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Newcastle United 0

Aston Villa 1 .................
Joachim '75

Newcastle got their new premiership campaign off to a dismal start at St. James park today, going down 1-0 to Aston Villa. But the main cause for post-match frustration won't be the score so much, but referee Uriah Rennies' woeful desision to send off Alan Shearer 20 minutes from time. The Newcastle captain was booked 39 minutes in for a foul against Vila skipper Gareth Southgate, which deserved a booking. Which is more that what you can say for the second incident. The ball was played long into Villas half to Shearer, who turned around to assess the position of the defender, stood his ground and spun away as the ball deflected away from the contest. It sparked scenes of first disbelief, and then anger as the Newcastle players and management saw the events unfold before their eyes. The event not only angered the crowd, but Ruud Gullit in the post match press conference wasn't scared to voice his opinion, saying the referee should be relegated to the 2nd division. He also made comments about not being able to prepare his players for this incident, how he could prepare for football, but not this. Anyway there was some football played at St. James' park today. 18 minutes Serrant crossed for Goma to head onto the bar, and three minutes later Solano crossed only to Gary Speeds header fly over the bar. David James had to help out his defenders with 26 minutes gone after Speed, Solano, Temuri Ketsbaia and Shearer combined in the best move of the half to allow Serrant to fire in a dangerous cross. Villa rarely threatened, but the pace of Joachim caught out Dumas eight minutes before half-time, and although Goma cut out his cross, the ball ended up at Dion Dublin's feet and he smashed his effort into the side-netting. Dyer replaced the injured Marcelino at the break and looked lively from the off. But it was Ketsbaia who looked the most likely to break the deadlock, firing a volley high over before forcing two excellent saves from James. The Georgian ran on to Didier Domi's pass to fire in a right-foot shot which the keeper did well to parry, and he was denied by an even better save on 55 minutes from another long range effort. But for all their pressure, they were unable to force a way through, and Joachim reminded them of his ability when he beat Dumas in the air but volleyed hopelessly high. The game erupted into controversy on 71 minutes when Shearer and Taylor clashed and the astonished England skipper saw Rennie brandish the red card. Things went from bad to worse four minutes later when Joachim got his head to Delaney's cross from the right and glanced a header past Harper to make it 1-0. Gullit immediately replaced Serrant with Silvio Maric as his side went in search of an equaliser which never really looked like coming. The furious manager had to be led away by fourth official Jeff Winter as he tried to confront Rennie following the final whistle. Download the movie of the Shearer incident and see what Ruud's so pissed off about.