Newcastle United 2, Middlesbrough 0

Dec 21 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

It was typical of his team’s tigerish midfield. Harper needed his fair share of luck when dealing with Gary O’Neil’s 33rd-minute free-kick. The ball swerved around like a cheap plastic one, and Harper could only palm it out. Isaiah Osbourne was first onto it, not helped by team-mate Leroy Lita’s attempt to reach the loose ball. But Osbourne was able to put his shot on target, only for it to hit Steven Taylor’s hand, Harper’s face then the post before nestling in the relieved goalkeeper’s arms.

The incident encouraged the visitors, who had wasted a couple of good chances early on.

Taylor threw himself in the way of Lita’s goal-bound tenth-minute shot and Osbourne ought to have hit the target from O’Neil’s free-kick, albeit while he was stretching back.

Jones was almost caught out again early in the second half, dawdling as he controlled a backpass and kicking it into Harewood, only to breathe a sigh of relief as the ball dropped the wrong side of his goal. Two minutes later his would be the scrambling save which denied Harewood, but the damage had already been done. Two headers in a matter of minutes decided the game rather than throwing its outcome into doubt. When Danny Simpson was booked for a foul, O’Neil swung in the free-kick and David Wheater headed wide. Having surprisingly compounded Adam Johnson’s hamstring injury by dropping Mark Yeates, Boro were reliant on O’Neil’s delivery as their chief threat.

Newcastle were similarly dependant on a natural midfielder shoved wide and the fit-again Guthrie filled the gap left by Ryan Taylor’s demotion to the bench brilliantly. His was the curling right-wing cross which begged for Ameobi to head it into the net and the striker did not disappoint. Wheater had the closest view of how it should be done, though he will be disappointed it was not closer still.

With 59 minutes gone, the contest was over. Nicky Butt was volleying passes and Nile Ranger attempting ambitious backheels as the ole football began.

Jones saved well from Guthrie’s late free-kick and beat Ameobi to the rebound, while Ranger’s off-target header failed to provide Guthrie with the hat-trick of assists he deserved.

This Newcastle team, though, views such moments as no more than icing on the cake. Boro are in danger of slipping out of the promotion picture altogether if they do not rediscover their appetite for goals pretty quickly.