Spirit the key for Robson

By Alex O'Henley in Newcastle

Sir Bobby Robson hailed his two "old timers" who scored the goals which put Newcastle United FC through to their first European semi-final since they won the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969.

Fighting spirit
Alan Shearer and Gary Speed may now be in the twilight years of their careers, but their manager thought both players typified the spirit that secured Newcastle a hard-fought 3-2 aggregate win against PSV Eindhoven at Saint James' Park.

'Classic Shearer'
"Not bad for a couple of old timers," was Sir Bobby’s summary of the game against the club he coached twice in the 1990s. "I thought the first goal was a classic Shearer goal, losing his marker and getting a good header in. The second goal was a prodigious leap from Speed. It's one of the best goals he's scored and certainly one of the most important."

Defensive fraility
Despite travelling to Tyneside needing to score after a 1-1 draw in Eindhoven last week and out-numbering the home side in midfield, PSV failed to impose themselves on the game and did not manage a shot on target in the first half. They looked particularly vulnerable at set-pieces and Shearer was able to exploit some hesitant defending to open the scoring on nine minutes.

Set-piece threat
"We knew we'd be a threat from set-pieces," said the Newcastle captain. "It shows you how important it is to work at them. They can win you games and that's what we did tonight. I thought we thoroughly deserved our win."

Purposeful PSV
PSV looked more purposeful at the start of the second half and were level after 52 minutes. Laurent Robert and Olivier Bernard failed to clear their lines and the latter brought down Ji-Sung Park to concede a penalty, which Mateja Kezman duly converted. The defensive errors that led to the penalty clearly frustrated Sir Bobby and for a period of ten minutes the tie could have swung either way.

Gripping contest
"We made two errors, one on the byline and one in the box and from there the tie was open," said the Newcastle manager. "Another mistake and we could have been out, but that's what made the game so absorbing. It was a tense in the last 20 minutes and Shay Given made an excellent save to keep us in it."

Similar strike
To the relief of Sir Bobby and the 50,000-strong crowd, Speed put Newcastle ahead again on 66 minutes exposing PSV's frailties at the back once again. As with the first goal Robert's inswinging corner was not dealt with and Speed climbed highest to head the ball past Ronald Wattereus. The manner in which the Dutch side lost their goals was clearly a source of annoyance for coach Guus Hiddink.

Known threat
"We knew that Newcastle were strong on high balls, corners and free-kicks," he said. "I'm angry about the way we conceded the corners and how we dealt with them. From my point of view the goals we lost were presents to Newcastle."

Defending the key
Newcastle now face Olympique de Marseille in the semi-finals with the first leg at home next Thursday and while conceding that it will be another close encounter, Shearer is confident the players can rise to the occasion. "It will be a tough game; they all are at this stage," he said. "We are at home first and if we can defend like we've done in the past couple of games we have a chance."