Their penalty was nailed-in, but I just had a sneaky feeling that Shay is on a bit of a roll (let’s face it, he was lucky to be in the starting eleven last weekend) and his confidence/luck did him well-even tho it was a sh!te penalty.

That miss seemed to take the stuffing out of notloB for a while, and Owen on for Martins strange decision in my opinion as I would have had him sooner after the break when Duff was subbed by Geremi after having the knackers well-and-truly planted into his chest by Andy O’Brien.

Stll, MO came on and did what he does good, he scored. Great cross from the right after about of pressure and somehow he managed to find 3 yards of space in the Leazes area and nodded the ball home.

Milner (who had moved up fron when Duff went off – MO played deeper) missed a glorious opportunity to head wor 2nd after some lovely work down the right. After that, Nolan should really have scored with a header, and Davies put a number off targer that I’d have expected him to test Shay with.

Eventually, we held out for a fair result. Four points and some confidence. Shay was awarded Man of the Match, but in all honesty, had little to do other than save the penalty. Colocinni was solid while not flamboyant. He seemed to be helping Taylor, who handled for the pen (hardly intentional, but it was definetely a penalty) and he was booked for handball after falling on the ground and about to be robbed.

I took a closer look at Guthrie after KK’s comments last week – and you know, KK was right. Without being outstanding, he put more than a shift in and rarely lost the ball – unlike…Nicky Butt.

Milner worked well, but for me, he lacks the final product – either a decent cross or a goal. On the other side, Gutierrez was great. He reminded me of Ginola but with an undestanding of defensive duties.

Martins ran around a lot and was unlucky (to get injured?) and to be subbed. As I said up front, MO does what MO does. Get that contract signed Michael.

newcastle

Screach.

Newcastle United once again had to thank Shay Given for his worldclass penalty save today to give us another promising match. It took his double act of parrying low to his right first to denied Kevin Nolan’s penalty before steer the ball away with his feet.

In the match where the “winning” team starter at OT last Sunday saw the rapturous welcome from the Toon Army today meet the well organised Bolton side. The first-half saw a rather dull performance in terms of goals result just because the over-crowded midfield, with Trotters parked their players in midfield to denied any movements from our side.

Credits to former Toon player Andy O’Brien and his Bolton partner Gary Cahill who held firmly at the backyard to block some shots from Obafemi Martins, James Milner and Damien Duff.

In the second period, KK has to make double change, first to replace Damien Duff who look like having a knock in the first-half and make way for Geremi’s first game of the season.

Then the 52 minutes, Oba Martins injured his groin after dives to head Geremi’s excellent low cross goalwards minutes earlier. He was being replaced by Toon skipper Michael Owen who make his way into the game with the Toon Army gives him a warm welcome.

The game changed dramatically after the arrival of Owen on our side, and he needs no longer time to repaid Keegan’s faith.

Just two minutes after Nolan miss the penalty, Milner’s strike from Toon’s free-kick hits the Bolton’s wall, but managed to make a rebound to Michael Owen who is unmarked at the far post. Owen leaps a header but the Finnish keeper is spotted well to parry the effort.

But not in the 71 minutes. N’Zogbia’s corner kick can only half cleared, Geremi quickly retrieves the ball before picks out Owen to makes no mistake to heads the ball beyond the despairing dive of Jaaskelainen.

Newcastle United:
Given, Beye, Taylor, Coloccini, N’Zogbia, Milner, Butt, Guthrie, Gutierrez, Martins (Owen 53), Duff (Geremi 46).
Subs Not Used: Harper, Jose Enrique, Bassong, Smith, Edgar.
Booked: Taylor.

Bolton:
Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, Cahill, Andrew O’Brien, Samuel, Joey O’Brien (Mustapha 85), Nolan, Muamba, Taylor (Gardner 65), Davies, Elmander (McCann 15).
Subs Not Used: Al Habsi, Hunt, Dzemaili, Shittu.

Ref: Steve Bennett (Kent).
Att: 47,711

When we did get a sniff of chance we were flattened. Pity the Ref didn’t have his spectacles on. I’ve actually always considered Alan Wiley a decent Ref, but he had an absolute mare today. Never in control of the game, he missed a cart load of fouls against Toon players, and allowed Notlob to get away with bliddy murder. Shocking performance.

I left on 90 mins today, and am lead to believe Given made a good save in extra time to save a point. Up to the point I left he hadn’t had a save of any consequence to make. Given the quality of our defending this season, the clean sheet shouldn’t be sniffed at.

In contrast to some other observers, I thought Shola did quite well. His control and passing were a lot better than we have seen from him in the past, and he was clearly hauled down in the PA on at least two occasions. I actually felt his contribution to the team was a big improvement in what we have been getting from Viduka.

For me, Michael Owen had a disappointing game – he just wasn’t able to get into things, and was too easily out-muscled when he did.

I thought Zog and Milner did pretty well, but Duff looked rather weary from Wednesday’s exertions, and just wouldn’t take on his man.

Playing Rozenahl in midfield wasn’t a huge success, but it certainly wasn’t a total failure either. He struggled with the role positionally, but did a lot of good defensive covering. His distribution going forward wasn’t great, but hey, he did his best in non-ideal circumstances.

Not a great performance, but for me an improvement on the recent past – at least we went out with attacking intent, pushed the full backs forward, and perhaps just about deserved the three points.

The four untried kids on the bench showed the extent of the Manager’s problems in selecting a team today, and in the circumstances I couldn’t complain at the performance even if the result was disappointing.

Remember, we are reasonable, patient people, and Rome wasn’t built in a day!

A much better performance from Newcastle in second half as the lads push the Bolton side almost entirely back in their box and defend. Both United winger are busy delivering crosses into Bolton’s penalty area, Milner on the right and N’Zogbia /Duff on the left.

Newcastle has couple of efforts on goal in this half from Milner who sees his shot been deflected away and a long shot effort from Carr. Duff uncluckily being booked for something that is far from being a decent foul in 55 minutes. A pretty ridiculous decision by the referee Wiley.

N’Zogbia has a very good fifty-fifty chance in 61 minutes before being denied by a brilliant challenge from Ricardo Gardner, with Owen as an option in the centre, the ball finally ends up in Jaaskelainen’s hands.

Newcastle keep pushing forward and give the Trotters no chance to go far from their own defensive area, a very much improvement from the first half by the Magpies and only needed a little touch of lady luck.

In minutes away from an hour mark, Milner launch a wonderful curling cross and finds the head of Rozehnal but his attempt on goal was too high over the bar. Bolton once again saves. Minutes later, Jaaskeliainen is forced to tip over another Milner’s looping effort.

In 76 minutes Tamir Cohen replaces former macKem’s midfielder Gavin McCann who is immediately receives the barracking from the Toon Army for time wasting. Three minutes later it was Bolton’s new boy who’s heading to the dressing room and replaced by Jlloyd Samuel.

Keegan made his first changes of the game to call off Damien Duff in 80 minutes and bring in Kazenga Lualua. Milner switch the position to the left with Kazenga fill in the right post.

Stephen Carr, who is having his quite good performance today, plays in a diagonal ball forward from Newcastle’s half and looking for Ameobi, it’s a decent 84 minutes effort but Shola’s steer his header wide of Jaaskelainen’s net.

And again, twominutes later, another ball forward effort from Carr looking for the run of Owen, this time ex-United defender Andy O’Brien is there on the right time with a superb challenge to deny Newcastle’s skipper a clean run on goal. Newcastle have a corner but the delivery is poor this time.

Bolton is in fact having most of the second-half busy defending, but they have one decent chance to disturb Keegan’s welcome macth near the death of normal time. Guthrie sends Davies skittering at United left wing with a lovely pass, he holds it up for a while,and wins a corner.

The delivery resulting their best chance of the match. The ball drops to Samuel three yards out from Given’s goal, no Newcastle defenders near him and with a quite open space, Trotters defender looks surely must score but he whacks it straight onrushing Given.

Full time at St. James’ Park in a first game in charge for King Kev resulting one point. A quite disppointed one in terms of the great expectation before the match start, but I can take it as Keegan was without seven first team players today and he only have les than three days to prepare for this match.

TEAMS LINE UP:

Newcastle United FC:
Shay Given, Stephen Carr, Jose Enrique, Steven Taylor, Claudio Cacapa, David Rozehnal, James Milner, Charles N’Zogbia, Damien Duff (Kazenga LuaLua, 80), Shola Ameobi, Michael Owen (c)
Subs: Steve Harper, James Troisi, David Edgar, Andy Carroll

Bolton Wanderers FC:
Jussi Jaaskelainen, Kevin Nolan (Ivan Campo, 67), Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Davies, Gretar Steinsson, Danny Guthrie, Gavin McCann (Tamir Cohen, 76), Joey O’Brien, Lubomir Michalik, Andy O’Brien, Matt Taylor (Jlloyd Samuel, 79)
Subs: Ali Al Habsi, Stelios

Referee: Alan Wiley
Attendance: 52, 250

Owen is wearing the captain armband in the absence of Geremi’s on duty for his country and Alan Smith being suspended for his red card against Manchester United last weekend.

As predicted, St. James’ Park is packed with the Geordies faithful who is keep yelling “Keegan, Keegan”. The game start with the Trotters attacking and win the first corner early. United claim the ball and launch the attack through Milner who finds Ameobi away down the left.

Michalik tracking the striker and concedes a throw. Carr takes the ball and works it to N’Zogbia who tries his luck with a 30-yard shot.

United almost get caught under the first 20 minutes when Roz losing the ball in midfield with four Bolton players inside the Magpies area, thanks God, Joey O’Brien’s through ball towards is way too heavy for Kevin Davies. Keegan should take a note on this often sloppy display from United defence recently.

Newcastle has a scream of penalty in 32 minutes. Corner kick from N’Zogbia swings in, and the ball almost falls to the feet of Owen, then Ameobi. The ball bounced and seems to get a touch from one of Bolton player, but Alan Wiley sees the incident as ball to hand.

Hal time end-up in all square with a surprisingly rare decent chances from both side.

TEAMS LINE UP:

Newcastle United FC:
Shay Given, Stephen Carr, Jose Enrique, Steven Taylor, Claudio Cacapa, David Rozehnal, James Milner, Charles N’Zogbia, Damien Duff, Shola Ameobi, Michael Owen (c)
Subs: Steve Harper, James Troisi, David Edgar, Andy Carroll, Kazenga LuaLua

Bolton Wanderers FC:
Jussi Jaaskelainen, Kevin Nolan (c), Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Davies, Gretar Steinsson, Danny Guthrie, Gavin McCann, Joey O’Brien, Lubomir Michalik, Andy O’Brien, Matt Taylor
Subs: Ali Al Habsi, Jlloyd Samuel, Stelios, Ivan Campo, Tamir Cohen

Referee: Alan Wiley
Attendance: tbc