Well where the hell do i start this .. just arrived home after a long journey from Cov - London - Greenwich and so full of adrenalin ive got to write this one for you . For many many years we as Newcastle fans have been searching for the promised land .. an FA Cup victory , A European final , a league title , whichever takes your fancy . I think we've all been bewildered , all been charmed , all been taken to the top and brought back down again , and so for the first time in four years im going to say it again , because who knows when it will end ... WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE , ISAID WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE ... doesnt that feel magic ? :- )) Last year we all expected so much , and got kicked in the teeth . We watch them far and wide , and for what - just to hear the gloating press and opposition fans tell us our Striker is poor and the team is going down . Well to all those , well ill tell you what to all those ill be sticking right in their pipe tomorrow whether they like it or not . We've all got family values , we all love success and to see OTHERS achieve , and im the first to congratulate those who do . To Alan Shearer the man who came to us and forsaked trophies ( aye i know he gets paid a princely sum for the disillusionment and we dont ) .. congratulations bonny lad . He has had the week of his life .. his first lad , 200 goals and top of the premiership with the club he knows and loves . Does it come any better ? He played football for all of us tonight and i wish you could all have been there to see it . The day began at Euston station and meeting Gav in the celubrious Coopers Arms .. Dan Maier the geordie Jew was drifting about unable to find us .. and a scream across the statio from aforementioned mackem sympathiser brought us together : -) Train delays due to a fatality in the Birmingham area on the train line ( rumoured to be a Wolves fan in need of consolation from georgian pursuits ) delayed us half an hour ... We left Euston at 5.30 , and chasing our tails from then on in . An influx of geordies at Milton keynes displaced the commuting masses and it was game on . Funnilyn at this stage even Gav and Dan's negative talk never strayed me from top of the league talk . A cab to the Red horse ( The old red horse i must add here LR ) and we arrived at 7.10 . Well bugger me if thats noty the seediest boozer this side of the Clyde . We mat with Jay and friend and Gav's Washington connections , a quick pint before the locals came too friendly served by the resident Rod Stewart look alike and were on wor way . We had seats in Row A of block B which if any of those have been to Highfield road are the front of the second tier and dare i say the best seats in the hoose for away fans .. more by good luck than good judgement mind . The lads started from our left and one of the first attacks of the game saw Cordone ( how the hell did he miss ) fail to convert a square cross along the six yard box . Fabulous interplay down our right for five minutes wit Dyer jinking , Shearer dragging and Cordone slicing , and the noise was incredible .. cue slopiness . Coventry somehow gathered momentum but flattered to deceive and pulled a fine save from given from a volley that was surely going in . The left channel proved fruitless , but increasingly Charvet came into the game ( my MOTM ) . the a long ball from i think Speed ( id had a few beverages ) came to shaere whose shoulder / chest control deserved a goal in itself - it was truly majestic - laid a ball into the marauding Charvets path .. he took the ball straight on into the box .. ran into three Coventry defenders , and fell ower ! PENALTY . Due dispatch , still Engalnds number one .. bottom right 1 - 0 .. delirium !!!! We are top of the league , and we believed it . ' Whers your driver gone , wheres your driver gone , far far away ' .. nedd i say more and the Coventry equivalent of the Gallowgate was silenced . How dare they question our support . A few minor scraes which i selectively forget and we go in 1 up . half time and a round up from the other grounds .. Chelsea 1 - 0 , Boro 3 up and we're happy lads . Second half and as usual they came out with a rocket up their ar**s .. dyer notably more productive and Speed challenging hard . Griffin who had looked slightly shaky following Domis replacement , looked awesome . he had lost opf time on the ball , and Goma shadowed his every move , which as the senior man tonight he did very well , is he the man to do this for us this season , i bliddy hope so . I just want to keep mentioning the back four , because where we were sat on the 18 yard line we saw it all . Aaron Hughes i said it after the Washington games and before the season started - this lad is the future . He had a great game tonight , he was invisible , nad why because he was where he needed to be at all times . Coventry had seen we wrer taking it all down the right , so YBR changed the tactics left , and the skill and chasing of Gallacher helped Dyer Speed and Cordone connect many many times before Gallachers comedy goal . One 's each in my eyes after Givens cocck up here a couple of seasons back . We never looked like letting one in , and every single man fought right to the 90th minute for these points . A long time since ive seen that . No Bartona nd no Dabizas and im afraid to say everyone they looked fresh and hungry . This is no freak , we are missing key players and 14 lads wore th black and white tonight .. but ill tell you what the four thousand behind me didnt half help :- )) Goodnight and Godbless , WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE :- )))

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2000

Answers

Cheers Sting, straight from the heart man, makes night shift go in a lot easier. I am glad Charvet had a good un

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2000

So different to Harry Potter:

Robson is refusing to get carried away with Newcastle's lofty standing in the table, but revealed his pre-match pep talk that had produced the performance for his team.

He said: "I am aware that we are top of the table but it doesn't mean anything at this stage. "But I did say to the players today that if this was the last match of the season and we had to come to Coventry to win the championship, would you be able to win tonight's game. "That was the question I posed to my players and they all said `yes'. I said `well that's what you've got to do'. I told them to use that philosophy and we were highly motivated.

"This time last year we had one point from seven games, now we have got nine from four matches so there is a marked improvement and we are heading in the right direction," said the unassuming Robson.

;-)))))

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Thanks Sting! I listened to the game - but your report puts the B&W color into it

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Thanks for the write-up Sting. It's good to know that the Toon Army was in fine voice. Nivva meynd the team's lack of success down the years - WE have always been the best.

Sounds like Bartinho has some competition with both Charvet & Griffin playing well although all 3 of them can play in other positions.

Great stuff Sting - it's just a pity one has to wade through these threads before you can get to read the latest "Big Brother" report. ;-) (A programme I've never seen I might add.)

WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE SAY WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Great report Sting! The webcast wasn`t bad, but nothing like being there!(:o)

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Can hear a little of bobby robson on the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/910000/video/_912042_bobby_robson_vi.ram

(sorry can't do clever linking stuff)

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

From Row Q, Block C I thought Gary Speed was outstanding in the middle of the park. Tackling winning in the air, passing was good, trust me every thing you could ask for from a central midfielder in an away match.

I thought Goma was commanding tonight and he needed to be with Roussell who put Goma through a lot. I'm not sure about Goma's tackling method of getting to the ball before the player as he could get turned so easily but thankfully he didn't.

Griffin performed well especially second half when the whole team upped it a bit. Charvet was solid but his passing to Dyer could have given us a far better outlet during the first half, Dyer's frustration was easy to guage.

I thought Shearer had a quiet game tonight apart from the goal. Williams was sticking to him all night and Cordone was too deep to make him move around. Lee was perhaps too reluctant to come forward especially when Speed was winning so much ball in the middle. (enter Bassedas/Dyer??).

Solano was missed tonight, his link up play with Dyer would have made a world of difference, as would Domi staying on for the full match!

Great away victory though, this time last year we would probably have played five at the back and settled for a draw. Top of the league at least until Saturday, we can beat Chelsea on Saturday.

Great moments were: a) Look on Shearer's face when he scored, looked like a big relief. b) Griffin taking the piss with some great skill before being cruelly hacked down by the Cov player who was about an hour late.

Support was excellent, constant throughout and that is why away games are so special.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

We pretty much controlled it & very impressed with Goma and Hughes together but the player who most surprised me after a long time out was Charvet who defended like a rock & got the pen.

Just one worry, Cordone seems a little raw.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

I`m wondering if Cordone is still trying to make his mark. You do seem to often see it with new players - you know what I mean, the headless chicken syndrome, and trying to be spectacular and doing it all on your own.(:o)

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Having read all of the reports posted here (thanks guys) and as many of the online newspaper reports I can find, its interesting reading. All of the reports on here seem to agree on who played well and the main events (at least from a toon perspective). However finding two match reports that agree elsewhere is impossible. Football unlimited has no bookings for the match, the times have dyer as the player brought down for the penalty and the mirror make shearer man of the match. I know which set of reporters I trust.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Cordone may have been trying too much but last night he was really doing two jobs. I'm sure his instructions were to drop deeper and help the midfield out a bit, which in an away match was probably the right way.

Cordone and Shearer seemed to be lacking a bit of sharpness and we can't blame Shearer really after the week he has had with no pre- season to talk of. Too much in the first half Charvet lumped the ball up to Shearer, which was getting us nowhere really and second half saw some fluent passing and even the crowd were taking the piss by cheering every pass.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

My voice still has come back properly after all that singing and having a pop at the Coventry fans with 'Your shite and you know you are' and the famous 'we can see you sneeking out'about 10 minutes before the final whistle :o) A great time was had by all.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

The Toon Army were fantastic! Came through loud and clear for the entire match.

Sting, great report - thanks! Are you up this weekend?

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Most derogatory chant: Down with the mackems, you're going down with the mackems, down with the mackeeeeeemmmms. Poor Cov

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Good work Sting, don't know what 'negative talk' you're on about, mind!

I should point out that comprehensive as Sting's report is, he failed to mention that the strongest, most impressive bit of running of the night came not from Dyer or Cordone, but from the three of us, towards the station at about 10.10pm, when we realised we were about to miss our train. If the bugger hadn't been delayed by four minutes we'd probably still be on the late-night Silverlink steam loco.

Spot on with the report, the back four were outstanding after a shaky opening fifteen. Attacking wise we could do a lot more though. Everything came down the right, generally through Charvet or Cordone, who for my money should've spent more time getting into the box. Dyer, who should've been pasting them down the flank, didn't get enough of the ball, and when he did was perhaps too generous in passing it on. Perhaps YBR's told him to less it with the mazy runs. Nowt down the left, perhaps because Domi was crocked, with the Griffster rightly less inclined to plough a furrow too far downfield. With Cordone playing deep or wide, Shearer spent too much time on his own, which natch meant the muscling back-to-goal stuff. We need him facing goal, running on to through balls more, as he did when YBR first took over. The back-to-goal stuff can only work if the likes of Cordone and Dyer make runs for the lay-offs, and that didn't happen enough last night - they weren't close enough often enough!

Saturday's the big test...I will love it if we beat them, LOVE IT!

WE ARE TOP O'THE LEAGUE!

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Went to the match with Jay,it was good to meet up with some of you in the Red Horse. Can hardly speak today but still managing a few renditions of "We are top of the league" How long can it last ?? I reckon we'll still be there at the end of the month but I'm a pint half full sort of person ;-) I was impressed with Goma's marked improvement over the last few games. Anyone know how long Domi's likely to be out ? Fantasy team ya see !

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

Your right about Shearer, he looked like he did this time last year, okay maybe not that bad and he's had a hell of a week, yeh I know. Cort should be back for Chelsea match, which will make the world of difference for him. Typical away performance last night.

I would think that Cordone will take up the Left wing position, as Glass was quiet last night. Will Lee make way for Solano? Speed was outstanding and we all know what Dyer and Solano can do as a linking pair.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000

A decent report on Football365 for once including an interview with Bobby. Click
-- Anonymous, September 07, 2000