By Peter Donnelly
January 2 2003

Newcastle beat Gerard Houllier's men 1-0 on Wednesday night, with winger Laurent Robert scoring the match winner. The pitch at St. James' made the game into a battle as much as anything else and it was one which United truly won. Before kick-off Sir Bobby Robson replaced Kieron Dyer and Nobby Solano with Chilien Clarence Acuna and youngster Brian Kerr, while Andy Griffin was brought back to the side at the expense of Stevie Caldwell. Aaron Hughes and Andy O'Brien were the central nucleas in defence.

It was Newcastle who started the brighter, putting some good football on show despite the poor conditions.

And we opened the scoring on 11 minutes when Laurent Robert striked a free-kick goal bound only for a deflection to take the ball past 'keeper Chris Kerkland. It was a good counter before that with Alan Shearer leading the attack.

Soon after the goal Acuna could have increased the lead by two when the midfielder played a neat one-two with Craig Bellamy inside the box, only to see his shot blocked by Kirkland.

Shearer and Bellamy were both linking up well and their obvious chemistry were causing problems for Liverpool.

Much of the match was a battle though and a lot of praise must go to ACUNA, who I have always admired. The man cunjured up a marvellous peformance on Wednesday night, just about every tackle he went in for he won - and convinsingly.

Brain Kerr's tracking back was also very important and at the back Andy O'Brien got SkySports' vote for Man Of The Match, a reward which you couldn't argue with because, like Acuna, the Irishman was immense.

Liverpool didn't create much but what they did create they didn't take.

Seven minutes in the second period Milan Baros had a great, when a corner was flighted in and the knock down went straight into his path, but the strikers instincts were not sharp enough.

They (Liverpool) did, however, gain more possesion as the match went on and, strangly, even more so after African Salif Diao was sent off for two bookable offenses. Maybe Diao could argue with the first bokking but the second was fully deserved, the midfielder recklessly sliding in on Griffin.

Newcastle made changes on 79 minutes when Robson brung off Acuna, probably because of fitness, for Robbie Elliot and Shola Ameobi came on for Brian Kerr. That meant Bellamy moved right with Elliot playing centre midfield alongside Jenas.

Still Liverpool pushed on though with Smicer coming on for the Reds, but the creativity was lacking and it was Shola Ameobi who could have wrapped it up for United, after good wing play by Bellamy but a rather scuffed shot from Shola was blocked.

After more bravery and terrific yet hilarious hold-up play by Shearer in the corner, Newcastle got the win.

A formiable ninth straight win at home, a record to be extremely proud of.