Newcastle stifle Liverpool

By Ronald Kennedy of "Sunday Express"

While the deflated Kop melted away, Geordie fans cheekily sang them homeward with a blasting chorus of the Anfield anthem: "You'll Never Walk Alone."

They were celebrating a performance which not only brought them a well-earned draw, but a four point haul from their two meetings with Liverpool this season.

United allowed their hosts no breathing space to develop that devasting rhythm in a marvellously athletic game.

With even their formidable resources stretched by injuries Liverpool put Sammy Lee and John Wark to work but without effect, and the late emergence of manager Kenny Dalglish from the subs bench failed to produce that elusive winner.

Ian Rush was unable to break a demoralising five-match goal famine, the jinx stalking him once more when he fluffed a six yard sitter. Yet for all that the rest of his contribution was a joy to behold.

Rush said later: "I missed one for sure, the 'keeper made a good save from me and I had another effort kicked off the line. I have to keep going even though the goals have dried up. We played terribly at Arsenal last week and we were not at our best today, but at least we got a point. The fight for the title will probably go right to the end of the season."

Newcastle had their men of great touch, too. I need hardly introduce Peter Beardsley who on the day, was the No. 1 menace to the home defence. But I had not seen previously a 17-year-old playing only his second game for the Magpies.

Paul Stephenson, legs banana-shaped, looking as though he had been training at a greyhound stadium, and certainly in the first session when those legs of his had not wearied Jim Beglin was simply unable to get near him.

There was a sensational opening to the afternoon. With the first minute still alive Mark Lawrenson dropped Paul Gascoigne with a flying tackled from behind. The referee immediately thrust a finger towards the penalty spot - then we saw a flag aloft for an off-side infringement.

It was impossible to repress a chuckle when one found the linesman's name was ....Mr Everton !

Into the fifth minute and a bewildering move by Liverpool ended with a side-footer from Rush which Martin Thomas chanced to run into rather than save.

Stephenson again went flying past Beglin and his cross brought a juicy header from Billy Whitehurst only fractionally too high.

The action was gripping and, for Liverpool, sometimes frightening. In the 22nd minute - and the homesters could scarcely argue about the merit of the case - Newcastle nosed in front. John Bailey, with the sweetest of contacts, volleyed an enormous clearance from his own penalty area deep into enemy territory.

Beardsley, shaking off the attention of Lawrenson, saw Bruce Grobbelaar coming far off his line, and the lob, cunning in flight and pace, just managed to make it home off a post.

A couple of minutes later Rush must have felt that he would never score again. Having rounded the keeper brilliantly he deliberately angled his shot towards the net and stood back in amazement as John Anderson somehow scraped the ball from under the bar.

In the 34th minute Steve McMahon, strangely anonymous for once, produced a magical pass inside to Steve Nicol. The United defence was solidly formed and Nicol decided to go it alone - which meant threading his way across the penalty area line, cutting through two tackles and then firing diagonally into the far corner.

Just before the interval came that awful miss by Rush. Wark's 20 yard bomber was beaten away by Thomas and Rush, the ball coming nicely to him on the rebound, struck it over the top from six yards. His agony was there to be seen.

Not surprisingly, the pace dropped a gear from the interval onwards when Liverpool had enough of the ball to have made the game their own. A switch of positions by midfielders Lee and Johnston made no difference to the way Newcastle were able to shut players down at tremendous speed.

Just past the hour, Dalglish got an enormous ovation, when he replaced Wark, and five minutes later chanced his arm from 25 yards but the ball was always slicing away from target.

Newcastle were by no means idle and Gascoigne eluded Nicol. His final chip from the left was flicked away one-handed by Grobbelaar and his defence hastened to tidy up.

Young Stephenson worked himself a clear-cut opening with a jinking run past three defenders but the final strike with the left foot was desperately short of power and Grobbelaar was able to save.

Copyright - Sunday Express