English FA Premiership/ West Ham Utd 0 Newcastle Utd 2: Newcastle United's summer shopping basket looked full of wise buys yesterday while West Ham appeared to believe they had left something behind at the check-out.
Goals from Damien Duff and Obafemi Martins, their first for Newcastle, upstaged the first Premiership starts for Alan Pardew's Argentinians, Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, both of whom were taken off as West Ham struggled to rediscover last season's thread.
Late in the match the Upton Park bubbles turned to bile as Glenn Roeder, the Newcastle manager who had once been in charge at West Ham, punched the air and waved to supporters while his goalkeeper, Shay Given, was receiving prolonged treatment after being caught by a lunge from Marlon Harewood. Roeder had been applauded by the home fans at the start but now several of them made a move towards the visitors' bench and had to be restrained by stewards and police. "I apologise if I've upset the West Ham crowd this afternoon," Roeder said later. "I did nothing more than any manager would do when his supporters are singing his name."
A badly winded Given was carried off and taken to a local hospital for an overnight check on abdominal pains.
It was not one of West Ham's happier days, coming in the wake of last Thursday's 1-0 home defeat by Palermo in the Uefa Cup. Newcastle, on the other hand, had clearly taken heart from their victory in Tallinn. The longer the match progressed the more Emre Belozoglu and Scott Parker dominated the midfield, with Duff's speed on the break always a threat.
This season Newcastle's finishing has often pined for the injured Michael Owen and the retired Alan Shearer but yesterday Martins looked as if he might provide a few of the answers. The forward linked the play intelligently and set up the first goal before scoring the second.
Lee Bowyer did offer West Ham a degree of profundity and in the 36th minute the former Newcastle player caught Given off his line with an audacious lob from a position on the right near the halfway line. Given looked beaten but the ball bounced just wide of the left-hand post.
Four minutes into the second half Martins found Duff on the left with no West Ham defender nearby. Duff calmly cut in to beat Carroll with a firm, low shot into the far corner.
With a quarter of an hour remaining Martins exploited an unusual lapse of concentration by Danny Gabbidon as he dispossessed the West Ham centre-back before clinically increasing the lead.
- Guardian Service