Keane strike not enough for Spurs

Newcastle 3 Tottenham 1

Tottenham’s Champions League hopes were dealt a blow as Newcastle ended a run of four successive defeats in style.

A first-half blitz saw the Magpies race into a 3-1 lead inside the opening half-hour.

And although they rode their luck after the break, Michael Dawson’s 61st-minute dismissal for a second bookable offence effectively ended Tottenham’s fightback.

Lee Bowyer fired the Magpies in front with just a minute and six seconds gone, and although Robbie Keane levelled, Shola Ameobi restored Newcastle’s lead after 25 minutes.

Alan Shearer’s 30th-minute penalty – his 203rd goal for the club in his 300th Premiership appearance – ultimately sealed the win, although Keane saw a piledriver come back off the crossbar and later clipped a post, and former Magpie Jermaine Jenas could not find the unguarded net after rounding Shay Given.

The bulk of a crowd of 52,301 went home happy, although wondering what might have been after seeing their side dominate a team challenging for the top-four finish Newcastle so crave.

Caretaker bossGlenn Roeder insisted in the run-up to the game that there was still plenty to play for in a season which ended in terms of the big prizes with Newcastle’s FA Cup quarter-final exit at Chelsea last week.

With Scott Parker having joined Michael Owen on the sidelines with glandular fever and Kieron Dyer once again missing from the 16, Newcastle could have been forgiven for wishing for a merciful release.

However, Roeder’s message had obviously registered with his players as they set about Tottenham with a relish which belied their troubles.

Bowyer, who might have left the club in January but this week pledged his coontinued allegiance, opened the scoring with his first Premiership goal of the season and his first in any competition since last July.

It came from a flowing move involving Charles N’Zogbia, Shearer and Nolberto Solano which set the tone for a thrilling display.

The first half was not without its scares as a rearguard which included three men – Robbie Elliott, Peter Ramage and Craig Moore – who would not figure in the club’s strongest back four was kept on its toes by Keane.

The Irishman headed the visitors back level after 19 minutes, applying the finish after Aaron Lennon had comprehensively beaten former Tottenham full-back Stephen Carr. Keane then smashed a shot against the crossbar in injury time.

But by that point, Newcastle had taken the game by the scruff of the neck.

Ameobi’s 25th-minute strike restored their lead, and there was more to come when Bowyer, who had earlier had appeals for a penalty turned down, was inexplicably shoved to the ground by Edgar Davids after Shearer and Solano had carved Tottenham open once again.

Shearer hammered the penalty past Paul Robinson to give his side a deserved 3-1 lead, and had he not earlier missed from the kind of headed opportunity upon which he has built his career, Roeder’s men could have been out of sight.

The home side returned knowing an early goal for Tottenham would change the complexion of the game once again, and it needed Moore’s intervention to deny Lennon a chance to claim it after he once again slipped past Carr with just a minute gone.

Keane was dropping deeper to pick up possession earlier and run at the home defence, but it was a policy which proved only partially successful.

Michael Carrick’s last-ditch tackle denied Solano a fourth goal for the Magpies on 53 minutes, but when Tottenham broke from the resulting corner, they should have been back in the game.

Elliott’s attempt to head a long ball away from the danger area succeeded only in directing it into the feet of former team-mate Jenas.

The England international, who left St James’ Park for White Hart Lane in a £7million move during the summer, rounded Given easily, but with the goal at his mercy, sliced his left-foot shot into the side-netting, much to the amusement of the home fans.

Keane clipped the outside of the post with a well-struck 59th-minute effort, but his side were dealt a blow two minutes later when Dawson, who had been booked before the break for a foul on Emre, picked up a secoond yellow card for a tug on Shearer’s shirt and was dismissed.

Had it not been for Robinson’s agility, Ramage would have wrapped up the points with a 63rd-minute header, and although Keane and substitute Jermain Defoe both wasted good opportunities as time ran down, the hard work had already been done.