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Newcastle United	0 - 1	Leeds United
Half time:	0 - 0
Score Sheet:
		McMaster (88)
	Teams
John Karelse Ryan McGuffie Wayne Quinn Gary Caldwell Sylvain Distin Stuart Green Brian Kerr Jamie McClen Shola Ameobi Lomana LuaLua Olivier Bernard		Robinson Kelly Cansell-Sheriff Burns Duberry Newey Richardson Smith Farrell McPhail Wilcox
Substitutes:
Colin McMenamin for Ameobi (87)		McMaster for Richardson (68)
Subs not used:
Jon Brain James Coppinger Pedro Dimas Mark Boyd		Allaway Kilgallon Cramer Keegan
Bookings:
n/a		Burns (34) Smith (41) Newey (42)
Referee: Brittain
Attendance:  1,289. Spotted in attendance was Alan Shearer and Blackpool loanee Steve Caldwell, the latter cheering his brother on from the Newcastle bench.

Half time: Newcastle Reserves 0 Leeds Reserves 0

88 mins A Newby centre from the left was steered past Karelse from 12 yards by the head of Jamie McMaster for a late winner at the City end of the ground. 0-1 

Full time: Newcastle Reserves 0 Leeds Reserves 1

Tommy Craig commented:

"Nil-nil would have been an extreme disappointment because we dominated against a very good side for so long and created so many chances particularly in the first half.

"Their goalkeeper was their man of the match, and the goal Leeds scored came out of nothing.

"It looked as though the game was going to end as a draw but it was just a looping cross that came into our penalty area, their guy took a chance with a header, and it ended up in the back of our net.

"It's probably as sickening a result as I've had for quite some time because we didn't deserve to lose and I couldn't see a way Leeds were gong to win it. My concern was how we were going to get the goal we were due.

"But unfortunately, you don't always get what you deserve in football. But what we have to do is look at our positives that came out of another good team performance." 

Waffle

In the battle of former Newcastle and Scotland midfielders, Tommy Craig was once again left to reflect on his team's inability to convert chances and turn their domination into goals, while countryman Roy Aitken and his Leeds side departed with all three points.

Almost from the first whistle Newcastle pressed forward and created various chances, as Leeds were restricted to the occasional foray upfield. With LuaLua industriously grafting up front and buzzing around the Leeds backline, things initially looked promising, but our failure to snatch an early goal was to prove costly.

After having being sidelined from first team duty since the return of Alan Shearer, Shola was given a start in this game, but failed to impress with a marked reluctance to make himself available to his colleagues, and little support to LuaLua, who was almost a sole striker. Indeed, as the game wore on Ameobi drifted deeper and deeper and would have been taken off had the decision been a purely footballing one. As it was, he shambled through all but the last four minutes of the game, and would only have himself to blame if Lua beat him to a place on the bench against Spurs next weekend.

In midfield things were a bit brighter, with Jamie McClen enjoying his best game for a good while, Stuart Green showing flashes of his ability and Brian Kerr building up his match fitness with another comeback game. If anyone was quiet it was Bernard, who had an uneventful game on the left side of midfield, moving forward to accommodate the returning Quinn in the left back slot.

With uncle Bobby taking his usual place in the stand, Distin teamed up with Gary Caldwell at the back, and performed reasonably well against the returning Alan Smith in the opposition front line, finding time to gallop forward in the second half to bolster the attack and demonstrating a fair turn of speed in the process.

Ultimately however all the good work was spoiled by over-intricate moves in front of goal, a couple of good stops from Leeds 'keeper Robinson and a tendency from a number of players to go for glory shots rather than killer balls to well-placed colleagues. As things got more and more desperate, Leeds made a couple of forays upfield and Smith's neat turn into space on the edge of the box should have seen at least a shot on target to test Karelse rather than his blast over the crossbar.

If that was a prophecy, then it was fulfilled in the dying moments of the game when a seemingly harmless move down the left saw a centre come over that caught the defence napping, and saw substitute McMaster's sole contribution to proceedings as he headed home.

Two home games then so far, and no victories, while we've picked up 6 points out of 6 away from Tyneside. Kingston Park seems no more welcoming to our players than it is to those fans who wander up here.      

Biffa 

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