Newcastle 0 Rovers 1.

[Alan75]

How I hate to watch football in front of the television, however there I was thanks to satellite coverage, sat in front of the box, watching this afternoons defeat of Newcastle by Rovers.  The problem with watching on television is that you don’t see the full picture, only the view that is seen, is decided by the camera director. The only way to get some sort of overall picture of the game after taking in the stats, is to put together comments and quotations from the supporters who were at the ground.

The statistics of the game were that Rovers gained three valuable points by beating Newcastle 1-0 thanks to Shads very own Paul Gallagher, who was first to Emerton’s cross in the 71st minute. A goal that was disputed by Newcastle due to an alleged handball although from his position the referee must have had full view of the incident. There again the same referee had seconds earlier dismissed a claim by Andy Cole for a penalty. As Rover’s manager has said on many occasions these things balance themselves out throughout the season and the history books will state Rover’s won 1-0.

The result however was tarnished by the injury to Rovers central midfielder Barry Ferguson, in the 27th minute, who according to reports will miss the remainder of the season with a fractured knee cap.

Now that we know the stats, what where the views of the supporters who ventured to the North East.

Quote Soueys Bluey

Went to the match and I thought it was a thoroughly deserved victory - a great, hard-working team performance and but for a better cutting edge it could have been a wider victory than 1-0.

Having said that, I don't think we could have argued if Newcastle were 2-0 up at half-time but that's why we have Brad Friedel in the team as he's more than capable of making the saves that he did to keep the scores level.

In the second half we were by far the better side and we could have scored more if Emerton's crosses were better and if Andy Cole was fully match fit - not helped by Souey not playing him recently, I think Cole could have bagged about 2 if he was 100% sharp.

He still had a great game, him and Gally worked really hard, as did all of the players although Babbel, Tugay, Neill and Mahon stood out for me.

If we can work out how to break down opposition defences at home then we'll be laughing.

Quote Claytons Left Boot

A word of praise for Gally today - he was brilliant and I thought really came of age. Never stopped running and was a handfull for their defence throughout (a la Simon Garner).

Emerton once again worked his socks off, tirelessly covering the right flank as did Mahon on the left. Emerton just needs to be more consistant with his final ball as per the breakaway chance in the second half when we should have wrapped the game up.

A great performance today, fully deserved, and I was there to witness our first league victory at St James' since August 1958. If only we could now break our Old Trafford hoodoo