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By Andrew Blackwell
A new season and a completely new look
team. Goma, Marcelino and Dyer all making their debut's today against a
tough Aston Villa Team.
John Gregory fielded ex-Magpie Steve Watson
who was a favourite with the fans at his time at St. James'.
But it was the referee Uriah Rennie who's
last match in charge of Newcastle was at the 2-0 defeat at Filbert Street
on the 8th May who was to steel the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Newcastle looked very comfortable in the first
half and many of the fans were pleased to see a stable defence.
Alan Shearer was booked half way through the
first half for high elbows on a challenge with Gareth Southgate that was
to have dyer consequences later.
Marcelino rattled the crossbar in the first
half but apart from that Newcastle or Aston Villa really threatened each
others goals.
At half time both teams looked very stable
at nils each but the second half was to stay in the mind of the press for
ever |
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The second half started with Newcastle attacking
the under-construction Sir. John Hall Stand.
The turning point of the game was the sending
-off of Alan Shearer. Shearer had backed into a Villa defender like he normally
does and Uriah Rennie who was only 6ft away decided that the challenge for
the ball was a bookable offence and Alan saw red for the first time in his
career.
The reaction of Villa player Thompson who
was scratching his head and laughing that the fact that Alan Shearer got
sent off proved the fact the Uriah Rennie got it wrong.
Only 4 minutes later Aston Villa got the only
goal of the game when they took full advantage of a shell shocked Newcastle
side. A cross from the right wing saw an unmarked Julian Joachim header
into the the bottom left hand corner.
Ruud Gullit was still complaining after the
game and I quote:
"He
should be relegated to the second division or something, I mean that is
unberleavable"
But Newcastle were going to have to get used
to it as the following games were going to be much the same.
This report is copyright A.Blackwell
Images Supplied by Black &
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