Newcastle fans cheer team off the pitch

POINTING to the press box, the disgruntled fan shouted: "Here, write this down. That mob are a bad lot. I'm telling you, they'll go down." Perhaps surprisingly, given the inept display he had just seen and the boos echoing around St James's Park, the grumpy Geordie was referring not to Newcastle but to Wednesday.

As they had just walked off with three more points to top the first worthwhile Premiership table and Newcastle's players were in the dressing room being harangued by the manager Kevin Keegan, the fan's comment seemed a touch unreasonable.

Thousands of others took a different view from Mr Grumpy: it was Newcastle who were the bad lot and for the first time in the Keegan era a side in black and white was jeered off the pitch. Keegan's relaxed demeanour did not suggest a man on the verge of a crisis, yet his words carried a weight beyond their calm delivery.

"The fans have always decided who manages this club," he said. "They get rid of him when they want to but we are not talking about funerals yet. Don't get too depressed."

The most telling comment of all was Keegan's admission that he has yet to find the right balance and does not know how long that process will take. "I've been trying a different way of playing. If we scored four in the first 15 minutes everyone would be raving about how unorthodox we are.

As it was, Newcastle scored only once, and that was the result of Faustino Asprilla "winning" a penalty. Shearer stuck it away emphatically but the goal signalled the end of Newcastle's early charge rather than the beginning of a rout.

There were other chances, notably Shearer clipping the bar, but Wednesday's manager David Pleat was correct in his assertion that Pressman was not exactly forced into a string of saves.

To most Geordies the cause of the imbalance is obvious. They will reserve judgment on the Ferdinand Shearer pairing but on Saturday the two centre forwards were joined by a third in Asprilla.

The Colombian does not seem content to lie wide on the right and whip in crosses for the others. That may not be his brief but the result is a lack of width. The player who deserves most sympathy because of this is Ferdinand - who has found two men occupying the turf that was his alone last season.

On the other flank Ginola had another poor 90 minutes. His declaration yesterday that the present system does not suit him "because I spend more time defending than I do attacking" will find little support among fans and his departure, possibly to Arsenal, may not be far away.

Meanwhile, Beardsley and Gillespie sit on the bench watching through their fingers as the defence disintegrates. In this form, if Howey is an England player, then so are most of us.

Keegan's purchase of Shearer was understandable in the context of denying Manchester United but it is his side's back line that requires urgent attention, and it has done for some time. Watson's stumble that gifted Whittingham the winner could be excused as a one off mistake but the general sloppiness that enabled Atherton to equalise so soon after Shearer's goal was indicative of greater overall deficiencies.

Wednesday were not flattered by the result. Srnicek made a fine full length save from Whittingham in the first half and the 18 year old Humphreys twice shivered the Newcastle woodwork with dipping volleys. In midfield Collins and Blinker were tenacious and skilful throughout and Pleat said that after a year he has finally instigated the changes to playing and backroom staff that he wanted.

And what a difference a year makes. In the third game of last season Newcastle won 2-0 at Hillsborough, a result that left Wednesday 14th, one place above where they finished. Newcastle went top.

. Everton defender Andy Hinchcliffe was yesterday called up by England as new boss Glen Hoddle found out all about the frustrations of being an international manager.

The 27 year old uncapped left back received the call to join the England party at their Buckinghamshire hotel ahead of Friday's trip out for their opening World Cup qualifier in Moldova next Sunday.

Darren Anderton of Spurs was forced out of Hoddle's thinking on Friday because of a recurrence of his troublesome groin problem.