Newcastle United 0-0 Chelsea, St James Park, 22 April 2007

Newcastle fans weren’t expecting much out of this game; shoddy defending all season has let them down more than they admit to remembering.

But Newcastle have shown great character against the ‘big’ sides, drawing with Manchester United, Arsenal and now Chelsea. Every single player – from Bramble and Steven Taylor at the back straight up to Martins and Sibeirski – fought tooth and nail.

Chelsea have little in the tank because of their injuries mid-season and their excruciating run of games, but that’s no excuse at this level.

Newcastle have greater ‘mental’ issues than personnel issues, but as long as they can be as motivated as they were today for some of the smaller games, they’ll do much better.

Chelsea will be kicking themselves, and Mourinho, who earlier claimed that it was forbidden for referees to give penalties against Manchester United, is bound to claim post-game that it is forbidden to give penalties for Chelsea.

In fairness, Sibierski should have received a card for his antics against Terry, but overall Newcastle did a great job and Chelsea weren’t good enough.

Thank you Bramble, for not fucking up, and thank you Dyer, Sibierski, Emre and Milner for sticking it in at Chelsea and thank you, Nicky Butt, for putting your heart into it for once