Newcastle just don't know how to give up

And so Newcastle United stay in the championship race for another week. They're still not saying they can win it. They are still not even saying that they can take the lead again. All they are doing is taking it match by match. "Never easy, never over," Bobby Robson said.

Robson was talking about Saturday's game when he said that, but when the time for reflection comes in 97 days, and Newcastle unveil their end-of-season video, Never Easy, Never Over would serve as an appropriate title.

Never say never, we are told, but for the last two months in particular Newcastle United have consistently said never.

Having been 1-0 down last Wednesday to Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, Newcastle fought back to win 3-1. On Saturday, they came back from 1-0 down again, then 2-1, to prevail 3-2. It was the fifth time they have won from behind since their historic victory at Highbury on December 18th.

Right back Aaron Hughes mentioned his club's relatively favourable run-in, yet they were still 14 to 1 for the title yesterday morning. Now that Newcastle are "well balanced, not lop-sided" and "confidence is flowing", the Champions League is the target.

This season fourth place would give Newcastle that opportunity, and the £5 million sterling signature of Jermaine Jenas from Nottingham Forest, coupled with Carl Cort's reserve-team return tonight, will help them achieve that.

Not that Cort will walk back into the team. Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy not only scored Newcastle's three goals here, their overall play continued an impressive standard they've set.

It was Hughes who created two of those goals. Shearer's second - his 10th in 11 games - was a bullet header just before half-time. Bellamy's winner, another header, came with 11 minutes to go.

But it was Shearer's first that altered the game. Ricardo Gardner's acceleration and excellent finish had given Bolton Wanderers the lead in the 19th minute.

Four minutes later his goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen held the ball, under pressure from Shearer, for nine seconds. Football's most infrequently enforced law allows six seconds.

From 17 yards, Shearer drilled the ball into the bottom corner. From the stands the Bolton manager, Sam Allardyce, emerged on to the touchline to abuse the referee David Elleray. Elleray could miss a decapitation under his nose, but time-keeping, that is far more important.

NEWCASTLE: Given, Hughes, O'Brien, Dabizas, Distin, Solano, McClen (Acuna 81), Speed, Robert, Shearer, Bellamy. Subs Not Used: Elliott, Harper, Ameobi, Bernard. Goals: Shearer 23, 43, Bellamy 79.

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, Barness, Bergsson, Whitlow, Southall, Farrelly, Nolan (Pedersen 81), Charlton, Gardner, Bobic (Holdsworth 85), Ricketts (Hansen 88). Subs Not Used: Forchelet, Poole. Booked: Jaaskelainen. Goals: Gardner 19, Southall 34.

Referee: D Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill).