SOCCER/English FA Premiership: If anyone questioned Steve McClaren's decision to relinquish his role with England, here was evidence aplenty to back him up. Middlesbrough, for all their poise in possession, awake this morning bemused and beaten; there is clearly still plenty of work to be done on Teesside.
A rip-roaring Tyne-Tees derby was killed off by Stephen Caldwell's volley three minutes from time, planted beyond Mark Schwarzer to leave this flattering victory reverberating across the north-east. To add insult to injury for Middlesbrough, their defender Franck Queudrue received a second yellow card in the dying seconds to be harshly dismissed for the second match in a row.
With his side facing five league and cup games in 12 days, this was no time for United's manager, Bobby Robson, to lose his first-choice centre-halves. Caldwell stepped in, the 22-year-old Scottish international making his first start in 20 months.
The fluidity of Middlesbrough's midfield appeared to catch the home side cold. So elusive were Geremi, George Boateng and Jonathan Greening that McClaren must have been mystified as to how his side trailed at the interval.
That they did owed much to the gummy form of their strikers. Queudrue's wriggle beyond Andy Griffin and cross was ideal for Massimo Maccarone, but the striker's header was cleared from the line by Aaron Hughes with Joseph Desire Job loitering.
Geremi was then allowed to charge into space and hammer in a shot which Shay Given palmed away at full stretch from the on-rushing Szilard Nemeth. Job and Geremi twice more threatened to pierce the home side's rearguard, but it was Newcastle who emerged from the frenzy to score.
Maccarone, tumbling in Hughes's presence, was still whingeing about his penalty appeal being ignored when Boateng surrendered possession for Gary Speed to advance. The Welshman's low cross was collected rather luckily by Shola Ameobi, the ball flicking from ankle to instep to flummox Gareth Southgate, with the forward emerging from the muddle to belt an emphatic shot across Mark Schwarzer and into the far corner.
The visitors' mood hardly improved when Caldwell appeared to wrestle Ugo Ehiogu to the ground in the area, though they had been warned.
Robert twice found space to pummel near-post volleys, and Alan Shearer hammered in what should have been a second only for the referee Graham Barber to penalise Ameobi in the build-up.
That let-off sparked Middlesbrough to rediscover their rhythm. Maccarone gathered Greening's pass and thumped a shot from 25 yards against the post.
Yet as they frittered away their chances the visitors inevitably lost their composure. The increasingly tetchy reaction of their snarling midfielders to anything approaching a home tackle indicated all too clearly that they realised this was not to be their night.
- Guardian Service
NEWCASTLE: Given, Griffin, Hughes, Caldwell, Bernard, Solano (Dyer 71), Jenas, Speed, Robert (Viana 71), Shearer, Ameobi. Subs Not Used: Elliott, Harper, LuaLua. Booked: Griffin, Shearer. Goals: Ameobi 20, Caldwell 87.
Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Parnaby, Southgate, Ehiogu, Queudrue, Geremi, Boateng, Greening, Job, Nemeth (Marinelli 70), Maccarone. Subs Not Used: Vidmar, Crossley, Cooper, Wilkshire. Sent Off: Queudrue (90). Booked: Ehiogu, Queudrue.
Referee: G Barber (Hertfordshire)
