Newcastle United - 2 (Speed 47. Shearer 69.)
Crystal Palace - 1 (Bradbury 17.)

The last time we travelled to St James' Park (18 March 1998, in a League game) we managed to run out 2-1 winners following goals from Attilio Lombardo and Matt Jansen. Although that was barely 9 months ago the players that have gone since that team took the field are Marc Edworthy, Dean Gordon, Herman Hreidarsson, Tomas Brolin, Patrizio Billio, Michele Padovano, Valerien Ismael and Carlo Nash, who admittedly only warmed the bench. But at least the two scorers were still in our team, though Matt ended up on the bench and Attilio was left completely out of the side, one assumes his injury is still not quite fixed! Considering that Newcastle were the beaten finalists in last year's Cup our chances were reasonably slim of repeating the performance of last year. As the match evolved we almost managed to pull off the impossible, but needless to say it was not to be.

A capacity crowd was in evidence for the start of the match, and a number of supporters were turned away at the gate. The match was under the control of Mr Reed who has the reputation of being the strictest (worst?) referee in the Premier League. Palace started well when in the first minute Craig Foster was fouled, and a speculative free kick from Fan Zhiyi went wide of the mark. A good movement featuring Simon Rodger, Jamie Smith and Fan was eventually wasted, and Newcastle's first move of note resulted in Warren Barton being the first of six players to be booked. A throw in to the home side saw Foster and Fan tidying up, followed by a long range cross into the area which Kevin Miller easily claimed as no opposition player was anywhere in sight. A break by Palace saw Clinton Morrison finding Smith who in turn played a long ball to Fan, who was ruled offside.

Lee Bradbury's first run saw him dispossessed by Laurent Charvet, which saved the keeper coming out. Perhaps this was as well, for in the following minute a good run by Fan saw him advancing on goal. Shay Given came out and pushed the ball away, but though the referee did not spot the infringement his assistant certainly did! After consultation between the two the referee came to the only decision that he could make; that Given had deliberately handled the ball outside of his area, and he was duly sent off. It took him fully three minutes to leave the field of play, and for a moment it looked as though Palace might take the free kick before Newcastle had the chance to get another keeper on. As it happened a substitution was made, the unfortunate player being Stephen Glass, who made way for Steve Harper to take up his place in goal. The free kick was wasted, though just a minute later a cross from Morrison found Bradbury who made no mistake slotting the ball into the net. So, Harper's first touch of the ball was to pick it up from the back of the net. A good run by Dietmar Hamann saw his effort being headed away by Rodger, then an attempt by Foster resulted in a good challenge from the defence. A good tackle by Craig Moore stopped Alan Shearer, and their next raid saw Miller watching the ball go harmlessly wide of the mark. A throw in to Newcastle saw a good interception by Fan, and their next attempt on goal had Barton passing the ball across the goalmouth, with once again no player in sight. Palace were by now relying on mainly counter attacking on breaks from the midfield, but the ploy seemed to be paying off. Yet another free kick saw Fan once again hitting wide of the mark, and a good chance to Bradbury was wasted at the final moment. The play now seemed to be going from end to end, with neither side making any real impression on the goal. The next action of note was at 37 minutes when Miller made a great save, and the resultant corner was hacked away by Hayden Mullins. Bradbury did a good job of tidying up a defensive lapse, then Moore headed the ball away from the goal when Andreas Andersson was waiting to pounce. A goalmouth melee saw Fan and Mullins having shots on goal that simply rebounded out from the defence, and then Morrison's attempt was well dealt with by Harper. Time was by now up on the clock for the first half, but play still went on. It went on for fully five minutes, mainly due to the time that Given took to leave the field. During these few minutes the pressure was mainly from Newcastle, but resolute defending kept the home side out, and Palace went to the break still clinging on to a 1-0 lead.

A good clearance by Sun Jihai marked the start of the second half, but after only four minutes of the half had elapsed Shearer chested the ball down and Gary Speed pounced to level the scores. An immediate reaction from Terry Venables was to take Foster off and bring on Matt Jansen. A corner to Newcastle was cleared, twice, off the line, and suddenly all the pressure was on us. A series of last minute tackles and offside decisions saw Palace hanging on, and though Jansen was looking threatening he was not really making the most of his opportunities. A good move releasing Morrison on goal saw a good sliding save from Harper, and a shot from Andersson at the other end was easily dealt with by Miller. A good break by Bradbury saw him over hit the shot when Morrison was clear on the goal, and then Venables was nearly invited by the referee to leave the touchline. He promptly sat down again! Bradbury was then ceremoniously dumped on the ground, but the referee took no notice of our appeals for a penalty. Good saves at both ends kept the scores level, but with 20 minutes still remaining on the clock Shearer finally got clear, and unmarked at the back post he calmly placed the ball into the back of the net to make the score 2-1 to the home side. A number of poor attempts at both ends followed. With only 9 minutes remaining Miller pulled off another great save, to at least leave us with some sort of chance of getting something out of the match, but a good chance from Rodger was well kept out by the defence. A good save by Harper two minutes from the end just about saw the end for Palace, though in injury time Speed missed a kick that could have sealed the match and Bent sent in a poor cross to Jansen, that could just have earnt us a replay at Selhurst Park. The final whistle went, and the referee was booed off the field by the home fans; one would have thought that they would have been happy with the win!

Colin Pryce

Newcastle United: Shay Given, Warren Barton, (George Georgiadis 83), Alan Shearer, Gary Speed, Dietmar Hamann, Laurent Charvet, Stephen Glass (Steve Harper 15), Nolberto Solano, Aaron Hughes, Nikolaos Dabizas, Andreas Andersson.
Not Used: Temuri Ketsbaia, Stuart Pearce, Garry Brady..

Crystal Palace: Kevin Miller, Jamie Smith, Fan Zhiyi (Andy Linighan 75), David Tuttle, Craig Moore, Hayden Mullins, Craig Foster (Matt Jansen 50), Simon Rodger, Sun Jihai, Lee Bradbury (Marcus Bent 70), Clinton Morrison.
Not Used: Gordan Petric, Fraser Digby.

Attendance: 36,356
Referee: Mr M D Reed (Birmingham).