United and Newcastle extend Premiership soccer battle
By Vic Mills
LONDON (JP): On an evening that saw Ajax and Juventus win through to the final of the European Champions Cup, Manchester United and Newcastle continued their Premiership battle to see who would represent England in next season's competition.
Little was resolved at the end of an anxious night of football as both Manchester and Newcastle recorded one-nil victories over Leeds and Southampton respectively.
Manchester United thus remains three points clear at the top, although Newcastle has a game in hand.
Leeds, having lost 4-1 to Chelsea on Saturday and with just one win in its last 10 games, were without the injured Tony Yeboah, there was no place either for its expensive misfit, Tomas Brolin.
Alex Ferguson made three changes to the side that lost to Southampton. Brian McClair replaced the suspended Nicky Butt and Phil Neville was preferred to his brother. The best news for Old Trafford faithful though was the return, after a 10-game layoff, of Gary Pallister.
His pairing with Steve Bruce lasted just 18 minutes, however, before Bruce suffered the recurrence of a hamstring injury that looks likely to keep him out of United's remaining games including the Cup final.
Ironically, the cause of Bruce's injury produced the evening's talking point.
His through ball to Andy Cole saw Leeds keeper, Mark Beeny, sprint off his line only to handle the ball fractionally outside the penalty area. Referee, Keith Cooper, had no alternative but to send him off.
The number 13 jersey, unlucky for Beeney, was taken by defender, Lucas Radebe. No stranger to the role, he began his career in South Africa as a keeper.
The expected avalanche of goals, expected by many of the 48,382 crowd, failed to materialized as United's display held all the characteristics of Saturday's defeat.
It was an edgy, anxious Manchester side which, although having plenty of possession, singularly failed to pressure the substitute keeper.
Wasted
Chances were created but all to negligently wasted. The main culprit being Andy Cole who Ferguson substituted on the hour. With just 12 goals in 40 appearances this season, Cole may well find his place under threat, for United's remaining fixtures at home to Nottingham Forest and away at Middlesbrough, from Paul Scholes.
To their credit, the 10 men of Leeds contested every ball and made life extremely difficult for the home side. At the back, Andy Gray showed himself as a talent for the future.
After relentless second-half pressure, United eventually went ahead with a 72nd minute goal from Roy Keane. United's most industrious player, Keane stepped inside two challenges on the edge of the Leeds penalty box before firing low to the right of Radebe's despairing dive.
The goal was enough to take the points, but this was a far from convincing display by Manchester United.
It was a similar story a hundred or so miles to the north as Newcastle beat a spirited Southampton by a single goal.
The award of Man of the Match to David Batty signifies the type of game it was on Tyneside.
It was a night where the running, tackling and covering of the artisan far outweighed the contribution of the artist.
Ginola and Asprilla nevertheless had their moments. Indeed, it was a pass from the Colombian that set up Robert Lee for Newcastle's winner.
Happy to play in the controversial position wide on the right, Lee collected Asprilla's 10th minute pass, moved into the penalty box, cut inside, and hammered the ball to the right of Beasant for his first goal in four months.
Beasant, a former Newcastle's goalkeeper, had his revenge 20 minutes later as he saved a Boardsley penalty after Benali had brought down the marauding Lee.
A second goal would have calmed Newcastle's nerves, but it never came and as such Southampton was always in with a chance. Shipperly, one of the heroes in the win over Manchester United on Saturday, hit the post with a header. The best chance, unfortunately for the visitors, fell to a defender, as Benali failed to make the most of a volley with only Hislop to beat.
A goalles second-half made for another nervous night at St James' Park for the crowd of 36,554.
The downside to the evening saw manager Kevin Keegan withdraw two players from the England squad for next Wednesday's friendly against Croatia. Robert Lee with a hamstring injury and Lee Ferdinand with a broken toe, the casualties.
The injuries apart, and whisper it softly, but Newcastle's luck would seem to have changed. For errors -- punished with goals in the recent losses to Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn -- have, in the last two victories, either hit a post or managed to be deflected by an errant boot of knee.
All of which goes only to confirm that this particular title race will go down to the wire.