ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Newcastle Utd 2 Aston Villa 0:OBAFEMI MARTINS goals last night lifted Newcastle United off the bottom of the table and into 14th position. Aston Villa dominated the opening period only to see their ambitions thwarted by a significantly tightened second-half display from the home defence.
A match featuring two managers both deploying two outright wingers in orthodox 4-4-2 formations gave the evening had a slightly old-fashioned feel. There were crosses galore and an early meaty lunge from Steven Taylor, who was perhaps fortunate to escape a booking for going in hard on his former team-mate James Milner as the pair contested John Carew's ball into the box.
Gareth Barry very nearly created a goal after pulling out wide from his central-midfield station. Out-jumping the defence, Martin Laursen connected with Barry's cross and directed a header against the woodwork.
Meanwhile tempers were rising and Villa did not look overly amused when Damien Duff appeared to dive in the face of Luke Young's challenge before vainly appealing for a penalty.When Joey Barton appeared to say something to Gabriel Agbonlahor the visiting forward was so incensed he bundled him to the ground as they tangled for possession only for the referee to award the ensuing free kick Villa's way.
Shortly afterwards, in an incident unseen by the referee Barton, ultra gently, flicked Agbonlahor in the face with a touch of his palm. Agbonlahor merely shrugged his shoulders and Barton's apologists will no doubt insist it was a trivial gesture, yet a midfielder with his considerable amount of previous cannot afford to be on anything but his very best behaviour.
Perhaps unsettled, the slackly marked Agbonlahor missed a sitter, inexplicably failing to make contact with Milner's uber-inviting low right-wing cross well inside the area and after the winger had dodged Fabricio Coloccini.
Reprieved, Newcastle poured forward and Brad Friedel was forced to dive smartly to gather Barton's low shot. Although a couple of Martins' shots flashed over his bar, Martin O'Neill's goalkeeper was generally underworked and the home fans began wondering when Joe Kinnear might consider liberating Michael Owen from the bench.
Agbonlahor was showing off the sort of turn of pace once synonymous with Owen, and one such sortie concluded with him playing in Ashley Young who turned Taylor before his shot was bravely blocked by Shay Given, who saw the ball rebound off his chest. Busy at both ends, Taylor then failed to make the most of a splendid Habib Beye cross, the centre half making the mistake of hesitating for a milli-second as a glorious scoring evaporated in front of him.
Barton's timing was even worse nine minutes into the second half, when he was rightly booked for a late tackle on Luke Young. Now he really needed to watch his step.
Equally, Martins needed to mind his language after being booked for dissent in the wake of Carlos Cuellar's challenge. Yet if Martins has been picking up some bad linguistic habits from Kinnear, he made amends on the hour. Latching on to a fine through ball from Barton - the frustrating thing is the midfielder really can play - Martins turned Nicky Shorey before unleashing a left-foot shot from the edge of the area which had beaten Friedel almost before it left his boot.
Nicky Butt nearly doubled Newcastle's lead with a free kick which swerved just wide of an upright. No matter. Martins turned in a second from close range after Jonas Gutierrez switched from the right wing to the left and, having sashayed past Nigel Reo-Coker, sped past a couple more Villa markers before centring for Martins to apply the final touch.
Guardian Service
NEWCASTLE UTD:Given, Beye, Coloccini, Taylor, Jose Enrique, Gutierrez, Barton, Butt, Duff, Martins (Cacapa 88), Ameobi (Owen 90). Subs not used: Harper, Guthrie, Bassong, N'Zogbia, Geremi. Booked: Beye, Barton, Martins, Ameobi.
ASTON VILLA:Friedel, Luke Young, Cuellar, Laursen, Shorey (Sidwell 72), Milner, Reo-Coker (Harewood 85), Barry, Ashley Young, Agbonlahor, Carew. Subs not used: Guzan, Davies, Knight, Salifou, Gardner. Booked: Barry, Luke Young, Sidwell.
Referee:Steve Bennett (Kent).
