# St James Park on Saturday



## The Black Hand (Nov 6, 2005)

Newcastle 1 – 0 Birmingham      5.11.05

Have the Magpies Found a Turkish Gem?

Newcastle United have won for the 4th game in a row and are now around the top half of the table, with goals from Turkish International Emre Belozoglu winning 2 of these 4 matches.

The game started as it continued all match, 2 teams desperate not to lose were slugging it out on an increasingly slippy waterlogged pitch. 

There was little to mark the first half except a booking for Stan Lazaradis, it was a blatant dive in the box. Most pressure from both sides was created when free kicks gave the opportunity to put the ball in the box, although the quality of most of these was doubtful. 

In the second half the Blues created their best chances of the match. After a sprawling challenge by Emile Heskey in the 54th minute the ball was to bounce to Jiri Jarosik who tried a speculative long range shot, it bounced clear off the right upright when Shay Given was diving desperately. 

The referee made some questionable decisions. The worst of which was when Maik Taylor collected a backpass by blues defender Martin Taylor, who had been at full stretch under pressure from Michael Owen. The referee was 1 of only 2 people in the entire stadium, the other being Steve Bruce, who thought he did not mean it.

Heskey had one clear chance; a pass into the left hand side of the box was collected by him whose shot slightly back towards the goal produced a good save from Given. Newcastle pressed for the goal which came when Michael Owen looked to have wasted a chance to shoot from the edge of the box, it was passed out to Emre. His 78th minute shot through a crowded box was glanced into the corner by Taylor, whose best excuse was that players had blocked his sight.

After the match Steve Bruce was talking up his teams chances, but he does not seem to have spotted the contradiction. He plays a 4-5-1 formation that produces low scoring and dull football by cramping the midfield, and then complains when his team loses by the odd goal, as the Blues have several times this season. Graeme Souness was cheerful however, and said that Emre will only get better.

By a North East Class War reporter


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