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MONTH THAT WAS - JANUARY 2003
Month that was - January was a month that saw the Toon play 6 games, win 4, draw 1 and lose 1. It saw the FA Cup come and go for another year. It was also the month that saw Jermaine Jenas pop his cherry (score his first goal in a black and white shirt) and then go on to grab another 3 very valuable goals in quick succession. It was a month that saw many twists, turns and shocks and none more glorious than the transfer signing of Jonathan Woodgate.
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4 Goals In 5 Games for JJ!
Jermaine Jenas celebrating his match winning goal against Bolton Wanderers which was also his first goal at St James' Park. |
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GAMES PLAYED
January 1, Newcastle Utd 1-0 Liverpool
The perfect start to the new month and new year. A 1-0 win over Liverpool on the back of a deflected Laurent Robert free kick as early as the 13th minute gave us all 3 points we desired. We culd, and maybe should have scored more as we were the better team, rarely threatened by the opposition but 3 points is what was important and it was 3 points we got.
January 5, Wolves 3-2 Newcastle Utd
A game which truly left the players, manager, coaching staff, board and entire city feeling rather sick. We were 2-0 down after half an hour of play and despite managing to pull ourselves level just before half time, we threw it all away early in the second half when we allowed Wolves to take the lead again through an Ndah strike. The only plus points were Shearer scoring and Jermaine Jenas getting his first goal for Newcastle United.
January 11, West Ham 2-2 Newcastle Utd
A rather even game which had some high points and low points. A result which probably was fair on both teams as neither team played particularly better than the other. Craig bellamy put us a goal up after just 9 minutes and then 9 minutes from time Jenas popped up for his second goal in as many games to save a point with a tremendous volley.
January 15, Newcastle Utd 2-0 Man City
The second return of Kevin Keegan to Newcastle United, a return that had far less fuss about it as the return last season as Keegan didn't want to make a big deal again as it's time for him to look forward with City, not back at Newcastle. But while not much fuss was made before the game, it took just 10 seconds for the crowd to be on his feet cheering as Alan Shearer gave us the perfect start, scoring the equal fastest Premiership goal as he charged down a Carlo Nash clearance. Bellamy completed the 2-0 win when he finished off a great flowing move envolving Jermaine Jenas and Laurent Robert.
January 22, Newcastle 1-0 Bolton
Jermaine Jenas got his 3rd goal in 4 games when he scored the only goal to hand us the win and all 3 points. He got the goal after 18 minutes in a half of football where we completely dominated with flowing football. The fans understandably expected the same in the second half and a big win, but unfortunately the players didn't deliver as they sat back and defended, something we're not used to seeing at St James' Park, especially against opposition the level of Premiership struggles Bolton but thankfully they held on and defended their way to 3 points, though rather luckily as truth be told Bolton probably deserved a point.
January 29, Tottenham 0-1 Newcastle Utd
Jermaine Jenas completed a rather brilliant month for himself and successful month for the Toon when he scored his 4th goal in 5 games. He grabbed the winner in stoppage time at the end of the game when he tapped home the ball. It was a game with both teams creating good chances and Spurs felt a little hard done by when Poyet wrongfully had a goal ruled out for offside which we took full advantage of.
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WHAT WENT ON?
Week 1 - Apart from the win against Liverpool and defeat to Wolves in the FA Cup, the big news in the first week of January was Academy midfielder Bard Orr signing a new 2 year contract with the club, Wayne Quinn joined heffield United on loan and the re-laying of our pitch. In the final weeks of December and early stages of January the pitch was in dreadful condition. The bad weather with the hectic Christmas schedule of games combined to make the pitch resemble a bog! But on the 4th the pitch was re-laid.
Week 2
The really big news from Week 2 was the shock reports in the newspaper, "News of the World," which lied about Laurent Robert saying he was unhappy at Newcastle and that he felt there was an anti-foreigner feeling from the British players. This was all complete lies from the paper which has made up false story after story this past year about Laurent Robert and this time Robert said "no more" as he and the club held a press conference to tell to the truth to the people.
The iother big news which left many Newcastle fans happy and releaved was the news that the club had finally let Spanish Flop Marcelino go. Alan Shearer also was handed two awards in the week as he won Premiership Player of the Month for December and won Premiership Goal of the Month for December for his volley against Everton. Craig Bellamy also signed a new contract with the club and we drew 2-2 with West Ham.
Week 3
In week 3 we defeated Man City at home as Keegan made his second return to St James' Park since leaving just over 5 years earlier. Big news in the papers was about the clubs interest in Leeds Utd defender Jonathan Woodgate and Brazilian World Cup winning midfielder Kleberson. All the papers went wild with speculation over the possible double transfer with Freddie Shepherd rumoured to be meeting with Kleberson's club in Brazil, then Leeds Chairman Peter Ridsdale over Woodgate.
Week 4
In the final week of January came the wins against Bolton and Spurs thanks to two JJ winners, Offiong went on loan to Scottish side Motherwell with Diego gavilan went to Brazil on loan and Neale McDermott left the Youth Academy and went to Fulham after an apparent bust up with Youth coaches though no official statement was made on that.
But the big news of the final week was when we completed a double transfer on the last day of the transfer Window. Though it was not the double signing rumoured in the papers the week before. We signed Jonathan Woodgate from Leeds Utd for 9 million pounds after days of he isn't comig, he is coming, he isn't coming etc... We also completed the signing of Hibernian 'keeper Tony Caig on a free contract too though, not the signing of Kleberson many hoped for after it was revealed we made a bid for the midfielder but his club rejected the offer.
PLAYER OF THE MONTH
Jermaine Jenas wins Newcastle United player of the month for January and it was well deserved as he was far and away the best of our lot throughout January. He had a solid match against Liverpool, scored against Wolves in the FA Cup, scored a late equaliser against the Hammers at Upton Park before playing a major role in our second goal against Man City and then went on to score another 2 goals against Bolton and Spurs, match winning goals at that.
So congratulations to Jermaine Jenas, Newcastle United Player of the Month for January 2003.
Would also like to mention on the official front, Sir Bobby Robson won Premiership Manager of the Month for January as we won 4, drew 1 and lost 1 of our 6 games which took us from 4th, just two points above 5th at the start of the month to 2nd, just 5 points behind league leaders Arsenal with a game in hand by the end of the month. Jermaine Jenas meanwhile came very close to finishing Premiership player of the Month as he was just beaten to it by Manchester United's Paul Scholes.
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Jonathan Woodgate Signs!
January 31st, Jonathan Woodgate completed a 9 million pound move from Leeds Utd to Newcastle Utd. |
Manager of the Month!
Sir Bobby Robson was handed the Premiership Manager of the Month award for January 2003. |
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