Martins grows into role and shirt

Newcastle - 2 Levadia Tallinn - 1: The pilot of Newcastle's charter flight home from Estonia two weeks ago indicated a rather hazy knowledge of football when he made an announcement congratulating "Glenn Roper and his team on their Fifa Cup win".

Despite the fact that the accuracy of much of the home passing last night proved similarly sketchy in this second leg, Glenn Roeder's Newcastle United secured a safe passage into the Uefa Cup's lucrative group stage.

It was guaranteed courtesy of two superbly executed goals from the hitherto anonymous Obafemi Martins, who may come to regard this as the night when he finally started to feel as if he belonged in the club's famous number nine shirt.

Tyneside rumour has it that Scott Parker will be named in Steve McClaren's next England squad, but Roeder left Parker on the bench here, offering his midfield anchor a chance to catch his breath before Sunday's trip to Old Trafford.

Yet, without him Newcastle struggled to control the midfield, ceding the Estonians a chunk of first-half possession.

In Parker's absence, Nicky Butt was afforded a rare start but he soon demonstrated how far his stock has fallen since Pele proclaimed him the outstanding player of the 2002 World Cup.

Mere minutes had elapsed when Butt's loose pass was intercepted by Vladimir Voskoboinikov and it required a well-timed recovery tackle from Titus Bramble to salvage the situation.

Roeder has newly re-affirmed his faith in the error-prone centre half, but such belief may well have been sorely tested when, even earlier, Bramble's self-destructive sliced clearance dropped at Voskoboinikov's feet.

Newcastle got away with that one and, even if there was often a little too much space between Bramble and Steven Taylor, the latter's interventions tended to be impressive.

Indeed, with Levadia's final ball invariably lacking guile, Steve Harper was barely tested.

But then neither was Artur Kotenko. With Newcastle offering next to no threat from open play, their menace was restricted to set-pieces, notably when a Taylor shot from a corner was blocked on the line by Ats Purje, when an Emre free-kick arced over the bar and when another dead-ball kick by the Turk was palmed away for another corner by Kotenko.

But worryingly for Roeder, by half-time, neither Martins, Newcastle's £10m summer signing from Internazionale, nor his similarly anonymous partner Antoine Sibierski, had managed to direct a single effort on target.

So it was in marked contrast to much that had gone before when at the start of the second half Emre's right-sided corner proved supremely incisive, picking out Martins, whose prodigious leap for such a small man saw him out-jump all comers to direct a header beyond Kotenko.

As the Nigerian celebrated with aerial somersaults, Levadia's players shook their heads in bewilderment.

Yet, the Estonians had evidently been lulled into a false sense of security by Martins's slow burn first-half show because it was not long before he doubled Newcastle's advantage.

This time the goal began with a deep cross from James Milner, which resulted in Sibierski cueing up Martins for a subtly swerving left-foot shot dispatched from just inside the area which rocketed towards the top corner.

After that, you might have anticipated that Levadia's body language would suggest that they were ready for the plane home but, instead, they reduced the deficit.

It is not a moment Harper will dwell on, the goalkeeper allowing Indrek Zelinski a header from Tihhon Sisov's cross to slip through his hands.

However, Martins had already done enough to ensure that a week which began with the sacking of Roeder's assistant, Kevin Bond, concluded on a brighter note.

Guardian Service

NEWCASTLE: Harper, Carr, Bramble, Taylor, Ramage, Milner, Butt, Emre (Parker 80), N'Zogbia (Duff 70), Martins (Luque 70), Sibierski. Subs Not Used: Krul, Moore, Ameobi, Pattison. Goals: Martins 47, 50.

LEVADIA TALLINN: Kotenko, Sisov, Lemsalu, Cepauskas, Kalimullin, Dovydenas (Sander Puri 55), Vassiljev, Nahk, Dmitrijev (Kink 63), Purje, Voskoboinikov (Zelinski 63). Subs Not Used: Stonys, Marmor, Kristian Malov, Regelskis. Booked: Dmitrijev. Goals: Zelinski 65.

Referee: Kristinn Jakobsson (Iceland).