NEWCASTLE UNITED'S season of overwhelming expectancy, fuelled by the £15 million signing of Alan Shearer last August, finally found some fulfilment yesterday.
Having performed the part required of them, Newcastle's players had an anxious few minutes at St James' Park while they waited to hear the news from Hillsborough, where one of their rivals for the prized second place in the Premiership, Liverpool, were playing Sheffield Wednesday.
The news was good and Newcastle now go into the European Cup preliminaries this August with a place in the enlarged Champions League at stake.
After Faustino Asprilla had clipped in the first and Les Ferdinand followed up with a quick double, the result was never in question. However, on an afternoon of almost uninterrupted pleasure, Kenny Dalglish will surely have derived great satisfaction from the famous "Dalgleesh" chant being sung with some gusto on the Gallowgate for the first time since he succeeded Kevin Keegan in January.
Afterwards, Dalglish was keen to recognise Kevin Keegan's role. He also praised his players for coping with the "turmoil of Kevin leaving and then kicking themselves on".
The final day is full of possible last appearances and Pavel Srnicek, on the transfer list, seemed intent on making an impression with two fine, improvised saves to thwart first Scott Gemmill and then Steve Chettle. However, once the David Batty/Robbie Elliott combination started to seize the midfield and Newcastle got their opener, all changed.
For all Forest's composure, Warren Barton won a 21st minute challenge on Brian O'Neill and exchanging a swift pass with Shearer, fed Asprilla who burst through David Phillips and Colin Cooper and beat Alan Fettis effortlessly.
Three minutes later and the contest was effectively over. From a cute Asprilla pass, Ferdinand dragged in his 20th of the season, his 100th Premiership goal. Without Stuart Pearce to lift them, Forest's spirit collapsed and Ferdinand was able to lash in the third in the 27th minute unimpeded.
Newcastle were now able to knock the ball around with ease and when Shearer ran onto a deflected Elliott shot and nodded in the fourth, we were once again in landslide territory.
Finally, it was Elliott, so prolific of late, who hit the fifth with a stinging 20 yard drive 13 minutes from the end.
It did not secure the biggest cheer of the second half, though. That had come five minutes earlier when Peter Beardsley was at last ushered off the bench by Dalglish. Whether the 36 year old is around for the next stage in Newcastle's evolution remains to be seen. It will be an interesting summer at St James' Park.
