Gold Fish Bowl 3 - Spuds 1

Newcastle cranked up the pressure on Martin Jol after another promising home performance to leave spurs with only one win in ten that’s relegation form. Spurs looked like a beaten team throughout the match and only briefly came into the match after Robbie Keane’s goal. Newcastle again looked solid at the back with the partnership of Cacapa and Faye again looking good with good support play from Enrique and Beye. In a uninspiring first half Newcastle were clearly the better team without creating many chances with Faye hitting the post from a corner and Martins and Owen having shots well saved by stand in keeper Cerny. Then just before half-time Enrique supplied a perfect weight through pass behind the spurs backline for Martins to chase he shrugged off Dawson who he tore apart all match and smash the ball under Cerny to give Newcastle a deserved 1-0 lead.

Then minutes after the restart Emre (finally good at set pieces after 2 years) put in a great corner for Claudio Cacapa to head the ball home for a 2-0 lead, and spurs looking resigned to defeat for the third straight season on tyneside. This finally seemed to wake spurs and they pulled a goal back straight away with Chimbonda putting in a good cross for Darren Bent to hit the post and the rebound falling straight to Robbie Keane and he couldn’t miss from 2 yards out. Jol put on Berbatov but he looked thoroughly disinterested in playing and then had a row with Jol, just a matter of time before a big club or even Newcastle to put a bid in. Newcastle had a couple of scares, but were still the better team going forward. Then with around 20 mins to go it was time for Joey Barton to make his first appearance in a toon shirt and crowd give him a fully deserved welcoming. Within a couple mins we again restored our two goal advantage with good work from Martins down the line and then Enrique’s cross half cleared to Milner who totally missed his 1st shot but then supplied a great finish on the volley right into Cerny’s bottom left corner and the game was ended as a contest, with spurs pressurizing Newcastle but not testing Shay Given’s goal at all. Newcastle then had a couple of good conter attacks involving martins but final balls let us down. So we comfortably ran out 3-1 winners for third straight season v Spurs and for our forth straigh win against them. James Milner's goal was our 500th the premiership and martins has scored in each of his 4 games v spurs (including Inter) in the last 16 months. This maintained our best start to a season for 12 years.

Spurs looked a team out of sorts, a team not playing for their manager, problems in the dressing room and a team that isn’t as good as they think. The spurs board have made most their own problems this season and if they don’t want Jol then put him and the rest of us out of our misery and let him walk off with his deserved compensation. A note about Jermaine Jen-Arse who was consistencly booed and was rubbish just like his last 20 months at Newcastle. Lots of chauting as well of “3-1 to the Gold Fish Bowl” how on earth does he get into the England team ahead of Joey Barton tells you how shit the England set-up is.

Man of the Match: Nicky Butt He just seems to get better with age, he was first to every ball, won all his 50/50 balls looked to get forward and back helping the defence. Just a shame he’s coming to the end of his career and is 10 times better than Parker. Unlucky to get booked after a disgraceful decision by Steve Bennett who was rubbish all night.
Catch up for player ratings Tomorrow