Roeder berates inept Newcastle

FA Premiership/Charlton Athletic 3 Newcastle United 1: There are times when the caretaker takes centre stage, as Harold Pinter would cheerfully confirm, and yesterday was such a day for Glenn Roeder, Newcastle's stand-in manager. The normally affable and quietly spoken Roeder, who has been in charge for six weeks, finally lost his patience after the side's fourth successive defeat, their third in the league.

After an extended post-match inquest with his players he said: "It's more than disappointing - I'm angry. We're giving cheap goals away, goals a manager can't legislate for. At this level it's just not good enough. The manner in which we lost today was unacceptable.

"The players have got to realise that if they want a long career at this football club, whoever the new manager is going to be, they've got to cut out the mistakes and be much more consistent.

"The players made silly mistakes today. They were woeful with all three goals. They have been told today and they must be big enough to take it."

In truth, Newcastle were not as bad as they had been in recent weeks. Charlton manager Alan Curbishley reflected the opinion of most when he said: "It was a good game, an open, end-to-end game."

Both sides had already reached safe waters but they produced a competitive and entertaining match. That will be of little consolation to Newcastle. Roeder made a bright start but suddenly caretaker is looking more like undertaker. At least relegation is beyond them.

Martin O'Neill was again linked with the job yesterday but any Newcastle supporter who scoured the stands for a sight of the Northern Irishman did so in vain; O'Neill, surely, can do better than this.

Charlton, meanwhile, moved up two places to 11th and look good for the top-10 finish which Curbishley craves. The club have a habit of falling away in the last act but he says: "This time, for the first time, I have everybody fit for the run-in, so hopefully things will be different. After all the criticism we've had in recent seasons I'm looking for a strong finish."

This was only Charlton's second Premiership win at home to Newcastle. They had taken the lead with a penalty after 23 minutes. Newcastle were playing the ball neatly out of danger when the accident-prone Jean-Alain Boumsong made another mistake. Under no pressure he gave the ball away, which resulted in Craig Moore making a lunging challenge on Jerome Thomas for which he was penalised. Darren Bent converted for his 20th goal of the season.

Newcastle equalised, appropriately, through Scott Parker, making his first appearance at The Valley since his move to Chelsea for £10 million, two years ago.

In the programme and on the pre-match video Curbishley had praised Parker for his contribution to the club - not least for the funds his transfer released. This did not prevent some gormless Charlton supporters chanting: "There's only one greedy bastard." They were silenced, for a while, in the 35th minute when Parker received the ball from Alan Shearer and from 25 yards out drove it high into the top right corner for the goal of the match.

But Charlton were ahead again in 101 seconds and it was another Valley old boy, Lee Bowyer, who scored it. Peter Ramage was trying to clear the ball but hit it into Bowyer and back past Shay Given.

For most of the second half the outcome was in the balance. But then, in the 89th minute, Charlton scored the clincher, substitute Jay Bothroyd glancing home a header with his first touch after a surging run and cross from Dennis Rommedahl.