Robert's finishing touch calms nervous Newcastle

Newcastle United 2 Charlton Athletic 1

Sandwiched between Juventus and Dynamo Kiev in the Champions' League came Charlton, the traditional bread-and-butter League fixture, and Newcastle made a real meal of it. The lowly visitors took the lead and were only pinned back by defender Andy Griffin as they pushed the Magpies to the final whistle in a way Juventus never managed.

Newcastle coach Bobby Robson said: "I am really quite satisfied, particularly after Wednesday when we know how energy-sapping that was and how much the players had to give. Now we have done it again."

Griffin had only scored once in the four-and-a-half years since his move from Stoke, and it had been an unlucky goal for Juve No. 1 Gianluigi Buffon, who inadvertently turned Griffin's cross into his own net.

But yesterday there was no contention about the full-back's strike as, in the 36th minute, he hammered Alan Shearer's lay-off with unerring accuracy past Dean Kiely and in off the underside of the bar. "It was a rocket shot, a right pearler," said Robson.

Charlton's manager, Alan Curbishley, was disappointed his side hadn't taken advantage of Newcastle's exertions. "Considering they had a momentous game here in midweek and have another on Tuesday, I thought it wasn't a bad time to come here," he said. "We got a good start, but I thought we looked jaded and never got going."

They had difficulty even changing as local thieves had made off with their shorts, so Charlton took the field wearing Newcastle reserves' kit. Newcastle's first team found it much harder to perpetrate a break-in through Charlton's defence, where Richard Rufus was engaged in a compelling slug-out with Shearer. Although Shearer did not score, at one stage Rufus was reduced to a neck-lock to keep him in check.

Newcastle passed the ball around Charlton's defence prettily in the opening 20 minutes but had little to show for it except seven corners. The eighth came in the 21st minute, Laurent Robert swinging it deep from the left to meet Gary Speed's leap. From a yard, the Welshman slammed the inside of the post and Shearer, who last week scored his 300th League goal and this week was searching for his 100th for Newcastle, couldn't poach the rebound.

He did, though, start the next Newcastle move with a 50-yard pass that Robert killed and lifted into the path of Jermaine Jenas, whose volley cleared the goal.

And so it was Charlton who broke the deadlock with half-an-hour played. Claus Jensen, the architect of all their better moves, sent a high ball into the box and Andy O'Brien headed it higher still. When it dropped, Shaun Bartlett broke Titus Bramble's block and slid in his first league goal of the season.

It took Griffin just six minutes to level, but still Charlton should have gone in ahead at half-time. In the 40th minute, Scott Parker passed to Jensen who slid the ball on to Bartlett, but the South African couldn't beat Given for a second time.

Newcastle opened the second half with a vicious Robert drive that left Kiely at full stretch and Parker and John Robinson in a long argument about whose space the Frenchman had violated.

They plainly hadn't decided moments later when Robert was free again on the left as Nolberto Solano fed Shola Ameobi. The forward rolled Gary Rowett and played the ball into the winger, who struck a venomous shot for his first goal of the season.

Charlton were energised by three fresh pairs of legs in the last 20 minutes and only an heroic block from Aaron Hughes denied Rowett the equaliser. But with Bramble looking solid, Newcastle held on and now take on Kiev in good spirits. To borrow one more of football's culinary clichés, a win then would be the icing on the cake.

Newcastle United 2
Griffin 37, Robert 59

Charlton Athletic 1
Bartlett 30

Half-time: 1-1 Attendance: 51,670