Newcastle's bad run of form continued as Midlands side
Birmingham visited St James' Park.
Changes were made in defence and midfield. Hughes and Bernard
were left out, with Gary Speed being placed at left back and
Titus Bramble recalled to Newcastle's centre of defence alongside
Andy O'Brien in Jonathan Woodgates abscence. Jermaine Jenas
was placed in Gary Speed's normal position alongside Kieron
Dyer, with Hugo Viana on the left wing instead and Nobby Solano
on the right.
Referee Matt Messias made the first incident of the day, by
awarding Newcastle a free kick, while sticking his arm out
hitting Robbie Savage in the face requiring treatment to the
delight of all the Newcastle fans, ahem...including myself.
;o)
On 10 minutes seen the first half-chance created when Kieron
Dyer's shot was charged down and fell to Hugo Viana, but his
shot was well off target.
The 20 minute mark seen Hugo Viana nearly hand Birmingham
a goal all on his own, when he tried a backheel to Gary Speed,
who was nowhere near the ball. The ball came to Stan Lazaridis,
who made Shay Given have his first save of the day to make
to which he parried the ball over the bar.
From the resulting corner, seen Robbie Savage dummy the ball
for the player behind which Kieron Dyer had thought was going
to happen. With Dyer running towards the Birmingham goal 2-on-2,
the counter-attack came to nothing, with Matthew Upson eventually
dispossesing Dyer on the edge of the 118-yard box.
Minutes later seen Viana swing in a cross to Shola Ameobi
at the back post. Shola headed the ball back across the face
of goal onto the head of Alan Shearer who couldnt connect
with the ball as everyone watched it go wide.
On the stroke of half time seen Newcastle awarded a free kick
on the left hand side of the box 20 yards out. Nobby Solano
took the free-kick, but the ball ended up in Birmingham keeper
Taylor.
The end of the half finished with half of St James' booing
its players off the pitch. In my opinion, totally uncalled
for.
The 58 minute mark seen Speed challenge Johnson bringing him
tumbling to the floor in the penalty area. The referee had
no hesitation in awarding a penalty, which in all honesty
was what it was. Speed was cautioned.
Dunn stepped up to take the kick. Shay Given saved itt, but
the ball came away from him, only for Dunn to smash in the
rebound.
Solano then tried a volley with the outside of his right foot,
hitting the side of the net after Birmingham failed to clear
a cross from the left wing from Viana.
On 66 minutes, Sir Bobby made a triple change, bringing on
Chopra, Bowyer and Robert for Ameobi, Solano and Viana.
Bowyer almost made an immediate impact when he chested down
a cross from Robert and got in a shot, but Taylor saved at
the foot of his post on 70 minutes.
The last 20 minutes seen Newcastle try to create some chances,
but the chances were nothing more than half chances, and very
few and far between.
The fourth-official signalled 3 minutes of stoppage time to
be played. With no chances created that could have salvaged
a draw for the toon army the whistle was blew, with a chorus
of boos towards the players.
Sir Bobby said:
"It's disappointing to lose three games at home in the space
of a week."
"It's been a terrible week for us at the club, probably the
worst week of my life because I cannot recall a week like
it.
"The disappointing thing for me is the fact they yhave all
been big games. The Manchester United game was huge, then
obviously the Partizan game was huge, then because of the
results in those two games the Birmingham game was equally
as big.
"To lose all three is a blow, and we'll sit down and get things
sorted out. But don't forget this squad finished third in
the league last season.
"We had a bad start then and recovered to clinch third place,
and we'll have to roll the sleeves up and try and do the same
again.
"We're in a dog fight, and when you are in a dog fight you
fight like a dog to get out of it. That's what we'll do.
"It's not ideal to have a break for the international matches,
but there's nothing we can do about it. A lot of our players
will be away from the club, but we'll all be back together
in time for the away game at Everton and we'll start the battle
then to turn things around."
),
Griffin, O'Brien, Bramble, Jenas 
Bowyer '65