bill turning out for Villa at left back.

The Straabeery was in full swing, buoyed on by news from Filbert St that the Mackems were 1-0 down to a goal by Akinbiyi. Chants of "One Akiniyi, there's only one Akinbiyi" rang around, interspersed with a grand rendition of "Craig, Craig Bellamy, La la la la la...........(etc) You can stick Kevin Philips up yer @rse, Up yer @rse". Marvellous!!

This atmosphere continued inside the ground. You just had the feeling that today was going to be something special and the crowd were up for it. Not quite as good as an away-day, but still a canny effort from the Toon Army. Villa started off the brighter, but didn't really look dangerous, and slowly but surely, Toon took control of the game, with Rob Lee commanding the midfield majestically. On this performance, he really does have a lot to give, but whether his fitness (both in body and mind) are up to it game after game, I dunno. Certainly he can't go on forever and we still need to line up his successor. But on today's performance he'd be on my team sheet every time - even tho I didn't put him in my TeamPick :-(( RL wsa ably helped out in central MF by Gary Speed, who probably had his best game in a B&W shirt that I can remember for a long time. Altough much of our play came thru the centre of the park, it was good to see Robert, and especially Nobby working the flanks more than recently. I really do feel that suing the width is one of our best ploys, opening up the opposing defences.

Credit must be given to Villa, who in contrast to the last two visitors to SJP, came to play a game of football. In reality, they played into our hands, plying more like a home team than visitors. This allowed us plenty of room up front, which Nobby, Robert and especially Bellamy were able to exploit. I doubt if we'll get the same next time round when Derby are the visitors. Certainly, opposing managers must have some clue as to how to beat NUFC at SJP and we must work on a way of breaking down 10-man defences. Again, I believe playing with width is the way to do it.

Bellamy's pace was causing all sorts of problems and only a superbe reflex save by Schmeichel denied the Welsh Wizard a deserved goal. In the meantime, Shearer, Dabizas and O'Brien all wasted good headed opportunities to score. But at last, the deadlock was broken by a fantastic strike by Bellamy, who turned and ran on to a great (hopeful??) chip forward from Robbie Elliott. Without the time to worry about it, Bellamy hit a beautiful half-volley high and wide of Schmeichel's outstretched dive. 1-0 and well deserved.

The second half got off to a great start, with Shearer agains wasting a good headed opportunity, hitting the base of the post rather than the back of the net. But it wouldn't be long before he was to break his long run of blank sheets at SJP (courtessy of the Dodgy Goals Dubious Committee). Rob Lee broke thru the inside left channel and hit a great cross-field diagonal ball to the far post. To be honest, I couldn't see anything coming of it as Shearer was up there on his own and had nobody running thru to take a pass. But Big Al had other ideas, and he swung his right boot high and made a brilliant strike curling the ball wide of Rudolph and into the back of the net. 2-0 and well deserved.

At this stage, we seemed to take our foot off the gas and allowed Villa back into the game, but some solid defending ensured a clean sheet (along with some poor finishing by Villa). In defence, I thought Andy O'Brien was fantastic, ably supported by Dabs in the centre. Out wide, Hughes had a solid game and looks assured wherever he plays (tho I think he may be better wide than in the middle). On the left, Robbie Elliott had probably his best game since his return from Notlob and it was nice (!) to see him getting the assist for Bellamy's opener. Given had little to do, apart from a couple of first half saves (both of which were as a result of dreadful distribution from Shay and the ensuing corner). He also made a great diving save near the end to tip the ball round the post for a Villa corner.

But up front is where we really starred. Shearer had probably his best game since his injury, and as well as scoring a corker and missing a couple of chances he might have been expected to put away, his general open-play was fantastic, receiving, holding and laying off. Of course, this type of play can only really succeed if there are others waiting to receive the lay offs, and in Bellamy, he had a fantastic ally. As ever, he ran his socks off, and as ever, squandered a coule of one-on-ones with the keeper, but eventually, one of these came off, and a good shot straight at the feet of the advancing keeper (one of the most difficult shots to stop for a goalie) saw the ball go thru Schmeichel's legs and into the back of the net. 3-0 and well deserved. It could have been more, with Bellamy pulling a couple of shots wide and Olivier Bernard being thwarted by Schmeichel at the end.

I thought Villa were poor, and certainly not top-of-the-table material and reckon we'll finish ahead of them, and hopefully in a UEFA place - at least ;-). However, I can't sign off without recognition to one of the world's best keepers. Despite being on the wrong end of three goals (or more!!) at SJP, I was impressed by Schmeichel's attitude. Given a warm reception from the Gallowgate End at the start of the second half, he responded with applause himself. When barracked after a poor clearance, he had the good humour to exchange smiles with the crowd, and at the end of the game, he came over and applauded both teh Gallowgate and the East Stand. Makes you wonder whether he sees this as his last appearance at SJP? If so, thank you for some great memories Peter.

So, back to the pub, when the decision to leave the car behind turned out to be correct! Gret celebrations, and the chance to watch The Premiership. Well, I dunno what all the fuss has been about in the past. I thought it was a fantastic programme, seeing the Mackems beaten at bottom-of-the-table Leicester and the Toon beating the league leaders. As far as I'm concerned, I can watch that sort of stuff every weekend ;-) No doubt, "normal" service will be resumed tonight when they review the Sunday matches :-(

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Watched it on TV and from what I saw I agree with Softie about the wingers enabling the center channel to operate. Two particularly good things. 1) You can have a great tactical plan but if you can't execute it your doomed. The present first eleven, and I do think we actually have one, are competent to execute yesterday's plan. 3-5-2 is obviously another matter. 2) Villa good definitely have had a couple. The defense were organized but definitely not world beaters.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Missed the first 10min due to Metro delays in DC, but quite enjoyed the rest of the match. First match I've seen in ages where we looked like a team. Not the most brilliant performance ever, but the kind of performance that should be the very least we should expect. Bellamy is amazing, even getting a foot in to tackle at one point (!). Though he really needs his mouth taped shut. I think he was saved from another yellow due to Shmeical and Shearer quickly pulling Bellamy and Alpay (or was it Delany?) apart. His first goal amazing, his second highly entertaining! Shearer's goal superb! Very enjoyable match. :-D

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Did the central midfield play better or is it too soon to get excited?

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

The central midfield players were superb in the second half especially.

Rob Lee seemed to be wherever the ball was when we needed to get it up the pitch, and unlike previous games where he would dilly dally and wait until the entire opposition team had got back to defend, he tended to release it early or take it on.

The ball would generally go out wide right to Solano or to Shearer who held the ball up waiting for Bellamy's runs. They all played a huge part in our success. Speed was brilliant in the second half as well, he tackled and passed and ran his arse off like he was on the drug that was named after him. Solano actually gave us an option to pass to from the middle, and Villa had picked out Robert as a danger man and got tight on him which meant we nearly always had a free man - in most cases Bellamy as he could run away from his markers like they had some sort of infectious disease.

Great stuff

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

the Stealth Astra was parked-up in Blyth

Allo allo allo. You're a brave man Screacher. Anyway sir, we've located your vehicle and would like you to come along to the station to identify the burnt out wreck. Mind how you go.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001