Bolton get draw at St. James'

By Peter Donnelly
September 20 2003

Newcastle are still looking for their first win of the season, after they drew with Bolton 0-0 at home. The game was pretty even probably warrented a draw.

Newcastle
Given
Griffin, Bramble, Woodgate, Bernard
Solano, Dyer, Speed, Robert
Shearer, Bellamy

Bolton started the game well, forcing a few corners and testing Shay Given early on.

Newcastle came back into it though and flighted in some good crosses from corners, with Robert and Bernard linking up well a few times down the left too, although Laurent was poor overall.

The second half was again fairly even, for Newcastle Titus Bramble headed against the bar and Nobby Solano hit a good long ranger.

Shearer also had a very good chance but he failed to control his shot, as he fired over.

The other thing I can report is Ivan Campo's clear cheating tactics, which were laughable to be honest.

Final score, 0-0

We were desperate for a win today to get things back on track, but once again we didn't peform to our best. At least we didn't lose, but there are definately some issues which I would love to see resolved:

Please Bobby, just drop Dyer for once ! The lad has literally offered nothing for a while now. He never runs with the ball anymore and when he runs off the ball, he just cocks up when he gets it.

Bellamy has been pretty ineffective recently and it wouldn't be a bad idea to give LuaLua a chance alongside Shearer. His style could make all the difference.

Laurent Robert clearly isn't interested, it's as simple as that. However, we don't have a left winger to replace him - Hugo Viana is a centre midfielder and can't play left-wing well enough. I would actually suggest to play Darren Amrbrose there. Although he's right-footed he would definately give it more of a go than Robert and by all accounts is a pretty 'flexible' player.

However, a big mention should go to Titus Bramble today. The centre-back was immense, making excellent tackles and also firing great passes to the both flanks.