Premiership - half-time review

Newcastle suffered a surprise defeat as Blackburn claimed a 1-0 victory at St James’ Park.

The Magpies found Rovers ‘keeper Brad Friedel in top form, the American pulling off excellent first-half saves from Jermaine Jenas, Alan Shearer and Laurent Robert.

Newcastle paid for their profligacy after the break as Blackburn managed to take the sting out of their attack and snatch a 72nd-minute winner when Paul Gallagher bundled the ball in.

Only a bad injury to Barry Ferguson, who was stretchered off with a dislocated knee, took the gloss off Rovers’ afternoon.

Elsewhere in the Premiership, where the games had reached half-time, the bottom two sides Wolves and Leeds were drawing 1-1 at Molineux.

Leeds got off to the perfect start when Michael Duberry headed home Ian Harte’s third-minute corner.

But the visitors’ advantage did not last long as Alan Smith sliced a clearance to put through his own net after 18 minutes.

Out-of-form Manchester City were on course for a rare win after dominating the first half against Liverpool at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Robbie Fowler went close to opening the scoring against his former club early on but City were eventually rewarded for their industry with a 30th-minute penalty.

Nicolas Anelka, another ex-Red, made no mistake from the spot after John Arne Riise had fouled Fowler.

Juan Pablo Angel gave Aston Villa a 1-0 advantage in their clash with in-form Fulham.

Angel raised the tempo of a quiet game when he finished clinically in the 33rd minute following good work from Jlloyd Samuel.

Bolton and Leicester were locked at 1-1 at the Reebok Stadium after Bruno N’Gotty cancelled out Marcus Bent’s opener.

The Foxes went ahead after 18 minutes when Bent capitalised on hesitancy in the Bolton defence and lashed home his fifth of the season.

But it was Leicester’s defence who failed to cope in the 35th minute when Youri Djorkaeff’s free-kick caused panic and N’Gotty touched the ball home.

The two other matches under way, Everton against Birmingham and Tottenham against Charlton, were both goalless at the interval.

Duncan Ferguson had the ball in the net for Everton at Goodison Park but had his effort ruled out for offside.

Jonatan Johansson spurned a glorious opportunity to open the scoring for Charlton at White Hart Lane but shot straight at Kasey Keller and then put te rebound wide.

But Spurs had plenty of opportunities themselves, with Dean Kiely producing one particularly good save from Freddie Kanoute.

Chelsea got back to winning ways and moved level with second-placed Arsenal by beating Portsmouth 3-0 in the Barclaycard Premiership today.

Claudio Ranieri’s side put aside the disappointment of their Boxing Day loss to Charlton to win convincingly with goals from Wayne Bridge, Frank Lampard and Geremi at Stamford Bridge.

Pompey managed to keep the home side goalless in the first half but it was a different story after the break as Chelsea stepped up a gear.

Geremi capped a fine second-half performance with a spectacular 25-yard volley eight minutes from time.

Leaders Manchester United’s clash with Middlesbrough at the Riverside was due to kick off at 4.05pm.