Season 2006-2007

NEWCASTLE UNITED

3 v 2

READING

The first half started with Reading showing that they where not just there to make up the numbers.  For the first quarter of an hour they pressurised the Toon goal and our response was just hoof the ball up the pitch, which inevitably resulted in the ball coming straight back at us.  Roeder must have verbally slapped his players from the dug out as the players seemed to wake up and started returning the pressure in kind.  On 23 mins a Toon corner (a typical unable the beat the first man pile of rot that we've seen too often) wasn't cleared by Reading and Nobby lashed in a cross, that could only be described as sublime, and Super Sib was there to bang it into the back of the net with his head.  Newcastle continued moving forward with Martins heading agains the cross bar then a couple of mins later a massive goal mouth scramble where the ball just wouldn't go in.  Then came the first of Reading's goals Harper stuck the ball, it took a deflection off Nobby and it beat the outstretched arm of Given. Less than 5 mins later Baba made a complete hash up of clearing the ball passing it to Little, who passed the ball to Harper who slotted it home.

Needless to say they where booed off the pitch at the end of the half.

The second half started with Baba getting booed from all corners of the pitch as soon as he touched the ball. It had the strange effect of steeling the resolve of the Toon players and Reading where about to be given a lesson in how to come back and win.  Rob Styles must have been watching another match when Sib found the net the second time.  The ref blew for an offside but Sib had actually ran past a Reading player with the ball and finished it superbly.  Maybe the ref just didn't like a smart arse.  On 57 mins  the Toon was awarded a soft pen (but hey any pen for the Toon is good) when Martins fell in the box after brushing against Sonko. There was a bit of handbags at dawn over who should tek the pen between him and Solano, who said after the match that he'd let Martins tek the pen coz he'd still had feathers from the woodcock he'd caught in the first half, which he'd been allowed to eat it in the half time break, in his gob. Solano added “Looking into Martins mouth was like looking into a blender with a chicken in it.  It was terrifying” The keeper got his hand to the shot but it had too much power, the match was level with 57 mins played. 

It then became one of them matches where neither team wanted to loose and it was going to tek a bit of magic and possibly a bit of BO to get the win.  It came in the form of Emre, on 84 mins, who must have been really stinking coz the defenders near him ran away.  This left a clear path all the way to goal, except he didn't need to run that far. Instead he released a thunderbolt from outside the box which nearly burst the net, had Confused_Goat screaming like a little girl and everybody else swinging their scarves over their heeds.

A match that had everything. Great stuff.

As a sub note at least David Kelly, the half time hero, made an effort to walk on the pitch.  Unlike Marc Hottiger, the Portsmouth game half time hero, who couldn't be arsed.

St James' MOTM: Nicky Butt
My MOTM: Emre, brilliant work rate topped off with a brilliant goal.
Rubbish MOTM: Babayaro, who didn't look match fit to be honest.
 

AUSSIE MAGS