Newcastle 3 Reading 0

St James' Park

Saturday 15th August Kick-off 5:20pm

Coca-Cola Championship

Shola Royal Show

Second Championship Game of the season. Live on Sky Sports

Sir Bobby Robson was honoured as our first home match in the Championship League for sixteen years kicked off. A crowd of 36,944 was in attendance, while thousands more watched Live on Sky Sports. the minute applause and 'Walking in a Robson Wonderland' was tremendous.

Timmy Krul after his heroics last week reverted to the bench. Steve Harper resumed his position in goal having recovered fully following his head bang against West Brom last Saturday at The Hawthorns

Shola Ameobi stole the show with two headed goals and a converted penalty. He may have well found his level to be successful at. Starting a little nervy the Newcastle players went out to make St James' Park a fortress once more. The only change to the team from last week was Joey Barton who came in for the departing Damien Duff (Fulham have made a £4 million offer for the Irishman)

To the backdrop of a player exodus with Damien Duff and Steven Taylor wanted by Premier League clubs, we wondered how far Mike Ashley will go to deplete the squad even further. Only two days ago Caretaker Manager Chris Hughton called the squad paper thin. Since the end of last season Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, David Edgar, Claudio Caçapa, Peter Lovenkrands, Ignacio González, Mark Donninger, Obafemi Martins, Sebastién Bassong and Habib Beye have all left.

Newcastle were lead by Alan Smith as Nicky Butt was not risked having started light training this week following his broken hand. Chris Guthrie also resumed training.

Alan Smith could have easily been sent off early on for two bruising challenges. Andrew Taylor the match day referee, decided to talk to our Captain after booking him for his first encounter. Another day and Alan would have seen red no doubt. The first goal came at the Leazes end in the 37th minute when Shola header bounced up and over the Reading keeper, after Jose Enrique had sent in a perfect cross. Two minutes later and Shola had this time forced a save out of the Royals stopper. Half time we went in one nil up.

The second half opened with Newcastle on top again. The decisive goal came in the 60th minute when Shola headed home again from the edge of the six yard box, following a cross from Ryan Taylor.

Pressure from Kevin Nolan forced a corner in the 73rd minute. Joey Barton's corner was chased down by Steven Taylor forcing Reading's shane Long to hand ball. The referee agreed with us in the Gallowgate end, step up Shola for his hat trick, no messing and he celebrates with everyone in the corner.

The Times have reported that Mike Ashley has put any managerial appointment on hold while Barry Moat attempts to put the finances together to buy him out. Mike has given him five days. This is some good news at last following the tripe we had to put up with this week from the national press and SkySports - O'Leary, Curbishley, Kinnear were their exhaustive list. Lets hope Moat is successful within the next five days and Alan Shearer follows asap.

Chants of Ashley out and Shearer Shearer echoed around the ground from time to time, as Mike watched on from the directors box. With the message delivered the crowd focused on supporting the team throughout the match. The corporate's also stayed away with all of the boxes in the Gallowgate corner empty and closed.

Steven Taylor was last off the pitch as usual, please don't go.

Later reports had Sol Campbell sat in the stands and apparently looking for a contract.

 

Caretaker Manager Chris Hughton Said:

on Shola Ameobi

"He is a local lad and for any striker to come away with a match ball is always a very, very proud moment for them. What we wanted first and foremost was to win the game, and if we were able to do that by scoring goals and putting in a performance, that was certainly going to be a bonus.

We had good periods of the game against a very, very good passing side, and the first two goals were of the highest quality."

 

Shola is Quality Chris Hughton talking to The Chronicle

“I was delighted with the performance, the win and the quality shown by Shola Ameobi. There’s no doubt he’s a good player and he showed his quality against Reading. It’s well documented that his form has been up and down here at times and, of course, he’s had some injury problems, but there’s no doubt about his quality. We’re getting used to every day somebody being mentioned (leaving) in the Press but there’s been no interest in him that I know of. There’s no doubt that he had a big (hip) operation and an unusual one in footballing terms that hindered his progress. But I can only speak for the period of time I’ve been here. We’ve experienced a team that didn’t do well enough to stay in the Premier League and Shola falls into that category the same as everybody else. His form was up and down last season.”

 

Reading Manager Brendan Rodgers Said:

"It's one we won't cry about. It was a great experience today here for the young players.

Newcastle is a wonderful club with a big history and stature and it was good for my players to experience that, and we will be better."

 

Injured

Nicky Butt (Hand), Chris Guthrie (Hamstring)

 

Head to Head

Reading @ St James'Park:

• 2009/10 Won 3-0 Ameobi 3
• 2007/08 Won 3-0 Martins, Owen, Viduka
• 2006/07 Won 3-2 Sibierski, Martins, Emre

 

Match Facts

• Possession Newcastle 54% - Reading 46%
• Shots on target Newcastle 7 - Reading 4
• Shots off target Newcastle 9 - Reading 6
• Corners Newcastle 11 - Reading 9
• Fouls Newcastle 8 - Reading 7

 

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