I posted this on the Ezboard forum earlier when Greenspun was down, but I've put it one here as well.

I arrived at the ground expecting a tough game, remembering last year's farce against Charlton, but there was no need to worry this time around, as Charlton had nothing to play for and to be honest it showed. A pretty comfortable win on reflection - I can't recall Charlton troubling us too often - only 4 attempts at goal and most of them off target. We seemed in control but never busting a gut to win.

Our first big chance came just before we scored. Robert had a free kick which fizzed towards the goal. I think it was more of a hopeful smack along the ground than a shot - perhaps hoping the keeper would spill it and we could score from the rebound. As it was, Nobby Solano was literally inches away from connecting which would have surely got us ahead. Anyway, we eventually won what I think was our 5th corner of the game and Solano stepped up to take it after Shearer had taken on his man to win it. Pretty good corner, but also standard, Speed sprints in and with a bullet header beats Kiely fairly easily. We celebrated but didn't go wild - we can still remember what happened in the last home game.

We almost doubled the lead after Charlton had a corner. We cleared wide to the left where Robert controlled and cleared. It nearly fell right into Lua's path after the ball bounced over Costa, but their last man back managed to get it clear.

Our next big threat I can think of was in the second half. Elliott played a pretty good ball forward to Lua. To be honest there was nothing on for him. He had his back to goal and Costa had him tightly marked. Out of nowhere though, he turned quickly and shot into the bottom right. This was only the second most impressive thing he did though. After the goal, he did at least 8 consecutive flips before being surrounded by his team mates. Great stuff, at least the crowd were making a bit noise now after their (our) pathetic first half showing.

After we took the two goal lead we relaxed and started to take the mick in all honesty. We spent about 3 minutes at one stage passing the ball about, not particularly creating any chances, but preventing Charlton from causing any threat to our goal.

After a fairly bog standard long ball from Charlton's right back, some good control by Johansson (I think) left him to run before passing straight through Hughes and Solano before somebody finished it off, but it was ruled offside. I can't say whether it was the correct decision or not as I sneezed at the time.

Robert and Solano were given a well earned rest (some would say Robert had rested the whole game) and on came Jenas and Bernard. Almost immediately, Bernard was booked for a hard tackle, which was probably deserved.

Shearer, whose only job had been holding the ball up after goal kicks started to take a big interest in the game now. He was put through by Lua, but shot at Kiely but his chance for the 200th goal would come again.

With only a minute or so on the clock remaining, Speed slotted a superb pass through the Charlton defence. Shearer ran onto it and smacked it over the top of Kiely into the right corner of the net. The crowd seriously did go mental at this stage and Shearer was loving every minute of it. As the whistle blew, he was congratulated by nearly everyone, Charlton's young subs, the linesmen and the referee. The ref even gave him the ball as a souvenir. Even the largely quiet away fans applauded Shearer for his huge goal haul over the last 10 years.

Player ratings: Given - had nowt to do, but did everything right Hughes - solid second half, some poor passing in the first O'Brien - solid throughout Distin - generally excellent, but a couple of bad decisions will stick in the mind Elliott - his best game since rejoining us IMHO, he looked for passes instead of playing it long, deserves a lot of credit Solano - sound Dyer - ran about and scared their defence, pretty good, although not his best game by any means Speed - IMHO man of the match, passed well, took his goal superbly and set up Shearer's 200th, our unsung hero today Robert - put in a couple of world class crosses and beat his man a couple of times with ease. Tracked back pretty good but could have worked a little bit harder. Not too shabby though Lua Lua - great performance for his first start of the season, took on players, passed at the right time (apart from one occasion when he messed up the pass when running on might have been better) Shearer - Fairly quiet until the last 15 minutes but his goal was a real striker's finish and he clearly loved scoring it, well done to him

Subs, Jenas and Bernard, didn't do anything of note while on the pitch, not on long enough to comment

Dabizas did pretty well apart from a messed up interception which resulted in a Charlton player basically walking past him.

Overall I'm chuffed, 1 point needed now to qualify, I didn't expect both of Chelsea and Leeds to lose so that's an added bonus. I would have taken a 1-0 win with a scuffed own goal if that's what it took, but 3-0 is great.

Good day all round methinks.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

Answers

Above Pretenders

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

Thanks Paul. Bit rubbish of ITV not to show post-whistle congrats to Shearer - would rather have seen that than Bobby's presentation to him.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

Great report. I would just have loved to be at St James' today to celebrate Alans 200:ed.

Whats the URL to the other board?

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

i'm pretty sure bernard was booked for time wasting. the ref blew his whistle for a rather soft call IMO then bernard kicked the ball some 10 or so metres away. rather stupid!

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2002

IMHO very sporting and decent of the Charlton team and fans to applaud Al the way they did, not every team would react like that. They can come again. Like the look on the goalies face when the crowd behind him howled for goal when he caugh a high lob under the bar. Good moment.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

The lifeboat board is at http://pub84.ezboard.com/bnewcastleunitedbbs

You'll have to create an ezboard account if you don't already have one. Password is the same as on here.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Except it's without the capital Bs. Or else it's with the capital Bs but with a regular O instead of the zero. One of the two.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Eh? It's the same password as here (all lowercase I believe)

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

The unusual suspects assembled inthe Straabeery for pre-match aperatifs (and a half of shandy for some). Present were Jonno, Dr Bill, Softie, Steph and Gibbo, being joined later by Pit Bill and with Kats hovering in the backgroud (I said hovering, not making some MCP comment about housework). All were in pretty good spirits, spurred on by ManUre winning at Stamford Bridge. Rumours were abound that Shearer had failed a medical on his nose (thanks for that red herring Pit Bill) and specualtion on whether Bellamy woul dmake his return or whether Carl Cort woiuld be given a reprieve.

All was settled when the team was announced - with Elliot in at LB with Distin moving inside for Dabs and Lua x2 up front with Shearer in place of the hopeless hapless Cort. Otherwise, the team that started last week at Pride Park. Toon got off to a good start, with Shearer almost bagging his 200th Premiership goal withing the first minute. This led to a spell of strong pressure from Toon, resulting in 4 or 5 corners in very quick succession, tho no reslting goal. Another corner, well-won by Shearer onthe right found Gary Speeding in and planting his header in the back of the net. 1-0 woohoo! However, as has often been the case recently, we started to give too much possession to Charlton and appeared to lose our width, Robert and Solano continually tucking in. This must surely be a game plan by YBR, tho I wonder at it's effectiveness.

To be honest, the first half was bit pedestrian, and the crowd certainly weren't enthralled by it. However, for the second week in a row, the second half was less than a minute old when a goal was scored. But this tie it was for the good guys, with Lua x2 picking up a pass in the inside left slot inside the penalty area. He turned, dribbled a bit and hit an unstoppable shot into the bottom right corner - a really well taken goal and well deserved for his efforts thus far in the game. Having witnessed his celebration after scoring the winner last week, I had some idea of what might follow, but to be honest, it took me by surpise with a total of 6 (or was it 7?) airborne gyrations. Great stuff. He's obviously been watching me :-)

With a 2 goal lead, we weren't going to let that slip (were we??) and we played out the second half without breaking too much sweat. However, Shearer was still looking for his 200th and had a great run in on the keeper, running thru on a Lua x2 pass, only for the stopper to stop it. Bu99er. But moments later Gary Speed had time to spot Shaerer running thru again, and there was no mistake this time, with Shearer hitting it first time low down to the keeper's left hand and into the net. Cue more pandemonium.

Give the CAFC fans credit where credit is due. I sit right below the away section and they warmly applauded Al on his fantastic achievement, a sentiment all true football fans must share. Given that in 2 of the last 5 seasons, he's managed 2 and 5 goals due to career-threatenning injuruies, that is no small achievement and with Andy Cole 61 goals behind and Sir Les 68 behind the top of the list has a nice Toon flavour to it :)

And so it was back to the Straabeery to discuss Gibbo's sex life the game and our (nicely improved) prospects of Champions League next season. Still missing in action was Dougal tho apparently she's due to put in an appearance next week and also Clarky (hope your OK - ticket OK for Tuesday). But replacing them was Mungo (complete with my B'burn ticket - thx mate!) and Swift and his big little brother. A good time was had by all (well, at least me anyway) before Jonno, Gibbo (minus g/f) and I went to Charlie's to enjoy a satisfying Chinese to round off a rather enjoyable day.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

airborne gyrations. Great stuff. He's obviously been watching me

And thinking - God - I'll look like that in 30 years if I don't keep up my exercises.

went to Charlie's to enjoy a satisfying Chinese

Dunno if you noticed Screach but I can't help thinking Gibbo looked a little disappointed when he discovered the "satisfying Chinese" was a meal.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Yes Jonno, you're probably right. Perhaps us owd bu99ers just didn't realise what he meant when he suggested "doing some Chinese" and having a "number twenty-three". I guess that's why he went back for a third helping ;-)

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Wasn't Charlie's the one where traces of faeces were found in the food a while ago?

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

No shit???

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Yes shit

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm? objectid=7566112&method=full

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Would that be Sweet and sour faeces or Sechwan shit? I didn't have either of those last night. Aaeeeeeee! Clunk

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

I think it was in the Poo-rawn Crackers

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Those Shitake mushrooms had a lot less ake in them than I've seen in some other places. And I mentioned at the time that No. 2 was one to be avoided. I think the bowels it was all served in looked clean enough mind.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

LOL all. Getting back to the match, what was the verdict on Elliot? Decent game, or not really under enough pressure to tell? He seemed to be coming forward more positively than usual. Linking well with Robert?

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002

Elliott had probably his best game for us since his return. He did get beaten easily because of his lack of pace a couple of times, but there's nowt he can do about that.

He got forward better and often resisted the long pass when the short pass was better - spot on IMO and how he should continue if he gets picked again.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2002