January 6 2002

The FA Cup won't be coming to Selhurst this year

Right, you've read the reports, seen the goals and wondered if Clinton Morrison's strike really was offside. Now the fans at the game will give you their view of what actually did happen..

Our support was SUPERB, the team were SUPERB and some of the decisions were NOT SUPERB.

The stadium just blows you away! (and it's only half finished!!!!) The first half was quite well contested and until "that" free kick we looked fairly comfortable. The linesman seemed to need to think about the offside rule (for BOTH teams) and somewhat spoilt the Counter attack style employed by both teams.

Newcastle were blindingly quick going forward, and our defence looked a little slow. Popo looked a little unfit as did granville. MULLINS was outstanding and stood out in the palace side.

The second half, we came out and really played some great football. We even started to command the midfield. Aki suddenly hit some sort of form and Mullins was moving forward a lot more!

Gray and Morrison were causing problems by switching every so often, and when Clint scored we went BALLISTIC! Only to spot a bl00dy offside flag!! Was he off? I haven't seen the highlights yet.

Newcastle got their second, after Popo decided to run across his own 18 yard line with the ball!! What????????

ALEX KOLINKO WAS AMAZING!! WE COULD HAVE BEEN 5 OR 6 DOWN HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR HIM. BYE BYE CLARKE!

The local Geordie radio gave the Man of the match award to Given!! Tht must tell you something about our performance!! Well done lads. Lets carry it in to the league!!

Chris H

Normally I don't comment on referees (having one in the family), but yesterday was one of the worst I've seen (and I thought TF was rather diplomatic!)

I don't think there was any chance of Crystal Palace winning, had we gone ahead Newcastle would simply have "moved up a gear".

However, I can't remember the last time I witnessed such a blatant display of bias towards the home (Premier) time as I saw from Mr Riley. I was so incensed after the game that I resisted writing until now.

With the score 0-0, shortly before haft time, a Newcastle played kicked the ball, Popovic was struck on the chest (reports in the papers talk about the bruise to prove this). Yes, he may have instinctively raised an arm, but didn't make contact.

I'd suggest anyone being faced with a ball kicked at them from close range would do likewise. Does this always mean a free kick? To make things worse, Mr Riley allowed the kick to be taken at least 5 yards nearer the goal than where the 'incident' took place.

TWICE Mr Riley over-ruled the assistant and awarded Newcastle a throw-in. On one, the Newcastle player had clearly kicked the ball out of play.

A clear corner for Crystal Palace, signalled as such by the assistant, was changed to a goal kick by Mr Riley.

Not once were Palace allowed an advantage. In the second half Julian Gray was tackled, but kept his feet and was clear on goal. Mr Riley blew for a free kick. When Gray tried taking it quickly Mr Riley brought him back, so giving Newcastle a chance to defend.

Later Palace were awarded another free kick. A Newcastle player was no more than 2 yards away and intercepted the ball, yet on this occasion (being cynical, perhaps because Newcastle had possession?) Mr Riley chose not to insist the kick was retaken.

Finally the incident that has been commented on by the various TV pundits. Often judging offside can be difficult because of angles etc. On this occasion Mr Riley had the benefit of a white line (18 yard box).

Clearly TWO Newcastle players were standing inside the Newcastle area, Morrision was at least a yard outside. The assistant was perfectly placed and did NOT signal. Mr Riley chose to ignore all this and disallowed the goal.

I wonder how another official such as David Ellery or Uriah Rennie would have dealt? I'm certain Newcastle would have won the match - but FAIRLY. I just hope the assessor marks accordingly.

I'm not blaming the ref for the result, but for "strange" decisions. If you read the message properly I said at the beginning that I thought Newcastle deserved to win.

Watching the replays, one of Newcastle's was clearly offside, the other was much closer than ours. None of the TV commentators thought the decison was wrong on either of the Newcastle instances

Old Chap

On top of the referee though, the linesman who was on the dug out side of the pitch was terrible as well. His constant late raising of his flag really got to me yesterday, the worst being when someone played a pass to Thomson (I couldn't see if Thommo was offisde or not) but the linesman didn't flag, he waited for Thomson to run 10-15 yards to the ball, collect the ball, run forward for another 10 yards and then flag.

I don't think anyone had a bad game, Hopkin was probably our worst player in my opinion, but the thing that made me happy was our defence looked settled.

Popovic and Symons seemed to gel very well and Granville I think will be a very good player when he is match fit, coz he made some excellent runs but seemed a bit sluggish at times.

Gray and Morrison were excellent in the first half, running around everywhere, pressuring the keeper (something Jules forgot to do in the second half) and Aki had his best match for months.

Sammy the Eagle

No one really had a bad game, just some obvious areas where we were outclassed, Granville didn't play well, but given time will fit in well. Alex was voted MOTM by most of the people I spoke to after the game, (and by Alan Hansen as player of the day on the BBC).

The linesmen flagged on the basis of the players reactions throughout the game. I haven't been able to find anyone who saw it live, never mind on a replay, who thinks Clint was offside.

Mind you, one of their 2 disallowed gaols was kosher as well, and I haven't seen the other one yet.

We did outsing the barcodes (see below), but according to the lads I spoke to afterwards, there are only a few games (boro, & Sunderland) where they make any noise at home (bit like us really).

PS Ner ner, ner ner, ner ner ner ner ner ner for 25 mins really hacked them off. A medal should be struck for the lads with their shirts off, classic.

Jake d'Eagle

Gray and Morrison kept switching from centre to left up front which caused Newcastle a bit of trouble but Kirovski who I presume was meant to play on the right kept just drifting into the centre leaving Hopking very few options when he had the ball going forward.

Aki seemed to suddenly remember how to play football and had a good game. Don't think anybody really played that badly, Kirovski probably the worst for me, very quiet, and Popovic didn't look like the player we had before he went to Australia, then again thats probably down to fitness.

Alex Kolinko amazing once again! Wherever Clarke is hiding he can probably stay there for a while the form Alex is in at the moment I wouldn't drop him even if we had Gianluigi Buffon on the bench!!!

The free kick, haven't got a cue what it was given for. At first I thought it was a Popovic handball from the ref's actions but I'm sure Popovic was in the box and the free kick was given outside....

Atmosphere was incredible from Palace, non stop singing in the last half hour. St James is a lovely stadium, but the small chant of "s*** ground, no fans" had to be the funniest of the afternoon.

Well worth the trip even if we are out of the cup now.

Marco

Good on the Palace fans though, I thought they were the loudest set of away fans this season and gave our mute audience some real stick.

Neo - Newcastle United fan

The spirited visitors were always second best, although their fans out-shouted the Toon Army all day.

Ian Murtagh - Daily Star

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