News
Squad
Results
Fixtures
Opinion Standings
Links
Reek
of the Week Guestbook
Multimedia
Noarlunga United
Match Report
Yeeeessssss!!
And it's about time
too...
CSKA Sofia
0...........
Newcastle United 2.....................
Solano '50
Ketsbaia '77
Well, we've finally won a game. It's been a long time coming, but we have
won one.
Anyway,
enough about that, what a night it was for the Toon Army. 0-0 at the half,
Bobby Robson
would have
been happy with the way Newcastle had played.
He reverted
to his preferred 4-4-2 after playing a 3-5-2 at Stamford Bridge on the
weekend.
Barton and
Domi played wide at the back with Goma and Dabizas forming a strong partnership
in
the centre
of defence. Gary Speed and Rob Lee were brilliant in the 'engine room'
in the middle of
the park, but
one worry was Duncan Ferguson, who was forced to hobble off after only
18
minutes, being
replaced by Georgian Temuri Ketsbaia.
But
the change did not seem to hamper United and they almost took the lead
within a
minute as Gary
Speed met Solano's free-kick and powered in a header which Lukic did well
to turn on
to the bar
at full stretch. The woodwork came to Newcastle's rescue on 25 minutes
when Goma could
only half-clear
Hristov's corner and skipper Milen Petkov blasted a first-time effort on
to the crossbar
with Steve
Harper well beaten.
Sofia
piled on the pressure as they enjoyed their best spell of the half with
Petkov and Hristov
causing all
kinds of problems, but the visitors almost hit back nine minutes before
the break when
Speed found
Domi on the left and he raced into the box before firing his effort into
the side-netting.
It took
only five minutes for Newcastle to test CSKA keeper Ladic, forcing a good
save after squeezing
a shot in from
a tight angle. Another good sign was the early from of Alan Shearer, with
some
good early
touches bringing wide men Domi and Solano into the game.
It took
only five minutes in the second half for Newcastle to hit the front. A
brilliant free kick from
Nolberto Solano
was too good for Nenad Lukic in goal for the Bulgarians, which set United
on
their way.
The 200-strong band of travelling supporters, who had been largely drowned
out by the home
crowd, celebrated
in fitting style as they sensed a turning point in the season, but they
had to
endure another
tense few minutes as Sofia stepped up a gear in the search for an equaliser.
But
despite all their pressure, the Bulgarians were unable to create any serious
chances and
Dimitar Berbatov's
wayward 63rd-minute shot was as close as they came to troubling Harper
after the break.
Dyer could have sealed the victory when he broke down the left but shot
across
goal with Solano
sliding in but just failing to make contact.
Solano
almost claimed a brilliant second with a 75th-minute volley from Shearer's
knock-down,
but it was
left to Georgian Ketsbaia to finish things off two minutes later. Shearer
sent Dyer away
once again
and when he slipped the ball in to the former AEK Athens striker, he turned
past
Galin Ivanov
and lifted a shot over Lukic to make it 2-0.
Copyright 1999 NUFC unofficial website. All
rights reserved.