CITY 1 NEWCASTLE UNITED 0
Barclaycard Premiership
24th August 2002
attendance 34,776
scorer Huckerby(36)
Ref Uriah Rennie
City Schmeichel, Wright-Phillips, Jensen, Sun, Howey, Distin, Berkovic, Benarbia, Foe, Huckerby, Anelka – subs Horlock(79), Dunne(unused), Tiatto(unused), Goater(unused), Nash(unused)
.
Newcastle Given, Bramble, Dabizas, Hughes, Solano, Speed, Dyer, Jenas, Bernard, Shearer, Lualua – subs Viana(72), Ameobi(72), Griffin(57), O’Brien(unused), Harper(unused)
.
City showed Keegan’s desire for attack as Darren Huckerby was brought in to partner Nicolas Anelka in attack, and he didn’t disappoint, the former Magpie ran at the Newcastle defence at every opportunity and the ‘toon’ defence looked flustered. It was Huckerby who sealed the victory for the Blues after 36 minutes, a Niclas Jensen shot was parried by Shay Given and the ball looped into the air and Huckerby flung himself at the ball to head home from a couple of yards. City controlled the game coming close on many occasions, Huckerby the closest with a goal-line clearance by Dabizas robbing him of a second goal.