By Peter Donnelly
December 29 2002

Gary Speed and Alan Shearer punished Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon, as Newcastle won 2-1. The match was a very open one and Spurs enjoyed a lot of possesion but failed to test Given enough, with United defender Nikos Dabizas handing them their goal. The pitch at St. James' Park is not the prettiest these days and Newcastle struggled to cope in the early stages, looking slightly nervous.

Spurs did cope well though and breached our back line several times, but failed to trouble Given. They were carving open our defence and getting into very good positions only to fluff the final ball.

Newcastle came back into it when Ledley King's poor back pass to Keller let in Craig Bellamy who skimmed the post after a decent effort.

As the game went on United had a good spell of possesion and on 17 minutes Gary Speed put the Magpies ahead after a long throw by Laurent Robert and the Welshman finished well from inside the box

However, the 33 year old had to be substituted because of injury soon after, with Jermaine Jenas being his replacement.

The confidence grew within the team and we eventually played some of the stuff we know we are capable of, with Aaron Hughes showing great skill going foward and forcing Keller to make a good save. As half-time approached though Spurs came back into it and started to get in behind, once again.

Tarrico had a long range effort just saved by Shay Given and straight after, Given was called into action again when the Newcastle curse Gus Poyet shot from 5 yards out only for Given to save.

In the second half Newcastle brung on Dabizas and LuaLua for Dyer and Solano, with Dyer also picking up and injury and Solano dazed after a clash with Tarrico in the first half. This meant that Hughes had to go centre midfeld with Caldwell right back and Dabizas centre back.

We started the game much better than we started the first half though and played some excellent football.

Spurs were always a threat too and the next goal was always going to be vital.

And thankfully Newcastle cunjured it up on 58 minutes, when Bellamy forced a throw-in after good pressure against Chris Perry. Robert took the throw to Bellamy who picked out Shearer in the box and Big Al headed home to get his 13th Prem goal of the season.

Shearer could and should have made it three later on when the ball was squared and he dragged his shot wide.

Then LuaLua went on a good run and clipped the post when he maybe should have squared it.

Nikos Dabizas may have earned himself a place in a bloopers video though when he headed past Shay Given into the corner, after a cross from the right. To be fair to Dabz he had to deal with it and it was a good cross.

This invited a lot of Spurs pressure onto Newcastle's defence who, in the end, done very, very well. Tottenham didn't actually trouble Shay Given but the back four and midfied AND the attack all battled hard in order for us to gain all three points.

Special praise must go to Aaron Hughes and Steve Caldwell who both played out of position but didn't look out of place one bit and both put in great shifts. Also, Robert raised his game and put in more effort.