Man City 3 – 0 Newcastle

ALTHOUGH the boo-boys targeted Joey Barton, it was Newcastle manager Graeme Souness who lost his head as this defeat saw his departure from St James’s Park.

A woeful display from the Magpies, whose only attempt on target was a free-kick from Emre easily gathered by David James, saw City stroll through one of the poorest Newcastle teams ever to wear the famous black and white.

But City can only defeat the team opposite and in a storming first-half the Blues went ahead with Albert Riera’s first goal since his move from Espanyol.

Sinclair sprinted to keep the ball in and pushed it inside for Barton to work to the byline before swinging over a cross that Cole missed but that landed sweetly on the Spaniard’s left foot, hitting it on the half volley past Shay Given.

City’s second arrived on 38 minutes when Vassell was given plenty of time in the box to chip a cross on to Andy Cole’s head for the striker to simply nod the ball past Given.

Although Newcastle came out in the second half and passed the ball well in front of the City defence it was clear that Cole and Vassell were looking to spring out on the counter attack.

And their patience came to fruition when Cole picked the ball up off Riera and without raising his head sent the ball over the flat Newcastle back four for Vassell to out sprint Boumsong and gently steer the ball past an unprotected Shay Given.

With the game over Stuart Pearce showed he has a firm understanding of people by bringing off Joey Barton, to applause and ultimately a man of the match award, for the introduction of the new £6 million striker Georgios Samaras.

He was straight into the spirit of the match with a solid shoulder charge on Boumson, and then a couple of rash challenges that in a tighter game may have seen him get a booking.

But he showed plenty of pace, and his touch will surely improve, to provide that something a little different up front when needed.