£10 million difference

Newcastle v Watford

Saturday 16^th December

What with my Croatian friend having her birthday party last night, Rob and Sarah back from Doha for a couple of weeks, Deyika down from Manchester for the weekend and John back from Turkey for a day before heading to Morocco, I decided earlier in the week that I wouldn’t be on 7am coach for St James Park and settled for another afternoon in front of Sky Sports News. It didn’t make for happy listening. Richard Lee was being justifiably talked up and made a good save and Henderson forced the same from Given in the first half, which ended goalless, but Obafemi Martins, the Nigerian £10 million striker, continued to justify Roeder’s opinion of him and headed them in front early in the second.

8 minutes later, Henderson flicked on a corner for Hameur Bouazza to break our run of 5 games without scoring and I punched the air above our sofa in solidarity with the fans who’d travelled to the furthest away game we’ll have in the Premiership. Phil Thompson, watching the match and letting us know how it was going, claimed the match was stretched and that there was another goal in it. When he later said that the Toon had brought on Scott Parker and Damien Duff, who were excellent in the Carling Cup game at the Vic, the fear returned. Henderson missed another good chance to break this season’s duck but when Thompson shouted “goal!” off-screen I was biting my t-shirt. It was Martins who headed the winner in Newcastle’s 30^th game of the season (we’ve played 21).

Sheffield United and Blackburn both won away against teams in the top half (Wigan and Reading respectively) so Middlesbrough, 6 points ahead of us, are in the safe 17^th position. 3 southern teams are in trouble West Ham (home to Man U tomorrow), Charlton (beaten at home by Liverpool this morning) and Watford. The Hammers sacked Alan Pardew on Monday and Alan Curbishley is the new manager. Adrian Boothroyd, relentlessly upbeat, is probably safer in his position than Boro’s Southgate, so undemanding are the expectations.