I wont give one even if I saw the game on telly. Think we played great until Mills got sent off. Now I'll leave the rest to guys and gals who knew something about football =)

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Answers

A(P)lso think we play a football I enjoy to see, not like last season.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

We were fantastic today created loads of chances and took enough of them to win. Given didn't have to do much apart from one fantastic save where he blocked a close range effort, then smuthered the 2nd. Bellamy, again, was outstanding. The amount of times he changed a potential Leeds attack into their right back / goalkeeper being forced to give us a throw-in was unbelieveable. He missed a very easy 1 on 1 but scored with an almost perfect finish the 2nd time.

Dyer played well, all over the pitch and scored a good goal. It seems that with Dyer we play a different style of football. Great link up play mixed with speed.

There was some fantastic link-up play near the end. Maybe it's just because the Leeds players heads had dropped but it was great to watch.

I was really hoping that Robert would perform today but sadly he didn't. A couple of good touches but his attitude was terrible. Just infront of me in the first half, Leeds were on the attack down the right. Robert was between the winger and our goal and robert just watched him walk past and put a cross in.

Referee - Very poor. Atmosphere - Best yet.

The only other main point on this game was how dirty Leeds are. There is no way that you'll see the full picture tonight on "the premiership." In the first half they brought all of our moves to a halt by flooring whooever had the ball.

It seemed that O Dreary had decided that the best way to cope with our pace was to knock us over before we broke away.

I find it dificult to believe that Leeds happen to have 11 dirty players. I'm sure it's something to do with the tactics.

The defence was solid today. I feel the only area we can really improve upon is right back and left back. It's not so much their ability as defenders. They cope well with players coming at them but when they've got the ball, usually from Given they don't know what to do with it. (especially Hughes) They give it to the midfieldes very late an put them under loads of pressure. Maybe it's the midfielders not getting in enough space but every tome it went to Hughes or Elliot it always semed to end up with Leeds or back with Given.

If the Defenders sort out their relationship with midfield I really can't thik of much else to improve on at the moment.

Go for the title!

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

I'll start with a player summary thingy:

Given - No chance with their goal but pulled off two outstanding stops when we were 2-1 up, apart from that had little to do.

Hughes - Got forward pretty well. The final ball was lacking on occasions but at least he was there. Some good defending as well when the game was stretched.

O'Brien / Dabizas - Both did pretty well, can't really say who was at fault for their goal but apart from that both did well.

Elliott - best game in a long time, played a good long ball up to Bellamy which presented him with a one on one. Linked up superbly with Robert.

Solano - Disappointing first half but his link up play with Dyer was a joy to watch. Brilliant free kick that was inches wide in the second half.

Speed - Solid. Missed a decent chance on his left foot in the first half, but his midfield display was first class.

Dyer - Man of the match, easily. Ran his arse off, tackled back, scored a goal, and his pass for Bellamy was similar to LuaLua's for Robert against the @rse.

Robert - Not his best game by any means, but he caused Leeds A LOT of problems. Must have got about 3 players booked single handedly in the first half. His crossing was a bit hit or miss, sometimes first rate, other times a three legged donkey could put in a better ball.

Shearer - held the line superbly, although I don't remember him having a shot all match, but who cares if we win 3-1. Link up play on the right with Dyer and Nobby was great stuff.

Bellamy - As usual ran his @rse off, caused Leeds a lot of problems. Deserved his goal, although he could have had three with a bit of better finishing. In the second half he moved more to the left and Robert was loving it as there was someone to pass to.

All in all a well earned victory. Nobody played badly today, everyone tackled hard and really showed a desire to win. Leeds were lucky to end with 10 men to be honest. Batty could have been sent off, Woodgate was walking a tightrope for most of the game and other referee's could have sent him off as well. Mills should have been off well before the Bellamy incident so he can't complain.

There was also something with Viduka and Dabizas, although I missed it (both were booked for it)

The atmosphere was brilliant up in the Leazes end and it seemed noisy around the rest of the ground, but the football on show deserved such an atmosphere. Everyone who said we can't break down a team that comes to SJP to defend may have to eat their words after that game. Leeds scored straight away then defended basically until we took the lead.

One last thing, WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE! (AGAIN)

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Jim, I have to disagree about Robert. He is useless at defending, so what is the point of him coming back? In the second half he played further up the field, defended less and caused Leeds many many more problems. Surely this simple first half / second half comparison would suggest that Robert should play up the pitch rather than back?

Without him today it would have been a lot harder to win, I am confident of that. Although he didn't set up any goals, Mills was struggling to cope with his runs as he kept running inside and outside in the first half. Because of this, Mills basically ignored the rest of our team and tried to man mark Robert. Although this worked on a personal level for the dirty bald git, he gave his centre backs no support at all. It is no coincidence that both centre backs were booked and tread a thin line for the rest of the game.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

On second thoughts, make Bellamy and Dyer joint man of the match. Bellamy did set up two and score the other.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Dabz and Viduka clashed in the penaly area, both fell and the ball got away. Viduka started complaining to the referee and Dabz got mad like hell and shouted at him. Viduka shouted back and they knocked their heads togheter. Not very hard but I think the ref was right to give them both a yellow.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

You've said it all Paul. Dyer was superb and the general link-up play was of the highest quality - both left and right and the centre. No defence can cope with our sudden runs from mid-field from Dyer and Speed coupled with the brilliant running of Bellamy, the sometimes too subtle play of Robert and the magnificent unselfish play of Shearer. The first half was very very good in terms of the football and committment. Solano had a poorish first half but significantly improved in the second. Leeds were outplayed and I can confidently say that we were in a different and better class today - just as Arsenal outplayed us in the first half recently so we outplayed Leeds.
Can it last? I think so. This is an extremely good attacking unit and as long as there are no injuries I see us scoring lots more goals.
Defence? Dabizas brave and marked well, O'Brien efficient. the two full backs were reasonable with Hughes and Elliot making some good runs.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

What's the latest bulletin on Mr Cort?

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

I think he's shopping with his wife most of the time

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Nothing wrong with Robert's performance from what I saw on the live telly coverage. He was kicked from pillar to post but stayed with it and kept at it.

As I've said elsewhere, singling out individuals for criticism after a performance like this is churlish.

We had 11 heroes today, all worth of their shirts. That is all I ask, personally, as a Newcastle fan.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Robert was awesome at times today: at one point, he had thrre defenders on him and still got through. He's not a defender: we need to get over it. May have looked p*ssed off but that was probably on account of 90% of the game going down the right, especially in the first half. It's no surprise he plays better away from SJP bearing in mind the abuse he gets when Shearer misses one of his crosses.

The fullbacks were fine despite some shocking distribution from Given at times, as were the CHs.

Bellamy and Dyer were great (Dyer less so in the first half).

Leeds are dirty beyond belief. Belllamy, Dyer

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Steve T, I couldn't agree more: if we'd lost, I'd have still been proud that we aren't such dirty knackers.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Leeds tried hard to stop us. Somebody criticised the ref. I thought he had a cracking game. Leeds had 7 booked if I'm not mistaken. Each player was given one life and then the card came out. Once most of the back four had been cautioned it opened up for us as they had to try using fair rather than foul means.

Bellamy showed for the ball so much it was awesome. Shearer had a rest and he was in front of Robert taking his space & working with him in the 2nd half. If he can sort the 1 on 1s we're on the way.

Leeds will say that with Fowler and Kewell they may have done better and it obviously disrupted things to lose Fowler this morning but that's life.

Robert did enough for me - he didn't duck a few meaty challenges which the Peruvian would have done and his link up play with Speed, Bellamy and Dyer was good. He put a couple of superb crosses in and caused Leeds to man mark him as somebody said above.

I like watching us on Canal+.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

We got off to our customary slow start, yet again giving a gift goal to the opposition - well taken by that nice boy, Alan Smith, I should add. However, for Leeds as an attacking force that was about it.

From that point we took the game by the scruff of the neck and at times during the 1st half it was like The bloody Alamo in the Leeds penalty area. However, we didn't create too many clear-cut chances during this first period, but eventually Duberry kindly planted a towering header past his own keeper to level the scores and provide the platform from which we all but tore them to shreds in the 2nd half with some scintillating football.

The main reason we didn't create too many chances in the 1st half was Leeds penchant for chopping down any player in B&W who happened to get possession in their half. Goodness knows how many free-kicks we had in the game, and it must have been a nightmare to Referee.

Leeds were undoubtedly the nastiest, dirtiest team I've seen for many a season, and I was delighted that they got their just reward for their disgusting behaviour - that is, nowt! It would be a terrible tragedy if this loutish team were allowed to kick their way to the PL Championship - fortunately, I seriously doubt they will.

I felt we were rather wimpish in the 1st half in face of pretty serious intimidation. I suspect BR felt the same, and told the team to get more physical in the 2nd. This gave us that little extra edge to our performance and the display in the 2nd half was as good as I've seen for a long, long time. Some of the passing moves were an absolute joy to watch, and with just a little more composure we could have scored several more.

The clogging from Leeds and the bizarre refereeing continued unabashed during the 2nd period, and that nasty b@st@rd Mills was duly, and properly, sent off for about his 4th or 5th bookable tackle.

A marvellous performance and a victory for quality football over spoilers, played on a horrible surface, but in a terrific atmosphere. Great stuff boys - thanks for the memory.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Great match reports. All much appreciated by those who could not be there - and awaiting much diluted ITV1 Premiership experience.

I was shopping with Mrs Cort this very evening. Would still like to know the latest on her hubbie.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Fantastic stuff. Added spice cos a pal was travelling down from Edinburgh for his first ever visit and I'd built it up all week !

As others have said churlish to criticise anyone after that performance, unless they were wearing white, then they all deserved criticism for a cynical dirty display that Don Revie would have been proud of.

Dyer and Bellamy were just superb, Robert din't excel but scared them enough to make it easier for all around him. Dabizas battled superbly with Viduka, who gave their only good performance.

The ref was poor but what is he supposed to do, can you imagine the O'Leary reaction, or the newspaper reaction if he'd sent off three or four Leeds players, as he so easily could have done. O'Leary should be ashamed of himself.

Not much to add to other views except I'd liek to say as a long term critic of the guy that Gary Speed played well. And thank you Shay, love ya.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

I agree that Robert should be further up the pitch, it always seems to be him thumping it down the line rather than recieving it. But I don't think there is any excuse for letting a man run straight past you. Ok so maybe he was out of position, but all the same all it needed was another 3 steps towards the corner flag to prevent a cross.

You all seem to think that he had a good match today. Maybe I just over-rate him because I think he is capible of a lot more than he showed today. However, if Robert had a good game today, I never want to see him start again.

If he hadn't cost Robson so much money, i doubt he'd be starting anyway.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Today was a great day for football. We played some sublime footy at times - against (let's not forget) the that was top of the league. And lest anybugga should forget, not for the first tie this season.

I really don't want to single out any one player (but I will!). Let me say for starters - Robbie Elliott had a cracking game and totally justified my confidence in picking him in my TeamPick ;-)

However, there are two players who nust stand head and shoulders above the rest. Sadly, due to a genetic problem, they can't, Ne'ertheless, Craig Bellamy and Little Kevin were superb, with Kevin just inching it IMHO. That lad (just back from major surgery) ran midfield and he covered the whole pitch (he said, avoiding clichés like the plague). His goal wa tremendous, taking the ball at RB, passing and then sprinting the length of the pitch to take Bellamy's wonderful chest (down) - ahem.

IMHO, it's no coincidence that our improvement in form has coincided with Dyer's return. He must have added an extra £5M to his transfer fee today. Nice that his best 2 appearances this season have been against Leeds. I ca nlive with that!

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

PS. Forgot to say - the Stealth Astra was in the capable (?) hands of my two lads today, hence no "roving report". Thankfully, we made it back to The Plough safely. The fact that we made it up the hill thereafter is more down to providence than good management. But we did ;-))

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2002

Who'd have ever thought that the answer on how to survive with Dyer and Solano in the side is actually to add 2 more light-weight runners and not bother with spoilers at all? Hats off to Bobby Robson. As a particularly poisonous critic of Kieron Dyer I would like to eat my words and give him a central midfield role whenever he wants one. The other speed merchants have taken so much pressure off him to perform in front of goal that he put in a first time goal today from the briefest of glimpses of space at the far corner. Superb.

Critics of "soft French puff" Robert need to take a smack in the mouth like he did today and keep performing like that. He was terrific when he got support and the amount of attention he was getting from Leeds (never less than 2 of them) ought to let you know where they thought the chief threat was coming from down the flanks. Frankly, how anyone has anything but pride in having a match-winner like that in the side is beyond me. There wasn't enough guile, belief and determination in the rest of the squad put together to pull off that win at Highbury without him. We needed 2 more goals in that match to go top of the league and he went and got them for us. I won't say he's priceless, because that's what you get for 10million, a no-nonsense, guaranteed performer.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

On Robert:

I too think its quite unfair to criticise him or anyone of our players because of a single brief incident after yesterday's team preformance. Overall, he played a good game for a winning side, and seemed to be enjoying himself. This, I believe, is all that matters.

And: we're STILL top of the league.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Nice quote about the lads from commentator Clive Tyldesley on The Premiership:

"They are soaked in spirit. Bobby Robson teams don't carry a white flag with them."

And, before anyone asks, he meant the right kind of spirit.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Jim, regarding Robert, you're right: he can do much better than he has been doing (we have seen him doing much better) but we need to bear in mind that he has had flu twice and been injured for about six weeks and, crucially, he is adapting to the game in England. Houllier says that it's a risk to buy French players because they are in such demand that they may get an offer from Barca or Real at any time and because they have a hard time adapting to the English game. Wenger said that it takes a French player at least six months to get used to England but that the wait is worth it (his own experiences with Pires, Viera and Henry bear this out - remember Henry's first few months when he couldn't hit a cow's arse with the proverbial?). He will, given patience and time to adapt his sublime skills to the English game become a Newcastle legend: if he gets abuse, we will lose him forever. We need to remember how shite we thought Nobby was in his first season and to recall that Hamman was shite until about February and then showed himself to be one of the best CMs in the country.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Off the point, but one of my joyful memories of yesterday was the Gallowagte shouting "shhhhoooooooooooooottttt!!!!" at Duberry every time he got the ball.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Haha dougal! Duberrys goal was the prettiest yesterday, the only Leeds player I dont hate right now.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

I wasn't particularly complimentary of Robert in the match day thread and I was probably a bit harsh thouhg I do think he was greedy at times. However he was a marked man yesterday and got clattered a couple of times. He did have a decent game and for someone who is apparently temperamental, he did very well not to react to some of the fouls.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler shouted: "Yes!" when the Duberry header went in. Sounded a bit sheepish afterwards. A Toon admirer?

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Softie, the fact that Robert was double marked throughout the game shows why he should be in the team. Even if he does nowt, that's one less player to pick up Dyer and Bellamy's runs. If he performs then it's a nice bonus. Yesterday he wasn't at his best but he performed well.

He got Mills, Duberry and a couple of others completely worked up which meant they were walking the tightrope of a second yellow for the rest of match.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

So for the second season in a row we do the double over Leeds and ruin a weekend for those warm friendly Tykes down the Pennines. Here in Sydney we chose to suffer a self-imposed media blackout until SBS screened delayed 'live' coverage of the match 4 pm our time (ie. about 12 hours after it actually finished). So there was no reason for me to do my usual and get up to listen to a crackly BBC World Service from 2 till 4 in the morning which was no bad thing! Naturally though it's damned hard in this day and age to avoid all mention of PL scores and so several near misses were reported when we gathered at Nick Raphael's sun-drenched flat down near Darling Harbour - most notably Lady Tynedale dramatically cutting short her morning ablutions in the shower to get to her trannie before hearing something she shouldn't on the sports news! Anyway I won't regurgitate what has already appeared on here about the match itself. Suffice to say that I am so proud at the way the lads played today for the full 90 minutes rather than just in fits and starts. As I said to several people this week I think this really was a huge game (and therefore a huge result) and now it's really down to the players and just how badly they want to win something. There's no reason at all why this team can't go and lift the FA Cup AS WELL as qualifying for one of the European competitions through the front door.

On getting home I discovered that Breda (who, contrary to rumours on here, does exist apparently!) had taken calls from two girlfriends who'd heard the result, neither of them in the slightest bit interested in footy - never ever underestimate the impact right around the world when NUFC are doing well !!

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Paul, I reckon we're in agreement on the guy. I was lucky enough to be at the Riverside when he tore Boro to shreds: he won us a penalty, scored a goal and provided the other two. Simply awesome skills. The entire away end was in raptures and a constant chorus of "We've got Laurent, Laurent Robert on the wing..." rolling out. The others were patting him on the back and indicating that the songs were all for him and he was open mouthed with amazement - clearly never seen anything like it in France. At the end he hesitantly took some steps towards us at which point it was like a disturbed anthill again and he broke into a run and hoyed his shirt into the throng.

A lot of foreign players have come in with big reputations and we've had high hopes, but none of them have managed anything like that since Tino. Doing it again at Highbury simply confirmed it for me: Laurent Robert is a class act.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

And there wasn't a hint of play acting when he, and Distin particularly, were showing their appreciation of both Dyer and Bellamy's goals.

But what's with this full-frontal-lips-and-maybe-even-tongues when Smithy does the business ? Is this something else the public have a god given right to have brought to their attention in graphic, intimate detail ?

More pressure on O'Dreary maybe ? It's not the first time the cameras have caught Smith at it, fnarr, fnarr. :-{E}

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Pit Bill, I was going to post something alomg the lines of team spirit but you beat me to it. I just watched the game again - somethings you don't tire of :-) and was very impressed by both their reactions to Bellamy's goal. Distin had a huge smile and Robert also seemed genuinely happy. IMHO this is the best team spirit since Keegans days when all 10 outfield players would celebrate a goal. There definitely doesn't appear to be a foreigners v British mentaliyt that there was before.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

There was a thing on Alan Smith's oral celebrations on Sky Goals on Sunday this morning, I thought there was a late night subscription channel dedicated to stuff like that?

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

The very thought of 'mouthing' Smith or Bowyer - and risk picking up any of the bile they perpetually spout - makes me wretch, just sitting here!

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

If that's what he gets up to with his "team mates" in broad daylight I shudder to think what happens in private between Smith and friends.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

It was the first time I have seen Batty 'fill his shorts'(for want of a better expression)after he dove in on OB. I was glad to see OB threaten to kill the 'little tw@t'.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002

Talking of which, has Aaron Hughes become our designated peace-maker? I didn't notice this particularly during the match, but on the highlights, he separated O'B and Batty, Dabs and Viduka and Lolo and Mills.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2002