Newcastle 3-1 Middlesbrough

Newcastle United moved one step closer to securing Premiership survival after beating fellow crisis club Middlesbrough 3-1 in a huge game at St James Park.

Newcastle unsurprisingly played the match in front of an electric home crowd in their traditional black and white vertical stripes home shirt. The kit is manufactured by Adidas who add even more stripes to the shirt with their usual three shoulder stripes. The club also wear predominately black short and socks, both of which contain white details.

Middlesbrough wore their usual predominately red home strip for the away fixture as there was no colour clash between the kits. The shirt contains a white strip across the middle which includes sponsors “Garmin sat-nav”. The kit is manufactured by Errea who will be replaced next season by global brand Adidas. The shorts and socks are both red with small white details on both.

A pulsating match saw Middlesbrough take a shock early lead as Tuncay made Steve Harper make a good save from close range before the ball bounced off the unsuspecting Habib Beye and trickled into the net for an own goal. Nevertheless, the home supporters didn’t desert their team and they were almost rewarded minutes later as Mark Viduka cracked an instinctive shot off the post before Steven Taylor smashed over from close range. However, Taylor made amends just moments later as he headed in a Danny Guthrie corner to bring the Toon Army back to 1-1.

Newcastle were having the better of the game at this point and Michael Owen nearly ended his goal draught with a glancing header that was well pushed over by Brad Jones. With both teams hunting for the win, Shearer made a double substitution after 65 minutes with Obafemi Martins and Peter Lovenkrands coming on for Michael Owen and Jonas Gutierrez. Martins very quickly justified Shearer’s decision with a decisive finish from close range to send the Newcastle fans into hysteria. A nervy end to the game was made a whole lot more comfortable as Lovenkrands also justified his inclusion by slamming home a Nolan cross from close range with three minutes to go. With still two games to go, there is no doubt that there is still everything to play for. Nevertheless, the future of Newcastle United is now looking significantly brighter than it was 24 hours ago.