Everton - 2 Newcstle - 1 Newcastle's title challenge is effectively at an end, their pursuit of the Premiership as good as conceded in acrimony yesterday as a critical oversight by the match officials left Bobby Robson seething in near surrender.
For all the effervescence of the outstanding Wayne Rooney it was the furore surrounding David Unsworth's penalty midway through the second half which prompted sighs of relief from Old Trafford to Highbury.
Thomas Gravesen's vicious hack at Olivier Bernard in the build-up was bizarrely ignored by the referee Neale Barry; as play continued, Jonathan Woodgate proved less fortunate in the area.
"It was an outrageous decision," bemoaned Robson, who had watched baffled from the dug-out as Rooney broke downfield while Bernard lay crumpled on the turf with both home and visiting players waving for a referee's whistle.
"I thought Olivier had broken his leg because he'd connected mid-thigh, so it was a poor non-decision by the referee. It's cost us. I think it's killed our chances, realistically, of nicking the title at the end. We won't give up but, if we'd won today, it would have been a massive victory. Instead it turned into a massive defeat."
Gravesen's lunge - high and spiteful on the full-back with the ball long since lost - may have been worthy of a red card in itself but it certainly merited a second yellow which would have seen him dismissed anyway. "It was a coward's challenge, one that could have ended a player's career," growled Alan Shearer.
Shearer, along with Everton defenders and a sheepish Gravesen, stopped to check on Bernard as the ball broke to the irrepressible Rooney. The 17-year-old - like his markers, oblivious to all the fuss in the other half - tore down the left flank, cut inside a pair of panicked defenders and slid a delicious pass for Kevin Campbell to collect. Woodgate's clumsy challenge on the striker was not contested, though the visitors wasted little time in venting spleen at the Danish midfielder and, erroneously, the young pretender.
As it is, Newcastle will have to win their remaining six fixtures - starting with the mouth-watering visit of Manchester United next Saturday - to stand much chance of a first title since 1927. Alex Ferguson's side represent the last daunting hurdle, with no opponent higher than 15th-placed Fulham left to play after that, but the sense of simmering disappointment after this match may still take time to be exorcised.
The early goal, which came after Newcastle struggled to recover from Jermaine Jenas's only mistake of the afternoon, settled any nerves the recent mini-slump might have generated. Gravesen's quick-passing corner-routine with Lee Carsley allowed the Dane to fizz a cross into the area which David Weir, escaping Titus Bramble, flicked on and Rooney, eluding Bernard, nodded in off the far post.
Campbell might have added a second, though Newcastle steadily found poise and, five minutes from the interval, duly restored parity. Woodgate's stunning crossfield pass, threaded between Everton defenders, was gathered by Laurent Robertwho sent a searing, swerving shot across and beyond Richard Wright from the edge of the area. Kieron Dyer had been livid when the Frenchman had tried an equally ambitious effort moments earlier. He was more appreciative second time round.
That prompted the visitors' most imposing spell of the match, Woodgate forcing Wright to tip a header on to the crossbar and Craig Bellamy flickering into life with a shot turned aside. Once the interval had punctured that momentum, though, it was only in the desperate latter stages that United rallied again.
By the end the Gwladys Street end was purring, the unlikeliest of challenges maintained with gusto as the crestfallen visitors contemplated their fate.
Guardian Service
EVERTON: Wright, Yobo, Weir, Stubbs, Unsworth, Watson, Carsley, Gravesen, Pembridge (Naysmith 84), Campbell, Rooney. Subs Not Used: Ferguson, Li Tie, Gemmill, Gerrard. Booked: Gravesen. Goals: Rooney 18, Unsworth 65 pen.
NEWCASTLE: Given, O'Brien (Griffin 77), Woodgate, Bramble, Bernard, Kerr (Ameobi 77), Jenas, Dyer, Robert, Shearer, Bellamy. Subs Not Used: Harper, Hughes, LuaLua. Booked: Woodgate, Ameobi. Goals: Robert 40.
Referee: N Barry.
Newcastle The run-in
April
Sat 12th: Man Utd (h)
Sat 19th: Fulham (a)
Mon 21st: Aston Villa (h)
Sat 26th: Sunderland (a)
May
Sat 3rd: Birmingham (h)
Sunday 11th: West Brom (a)
