Newcastle Fury As Officials Make Mistake

There were more cries for video technology to be incorporated into football, as Everton and Newcastle departed from Goodison Park in the early kick-off. Everyone but the referee and his assistants managed to see James McFadden handling Shola Ameobi's shot on goal. The game was preceded by one minute's applause in memory of George Best, with both sets of fans paying a fitting tribute to the Manchester United legend.

The contained little quality, if any, with both teams failing to really settle into each others style of play. Newcastle edged the play in the first half with a number off opportunities to break the deadlock in the last ten minutes. The main incident was when McFadden clearly made contact with the ball with the use of his hand in order to prevent Shola Ameobi's volley reaching the back of the net. Nevertheless the officials failed see it, and instead, waved play on. As well as this, there were flaying arms between Tim Cahill and Celestine Babayaro towards the dieing moments of the half however, the referee, Howard Webb did not punish either play.

Just after the break Joseph Yobo rose to meet Mikel Arteta's corner as Everton battled to earn a deserved victory. The goal was clocked at 54 seconds into the half which shows how inspirational Graeme Souness' half-time team talk was. Newcastle struggled to make any impression and Everton were rewarded with three points, though they could have scored plenty more if it wasn't for the remarkable Shay Given in The Toon goal.