Football: Keegan offers no defence
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Your support makes all the difference.Newcastle United 1 Sheffield Wednesday 2
The after-match scene in the St James' Park press room was an uncanny microcosm of the 90 minutes which had left Sheffield Wednesday still pleasantly surprised occupants at the top of the Premiership and the Toon Army embarrassed to squint nine places up the table to the name of the unexpected pace-setters.
David Pleat stood patiently and barely noticed at the back of the pen- pushing pack as Kevin Keegan forsook the defensive option and opened his heart. "Probably the worst home performance in my reign as manager," Keegan said. "In the end we were committing suicide . . . The only way we can stop goals at the moment is by boarding up our goal . . . Everyone's got the right to say we're a poor side because I think we are at the moment . . . I'll go down with these players. It's my ship. I'm the captain."
When Pleat got his turn to step forward he kept a tight rein. "It gives us a base for the season," he said of the Owls' flying start. "We're not a classic side," he added, lest anyone should run away with the idea that he thought Hillsborough suddenly had a team fit to see off the big money boys.
Wednesday might not have a pounds 28.5m forward line and a manager who attacks his public speaking duties with the same unrestrained flair his team brings to match duty but in Pleat they have a manager who can maximise his resources with intelligent organisation, and who appreciates that what you do while in possession is only half of the battle.
As he confided in one of the corridors: "When Newcastle lose the ball, that's your chance against them - if you've got enough pace. The important thing in football is when the possession changes."
In the end, Wednesday did not even have to win possession to unsettle their opponents. The Newcastle defenders did it for them.
The mis-placed Steve Watson header which invited Guy Whittingham to score what proved to be the winner, 10 minutes from time, could have been dismissed as an unfortunate mistake. But the pass Steve Howey presented to Orlando Trustfull, who seemed so startled he fluffed his finish, was more symptomatic of Newcastle's lingering defensive incohesion.
Keegan was right to point out: "Had we scored four goals in the first 15 minutes we would have been stood here raving about us being unorthodox and flamboyant and fantastic."
But that opening flourish produced just one goal, for Alan Shearer via a debatable penalty award, and the advantage was quickly cancelled when Newcastle's statue-like defence allowed Peter Atherton to beat Pavel Srnicek with a glancing header.
"The fact that we didn't get the reward for some really good attacking football," Keegan continued, "and we're stood here talking about defeat turns the colour from a lovely bright one to black. I refuse to get sucked into that. I'm a very optimistic person."
Sound play when not in possession is unlikely just to turn up, Micawber fashion. Saturday's match, for Newcastle, echoed their performances against Manchester United at home and Liverpool and Blackburn away in the closing weeks of last season. For all their attacking flair, they finished pointless and in disarray at the back once again.
Wednesday, with a little shrewd investment and a lot of perceptive plotting, have made their best start to a top-flight season for 29 years. Newcastle, if you count the Charity Shield, have not lost three of their first four matches since the 1988-89 season, which ended with their most recent relegation.
Another defeat in their next match would not set the alarm bells ringing, but losing to Sunderland at Roker Park would be as bitter a blow as relegation to the Gloom Army.
Goals: Shearer pen (12) 1-0; Atherton (14) 1-1; Whittingham (85) 1-2.
Newcastle United (4-3-3): Srnicek; Watson, Albert, Howey, Elliott; Lee (Clark, 77), Batty, Ginola; Asprilla (Gillespie, 64), Ferdinand, Shearer. Substitutes not used: Beardsley, Peacock, Hislop (gk).
Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Pressman; Atherton, Walker, Stefanovic, Nolan; Collins, Whittingham, Pembridge, Blinker; Oakes (Hyde, 70), Humphreys (Trustfall, 61). Substitutes not used: Nicol, Donaldson, Clarke (gk).
Referee: P Jones (Loughborough).
Bookings: Sheffield Wednesday: Stefanovic, Blinker, Hyde.
Man of the match: Blinker.
Attendance: 36,452.
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