Chelsea too strong for Shearer's Newcastle
Alan Shearer unable to inspire his side to victory
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Saturday, 04, Apr 2009 09:51
Alan Shearer's reign as Newcastle manager gets off to disappointing start as they lost 2-0 to Chelsea at St James' Park.
St James' was rocking even before Shearer had come out of the dugout and unsurprisingly the entire place, which included another Newcastle legend Paul Gascoigne in the crowd, erupted once the Toon messiah made his appearance.
Shearer's first team-sheet saw him restore his old strike partner Michael Owen to the first-team and the discarded England forward was paired up-front with Obafemi Martins.
Chelsea were without the injured Didier Drogba, but had top scorer Nicolas Anelka back. The Blues knew they had to forget the euphoria surrounding Shearer and concentrate on themselves getting a win which would keep them in the title race.
Ashley Cole started brightly for Chelsea and his cross into the penalty area was met by Salomon Kalou at the near post and he forced Steve Harper into a good save with a header.
Newcastle's best chance of the first-half fell to Martins. Chelsea defender Alex allowed a cross from Jose Enrique go over his head with Martins standing behind him.
But the striker was too slow to react and the ball hit his knee and went out for a goal kick.
The Magpies then had Habib Beye to thank for keeping the game goalless as the defender put Nicolas Anelka under pressure when the striker was through on goal and Anelka ended up skewing his shot wide.
Anelka was instrumental in helping give his side the lead, but Shearer would have been incensed with the part his defender Fabricio Coloccini played in the goal.
The Argentinian defender took an age on the ball and Anelka took advantage to steal it off and smash a deflected shot against the bar, with Frank Lampard on hand to head the ball home.
Chelsea compounded Shearer and Newcastle to defeat nine minutes later when they scored their second. Petr Cech pumped the ball downfield and Anelka flicked the ball on before Lampard set up Florent Malouda who smashed the ball past Harper.
The home side thought they had got a goal back when a shot from Owen took a deflection off Cole and Newcastle were adamant the ball had crossed the line, but the referee decided not to give the goal.
But in the end Chelsea deserved their three points and it wasn't to be a fairytale start for Shearer as Newcastle manager.