This is nothing to do with helping or not helping the other team to win the title this season, and I can accept the defeat as long as we have been playing well thoroughly the 90 minutes.

It was another wrong player in the wrong place when Keegan once again give Alan Smith a probably his last chance in Black-and-White. He has not giving anything for this team since his move from Manchester United in summer last year. His one and only goal for Newcastle was in the pre-season match but after that he’s just a waste of money.

In the first-half we actually give the visitors so much to think about if they’re trying to play us, and we have an early chance to lead when Nicky Butt plays in Michael Owen with a smart lob and stolen a march on John Terry, with just Cech to beat, Toon skipper can only direct his first time volley over the crossbar.

With only around half an hour, Michael Owen once again has been giving great opportunity to beat the deadlock. Ferreira slides in to try steal the ball from Martins, but the Nigerian poised to strike in, the ball runs for Viduka whose his effort being kept out by Cech.

The ball rolls free again and it was Michael Owen who has the last strike for Toon but see his kick denied by Terry who is back on the line to clear.

But, the real show has come in near the dying minutes. Martins starts to causing problems, his cross sees Beye slash-in an effort wide of Cech’s target. While minutes before that a generous applause from the Toon Army to our Lads for Newcastle move that involving at least 20 neat-passes but unlucky end with a Chelsea goal-kick after Barton tries to get the end of Martins’ throughball.

The good story suddenly come to an end with Alan Smith having replaced Mark Viduka in second-half. Disaster coming in. Starting with the second corner for the visitors, and some sharp Chelsea passing start to cause us some real problems.

They finally works for a chance to an opening for Ballack inside the penalty area, the German is just about to pull the trigger but Steven Taylor arrives in the nick of time to divert the ball behind for a corner.

On the second period, we are never get the chance to get back into the game as good as we did in the first half, thanks to Alan Smith! It was Chelsea who dominate the game and they get the goal they deserve when Malouda is taken out by Faye on the right and received the yellow card.

Drogba clips over the free-kick to the near post where the sloppy defending from United release Ballack unmarked and he guides his header beyond Steve Harper to give the visitors the lead.

Our one and only chance this half coming again for Owen whose ghosted in to beat the offside trap but again his finishing inches away from connecting to level the scores. The game was practically end when they have the second goal in 82 minutes from a slick move from Lampard spring Malouda clear to finish the ball low under Harper.

Although very slim, but we still have the chance to finish in 10th place this season, something that is hard to imagine regarding to our relegation battle couple months ago.

To achieve that, we must win the last two matches against Chelsea and Everton. If we can do that we will have 49 points in total, with assumption Spurs lost in their final match at White Hart Lane against Liverpool and West Ham also lost at home to Villa.

The best chance we can get is to finish above Tottenham, which I will celebrate it all night long. So let’s concentrate for today match and hope the Lads can give all the very best of them at St. James’s Park.

A win today will also means alot to those who are lucky enough to get into the fortress St. James to watch the game live. According to the official site, United will select a season ticket holder at random from their database and the lucky fan plus a guest will be able to enjoy the first home game of the 2008/09 season in style with a hospitality package in the Magpie Suite.

This special treat is to celebrate more than one million fans passing through the St. James’ Park turnstiles. From our 20 home games this season, including Carling Cup fixtures against Barnsley and FA Cup replay against Stoke City, an aggregate of 988,419 fans have been recorded and the million mark will break through again with a confirmed 52,000 tickets sell-out today.

Utterly delighted to beat ‘em , but in truth it was a scrappy game. Despite some appallingly poor passages of play from us, we still had more about us, and for me we deserved the points.

We were never able to establish real control in midfield, and for me this was the foundation for the self-created difficulties that kept the mackems in the game for far longer than they should have been. Our midfield trio were right back to the kind of performance that got us into trouble in the first place - constantly giving the ball away, eschewing the simple pass and generally trying to be far too bloody clever.

As predicted, the mackems set out to kick anything that moved - and that was usually Michael Owen! I think they had 5 booked, and I thought one or two were fortunate not to be sent off.

To their credit, the mackems kept going despite the early goal - brilliantly put away by Owen - however, their one and only strategy was the lump to Jones, who despite winning a fair bit in the air was generally well marshalled by Taylor and Faye.

Actually, I thought Taylor was terrific today, as indeed he has been for the last few games. He and Faye are linking well, and three consecutive clean sheets is a great achievement considering what went before.

Harper really only had one save to make, a terrific reaction save from a close in header from Jones; however, I’m afraid his kicking was frequently Givenesque. Beye had another excellent game, both defensively and going forward. Enrique was very patchy, and for a guy who can pass the ball sublimely, he frequently dithered in possession in dangerous areas, and gave the ball away far too often.

Martins was at his infuriating worst, Viduka static, leaving Owen to both forage in midfield and get forward to provide the thrust in the penalty area. He had a good game, putting in a hell of shift, despite having to put up with some rough-house treatment.

From his touchline behaviour, KK clearly wasn’t satisfied with much of our play, particularly in the 2nd half. I thought his switch to 4-4-2 was timely, because we visibly ran out of legs in midfield midway through the 2nd half, and Duff’s running power helped to finally kill off the game, and unleash the real celebrations on the terraces.