Dyer shines for Magpies

Newcastle 2 Bolton 1

The England player capped a breathless performance with the 68th-minute strike which clinched a fourth victory inside 10 days for the Magpies, 2-1 this time in the Premiership. Dyer's performance further exorcised the ghost of his fracas with former boss Bobby Robson and his police-station showdown with his new manager earlier this season.

"I thought he was excellent again, and the goal rounds it off," said Souness.

"He has obvious ability on the ball and the more he plays there, the more he is understanding the position. I have got no complaints with him.

"We have had one unscheduled trip to a place I did not want to go and I am sure he did not want to go - but other than that, he has not been a problem. Our crowd have accepted him back into the fold because he is a hard-working player, and if he works as hard as that he should be accepted back."

Souness could not resist a dig at departed striker Craig Bellamy as he assessed Dyer's rehabilitation.

"He is still a young man; he knows he made a mistake - but he picked the bill up for somebody else when he refused to play on the right-hand side," he said.

"He was not the first one at this club to refuse to play on the right hand side for the previous manager."

Dyer's goal eventually settled the match in Newcastle's favour and they could have won even more comfortably had Jussi Jaaskelainen not pulled off a fine double save before the break. Lee Bowyer had put the home side ahead on 35 minutes with a well- worked goal, but Stelios Giannakopoulos levelled within six minutes after defender Titus Bramble went AWOL to have a dislocated finger treated.

"We were slow today to get out of the starting blocks," said Souness.

"We needed the first 45 minutes to get our legs going. We scored a very good goal in the first-half, and I would like to see the way things panned out for their goal - Titus not being there maybe being part of the reason.

"Titus has got to learn. He had another outstanding game today but he did one thing wrong. He came off without a break in the play to get his dislocated pinkie put back in - the big pussy-cat - I will speak to him about that.

"In the second half, we found another gear and we looked a good team. We had them penned in for all of the second half, more or less."

The vast majority of a 50,430 crowd at St James's Park thought Fernando Hierro should have been dismissed for a 49th-minute professional foul on Dyer - but Souness didn't complain.

"Hierro found himself in a difficult situation; he had to make a decision in a split-second and was not the last man and he was not inside the box. That means it was not a sending-off and it was not a penalty, so the ref got it right," he said.

Opposite number Sam Allardyce, who saw full-back Nicky Hunt carried off with a dislocated shoulder, was unhappy with the way his side capitulated after the break.

"I was disappointed in the final result and of course the second-half performance - particularly because we had done so well in the first half," he said.

"I would not have expected us to come out and perform like we did. We lost the game deservedly by allowing Newcastle to do what they are so good at, and that is to attack and attack and attack."

NEWCASTLE: Given, Carr, Boumsong, Bramble, Babayaro, Dyer, Faye, Bowyer, Robert (Jenas 77), Ameobi, Shearer.

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, Hunt (Fadiga 14), N'Gotty, Ben Haim, Candela, Giannakopoulos, Okocha (Vaz Te 77), Hierro (Campo 64), Speed, Gardner, Davies.

Referee: S Dunn.