Oba The Moon

After a gruelling battle at White Hart Lane, it was an Obafemi Martins wonder-strike that helped to eventually seal a needed win for the Toon Army.

The tone of the match was immediately set in the opening ten minutes, when Newcastle received a constant bombardment of Tottenham attacks only for the once-again incredible Shay Given to get in the way of. With Newcastle playing with much of their youth academy as a result of multiple injuries within the first team squad, it was down to a back four of Solano, Taylor, Ramage, and Huntingdon to provide a brave line of defence.

Spurs opened the deadlock on thirteen minutes with a Steed Malbranque run down the left before squaring to Defoe who converted his 13th goal of the season. At this Tottenham thoroughly deserved to be ahead, and could have been four or five up on the Tyneside club.

Nevertheless, they held their lead for barely two minutes with the inexperienced Paul Huntingdon dropping off the back post only to drive the ball underneath the unlucky Paul Robinson subsequent to a James Milner set piece.

Then came half-time which saw a bizarre array of incidents. Previously Given had become incensed over Dimitar Berbatov repeatedly kicking towards him at every opportunity. Although, referee Steve Bennet failed to recognise this as did his assistants. Therefore, Given - the captain, tried to argue his case before going down the tunnel only to be waved away by Bennet. In spite of this, Pascal Chimbonda became involved, whilst Butt also stepped in to trigger mayhem. Chimbonda slapped Butt face and the former Man Utd player responded with a shove right under the officials nose. Yet, Butt's teammate James Milner was forced to step in order to cool the incident.

Both Butt and Chimbonda were eventually booked.

When the football finally resumed it was Spurs who reacted better out of the two sides, and seven minutes after the break Berbatov volleyed home to send White Hart Lane crazy.

There were more fantasy moments to come, however, in this battle of attrition it was Newcastle who received a moment of good fortune this time. Martins scoring the equaliser from nowhere - a cracking left-foot shot into the top corner on 72 minutes. This helped warrant his price tag, being a truly sensational individual strike...



Soon after, Martins played a disguised through ball which Nicky Butt pounced onto, making the final score 2-3 in favour of Newcastle Utd.

In Sunday's early kick off, Everton were held to a 1-1 by Reading at Goodison Park. Although, the match seemed to be overshadowed by the appearance of Sylvester Stallone promoting his new film whilst entertaining the crowd in a way that only he could.

There was an element of fortune about the Readings' goal as Hunt's header from Shorey's free-kick ricocheted off Howard and eventually trickled over the line after Lescott's deflection.

Despite holding the lead for over an hour, Reading slipped up, allowing Andy Johnson to header home on eighty-one minutes , salvaging a point for the Merseyside club.