Newcastle 1 Leeds 0 - report

By Andy Baggott
January 8 2004

Leeds slumped to another loss as the threat of relegation continues to hang heavy over the club. Boss Eddie Gray made a few changes with the fir again Kelly replacing Richardson, Pennant in for the suspended Smith, and Seth Johnson being recalled at the expense of Bakke

Newcastle made the perfect start though, and it could only be one man who scored – Alan Shearer. The ex England man fired home from an angle after only three minutes. The first half then was all Newcastle, Dyer and Shearer both missing a hatful of chances to be out of sight before half time. We also had the unfortunate sight of Batty limping off, with what looked like a bad injury, and the former Newcastle man could be out for some time. His ill-fortune though saw Saloman Olembe get his first look in under Gray, and he showed enough in the hour he was on to suggest he is worth some more game time. Unfortunately he will be travelling to the African Nations cup, so Gray will not have that luxury. Leeds were very lucky to be only a goal down at half time, it could easily have been 4 or 5. The second half was a much more even affair. The very disappointing Seth Johnson was replaced by Michael Bridges, and the formation reverted to 4-4-2. This took a lot of pressure of Viduka, who worked tirelessly up front with little reward. Leeds started to press, and Matteo and Bridges both had chances to equalise, both times after great work from Viduka. Again there was plenty of endeavour from Leeds, but we missed that bit of quality. An improvement after the break, but there was only going to be one winner in this game. There were some positives though, Viduka was a handful, and worked hard, Pennant looked a threat on the right, and Kilgallon and Duberry had solid enough games. There were poor performances from Kelly, Harte and especially Johnson, who looked lost for most of the game. Tottenham comes up on Saturday, and Gray must be looking at reverting back to 4-4-2 from the start, which may mean a rare start for Newcastle target Bridges.