THE sound of pandemonium just about managed to drown out the incessant whirring of Freddy Shepherd’s fax machine last night, as Newcastle United served up conclusive evidence to their chairman that Wayne Rooney is not the antidote to their most pressing needs. In squandering a 2-0 lead to Norwich City, their deficiencies in defence were painful, their perilous status obvious.
It was another wretched evening for Sir Bobby Robson, who has begun this season with his authority drained, dealt with an outbreak of conjunctivitis, been forced to discipline the rebellious Kieron Dyer, lost his one commanding centre half and now presided over a testing sequence of one victory in 11 matches. The manager is not alone in puzzling over the bizarre state of affairs at St James’ Park.
Craig Bellamy continued his blistering run of form and scored Newcastle’s opening goal, but is not enamoured with Shepherd’s pursuit of Rooney. “He’s my sort of player,” the Wales international said, “but if he came, it would be direct competition for me. I love this club, but I’ve missed too many games through injury to sit on the bench. I’d have to review my position.” Shola Ameobi has expressed similar sentiments.
That brought a sharp rebuke. “Craig is doing too much talking,” Robson said. “He has signed a contract to play for Newcastle and he should honour it, like everyone else has to. I’ll tell him that face to face. What does he want to do, be the manager or a player? He’s done very well, he should enjoy his football, but he can’t make threats to the club. It’s another story and I’m sick of it.”
Bellamy also said: “No disrespect to Norwich, but against better sides, we will get hammered.” No one, not even Shepherd, could be oblivious of that. Since losing Jonathan Woodgate, who, admittedly, would not have figured in this fixture, to Real Madrid, Newcastle have a hole to fill. Suffice to say, Rooney would not have prevented either Norwich goal.
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It is impossible not to feel sympathy for Robson, who has dragged Newcastle up by the bootstraps only to find his laces tied together, but the manager’s entire side were jeered from the pitch after this fiasco, which featured an isolated blunder by Shay Given and some witless marking.
Yet the distribution was slack, the crossing average and Dyer — reinstated to the team because of the knee injury sustained by Jermaine Jenas — non-existent. Queasy stomachs were only temporarily settled shortly before the interval, when James Milner found Stephen Carr on the overlap and Shearer nodded the ball back across the goalmouth for Bellamy to pounce on a hooked volley. By grasping the lead, Newcastle’s confidence lifted, but no sooner had Aaron Hughes scored his first goal for nearly two years, greeting Laurent Robert’s corner with a crashing header five minutes after half-time, than they were coming to terms with more difficulty.
NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-4-2): S Given — S Carr, A O’Brien, A Hughes, O Bernard — J Milner (sub: F Amoebi, 75), K Dyer (sub: L Bowyer, 84), N Butt, L Robert — A Shearer, C Bellamy. Substitutes not used: S Harper, R Elliott, P Kluivert.
NORWICH CITY (4-4-2): R Green — M Edworthy, C Fleming, C Charlton, A Drury — P McVeigh (sub: M Jonson, 67), D Francis, G Holt, D Bentley (sub: L McKenzie, 72) — D Huckerby, G Doherty. Substitutes not used: D Ward, M Svensson, T Helveg. Booked: Fleming.
Referee: M Halsey.