Obafemi Martins and Peter Lovenkrands climbed off the
substitutes' bench to hand Alan Shearer a first victory and
Newcastle a Barclays Premier League lifeline with a 3-1 win over
Middlesbrough.
The Nigeria international struck within seconds of replacing
Michael Owen with 20 minutes of a pulsating encounter remaining and
the Dane secured the points with four minutes left to drag the
Magpies out of the relegation zone and send Hull into the bottom
three.
• Shearer
savours breakthrough win
It was Newcastle's first home win since December 21 and just
their second anywhere in 18 attempts in what Shearer had described
as the biggest match of his career, and he celebrated accordingly
on the final whistle.
But opposite number Gareth Southgate could have few complaints
about the effort his players put in as they fought for their
top-flight lives to the death, although their plight now looks
desperate after an 11th successive away league defeat.
They had taken a third-minute lead when the unfortunate Habib
Beye bundled the ball into his own net after goalkeeper Steve
Harper had blocked Tuncay Sanli's close-range shot.
However, defender Steven Taylor levelled within six with a
bullet header after Boro old boy Mark Viduka had hit the post on a
night when both sides enjoyed spells of control in front of a
passionate crowd of 51,252.
Owen, who admitted his disappointment at being dropped for the
trip to Liverpool last time out in his programme notes, returned to
the starting line-up in one of five changes as Shearer went for
broke.
However, with Boro also having reached the point of no return,
Southgate too adopted an attacking approach with record signing
Afonso Alves partnering Marvin Emnes in attack as the Dutchman was
handed a first league start, and Stewart Downing lined up on the
right in an attempt to test makeshift full-back Damien Duff.
The first goal arrived within three minutes of the kick-off, but
for Shearer, it came at the wrong end and with a good deal of
misfortune.
Tuncay turned well on Alves' pass, but looked to have overrun
the ball.
He got there just ahead of the fast-advancing Harper, who
blocked, only to see the rebound ricochet back off Beye and into
his own net.
Newcastle's luck did not improve at all three minutes later when
Viduka blasted a shot towards Brad Jones' top corner, but with the
goalkeeper looking on helplessly the ball cannoned back off the
post.
But if there was any sense of despondency at St James' it
disappeared with nine minutes gone when Taylor rose to meet the
first of a series of Danny Guthrie corners and guided a header past
Jones.
The home side took the game by the scruff of the neck and Jones
had to pull off a vital fingertip save to keep out Owen's flicked
27th-minute header.
But Boro gradually eased their way into the game and with
Downing and Tuncay prospering on the wings and Emnes causing all
kinds of problems to stretch the Magpies defence, they threatened
to restore their lead.
They very nearly did just that when the Dutchman benefited from
Mohamed Shawky's tackle on Viduka deep inside his own half and
blasted in a shot which Harper blocked with his legs, and the
striker wastefully dragged the loose ball wide.
Alves later departed on a stretcher to be replaced by Marlon
King, but the game was very much in the melting pot as the players
headed for the dressing room.
Viduka might have put the home side ahead with the cheekiest of
efforts when he back-heeled Beye's 46th-minute cross wide of the
far post, and Nicky Butt drilled a free-kick into the defensive
wall as the Magpies started brightly once again.
But Boro's response was concerted and as the home side
completely lost both their shape and concentration, it took an
excellent save from Harper to keep out Gary O'Neil's goal-bound
57th-minute strike.
The Teessiders were by now looking the more likely to break the
deadlock, and Shearer decided the time had come to replace Jonas
Gutierrez with Lovenkrands.
But it was Martins' arrival as a 70th-minute substitute for Owen
which proved the turning point.
Viduka headed on a high ball past Kevin Nolan and the Nigerian
stepped inside Matthew Bates before dispatching the ball past Jones
despite slipping as he shot.
The noise inside St James' almost lifted the roof, although the
game was far from over as the home fans settled down for an
agonising finish.
But Lovenkrands calmed the nerves with four minutes remaining
when he thumped home Nolan's cross to seal a win as important as
any in the club's recent history.
Shearer savours breakthrough win After the
match Shearer ordered his players to enjoy their victory in the
biggest match of his career - but not for too long.He said: "I have
just said to them, 'Enjoy this tonight, enjoy that winning feeling.
You have worked your socks off to get it, now it's in our hands'."I
said to them before, 'It's been a good weekend, let's go and make
it a great one tonight with the right result'."It's been a great
weekend for us - but there are another two weekends to come."It's
the first game of three. We asked them to go out and get three
points, they have done that."They were magnificent under difficult
circumstances. They have got now to go and do that again on
Saturday, enjoy that winning feeling and hopefully, there's another
one there on Saturday."But it will be just as tough because Fulham
are flying themselves."Shearer added: "I have just said, 'Enjoy it,
enjoy it lads because we have been in that bottom three for a long
time. Enjoy being out of it and let's make sure we are not back in
there again'."I really believe we will [stay up], but we have won
one game."Let's enjoy this tonight, but we are back in tomorrow and
preparing for Saturday."There is still a long way to go. I don't
want to sound negative, but it's one win. We have got to get
another two and make sure we are safe."Boro manager Gareth
Southgate, who lost record signing Afonso Alves to a suspected
broken bone in his foot, was left to reflect on key decisions which
went against his side in the run-up to Martins' strike.He said:
"For them to lose in manner we did having gone ahead is very
difficult for all of us to take. It's a tough evening for everyone
associated with our football club."The players gave everything, but
unfortunately, key events on the night went against us."The second
goal, looking at the television pictures, I thought at the time it
was a foul on [Robert] Huth by Viduka, but it was also offside."It
then dropped straight to their guy - they are key things and
unfortunately, they didn't go for us."