Aston Villa 4 Newcastle United 1: Keegan builds Newcastles in the air after latest surrender
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Your support makes all the difference.In the second half their corner of the stadium was so dazzled by the sun that the away fans would, as one, raise a hand to shade their eyes whenever the ball left the ground. The impression was of a mass salute – a reflex of unconditional, martial loyalty to a Newcastle United team whose feeble capitulation might sooner have justified them in covering their eyes altogether.
With his hands in his pockets, and his features frozen between a grimace and a grin, Mike Ashley seemed too dazed to attempt either gesture. Perhaps even the club's owner is beginning to realise that he is building Newcastles in the air.
In the final moments of the game – after Gareth Barry, the regular Villa penalty taker, had indulged John Carew with the opportunity to complete a boisterous hat-trick – the Holte End offered their guests a heartless verdict on what they had seen since half-time. "One Kevin Keegan!" they sang gaily. "There's only one Kevin Keegan!" The Geordies promptly joined in, so bringing to a suitably surreal conclusion the latest, and much the most disturbing, of their misadventures since Keegan's return.
There are, of course, at least two Kevin Keegans: the engaging, energetic figurehead who has previously imbued the club's delusions with fleeting substance; and the brittle, emotional character who is often glimpsed in adversity.
After just five games in charge, he retains an air of composure. "One of the things I think I can help with is the spirit," he said. "I've always been like that, as a player [too]. When players take a few blows, they do start feeling sorry for themselves, start to think: 'Not again'. Once they get past that, we have got the ability here to cause people problems. We've just got to get them believing in each other a bit more."
If the fragility is for now confined to his players, it must be said that Keegan had little idea how to fortify them when things started to go wrong. Instead it was Martin O'Neill who turned the game inside out. Villa had been so static that some idiots, spoiled by his achievements so far, booed them off at half-time. A less cerebral manager might have succumbed to a sense that a team beaten at Fulham the previous weekend had simply gone off the boil. But O'Neill pulled off a couple of day-dreamers and unleashed Marlon Harewood, whose failure to break into the starting line-up – despite injury to Gabriel Agbonlahor – had left him pawing the ground.
In barely five minutes Newcastle were behind. Harewood and Carew were bullocking their way through at will, though if anything their delicate foil, Ashley Young, was causing even greater panic.
Young's international future is looking rather brighter than that of Michael Owen. Though he had given his team an early lead – with a header, mark you, albeit he had to stoop to connect with the ball – Owen cut a hapless figure, marooned by the meltdown behind him. Curtis Davies, in contrast, did nothing to support the notion that he might become Capello's Chris Powell.
O'Neill was delighted for Carew, urging him if anything to learn the benefits of being "more selfish", and acknowledged that Harewood had rejuvenated the team. As for Young, he declared: "A class act. Wet through he wouldn't weigh nine stone, yet his legs are so strong, he can deliver a corner kick from a standing position. And always great delivery."
Keegan insists that his team, porous as it is, should be too solid for relegation. In fairness, he must have swallowed hard when he saw his first few fixtures. But malignant fortune can soon take on a momentum of its own, and the wounded lions of Manchester United are next.
A better symbol of the club's dysfunctional impulses at present is Joey Barton. Already facing criminal charges of actual bodily harm and affray, Barton could yet find himself in trouble with the Football Association if video evidence corroborates allegations that he took a swing at Shaun Maloney.
"The reality is, the reason I came to Newcastle is because there were problems," Keegan said. "It's a big challenge. It's not just a case of coming in and waving a magic wand." Nobody expects that – not outside Newcastle, at any rate. But the waving of white flags is another matter.
Goals: Owen (4) 0-1; Bouma (48) 1-1; Carew (51) 2-1; Carew (72) 3-1; Carew pen (90) 4-1.
Aston Villa (4-4-2): Carson; Mellberg (Gardner, h-t), Laursen, Davies, Bouma; Petrov (Harewood, h-t), Reo-Coker, Barry, Young (Osbourne, 89); Carew, Maloney. Substitutes not used: Taylor (gk), Knight.
Newcastle United (4-4-2): Given (Harper, 54); Beye, Taylor, Cacapa, Carr; Milner, Barton (Emre, 74), Butt, Duff; Smith, Owen. Substitutes not used: Enrique, Faye, Viduka.
Referee: L Mason (Lancashire).
Booked: Aston Villa Carew, Reo-Coker; Newcastle Butt.
Man of the match: Carew.
Attendance: 42,640.
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