Levadia Talinn - 0 Newcastle - 1: After two days in Estonia overshadowed by the mystery of their missing assistant manager and mounting talk of internal turmoil, it must have been a relief for Newcastle to play some football.
No matter that off-field matters will continue to be dominated by Kevin Bond's absence from the club after reports linked him with the impending Panorama investigation of the game's bung culture, this narrow victory provided a welcome respite.
With qualification for the Uefa Cup's lucrative group stage all-important, the win was crucial for Glenn Roeder. Newcastle's manager had said that 1-0 here would be "the perfect result" for his team to take into the second leg but, satisfactory as the scoreline must have seemed, watching this performance can hardly have felt like nirvana.
"We started well but in the second half we didn't look as sharp as you would expect us to be," said Roeder. "The players looked tired, which is quite unusual - but we won." He would have preferred to have done so with Bond alongside him but said little about his assistant. "There's no new developments. But I'm sure that, when we're ready or when he's ready, more will be said."
The Toon Army had been distinctly underwhelmed when Antoine Sibierski arrived from Manchester City on transfer-deadline night but Roeder has been at pains to stress the Frenchman's adroit aerial prowess. And so it proved. The game had barely begun when Sibierski marked his debut by angling a header beyond Artur Kotenko after connecting with Damien Duff's left-foot free-kick from near the corner flag.
"A trademark Antoine goal," enthused Roeder.
It was Sibierski's first strike for nine months but, significantly, that free-kick was won by Obafemi Martins, whose high-speed overtaking of Vitoldas Cepauskas suggested a threat which never quite materialised. In mitigation, Martins was not exactly helped by Sibierski, whose display was characterised by less than deft link play and at times a woeful first touch.
One such miscue almost gave Levadia a goal as Newcastle endured several defensive wobbles, most notably when Marek Lemsalu ghosted in front of Titus Bramble and almost sent a half-volley into the top corner.
By then, though, Bramble had picked up a leg injury which may put him out for three weeks and he was swiftly replaced by James Milner in a reshuffle in which the substitute was deployed on the right wing and Duff was relocated to left-back.
Roeder not over-endowed with central defenders, must have cursed the injury to Steven Taylor that necessitated the England Under-21 player staying behind on Tyneside but he may not have been quite as frustrated as the Tottenham scout who had travelled to Tallinn specifically to watch Taylor.
Although Newcastle struggled to conjure scoring chances, Milner at least gave his marker a work-out. At the other end Vladimir Voskoboinikov tested Shay Given when Newcastle's goalkeeper had to parry his strike. Emre Belozoglu hacked the rebound clear but only to the unmarked Konstantin Vassiljev who blazed over.
Martins' pace wasn't sufficient to prevent him variously being bundled off the ball, siphoned down cul-de-sacs and caught offside by a Levadia defence adept at guessing his intentions.
"I've no concerns at all about Oba," said Roeder. "I see what he does every day in training; once he gets a goal he'll score on a regular basis. He's got the extra responsibility of being our number one striker and I'm sure he'll take it on board."
Roeder could do with his £10 million signing from Internazionale rediscovering his shooting boots, preferably as soon as Sunday when an almost certainly Bond-less Newcastle will visit West Ham.
Guardian Service
LEVADIA TALLINN: Kotenko, Sisov, Lemsalu, Cepauskas, Kalimullin, Nahk, Dmitrijev (Kink 82 mins), Vassiljev, Dovydenas (Puri 71), Voskoboinikov, Andreev (Purje 65 mins. Subs: Stonys, Deniss Malov, Regelskis, Sander,Marmor.
NEWCASTLE: Given, Carr, Bramble (Milner 37 mins), Moore, Ramage, Duff, Parker, Emre, N'Zogbia (Butt 73 mins), Sibierski (Luque 80 mins), Martins. Subs: Harper, Huntington, Bernard, Pattison.
Referee: Martin Ingvarsson (Sweden).
