Newcastle finally played with the spirit and resolve they have shown only intermittently this season - to power themselves to a commendable win over Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

This was only Newcastle’s fourth away win of the season and takes revenge for Sheffield’s 1-0 win at St. James Park on November 4th - in possibly their worst display this season. The Geordie fans have been crying out for a performance of spirit and courage for several weeks now and on Saturday - to their credit - this is exactly what the team produced.

Congratulations to the coaching staff and Glenn Roeder (who have lately taken significant criticism) - for getting the boys ready - under difficult circumstances - for what is always a tough game at Bramall Lane.

It was very Interesting to see Emre, Dyer and Babayaro start on the bench and Roeder selected a back four of Solano, Taylor, Moore and Carr.

Newcastle’s $10M Obafemi Martins opened the scoring in the 17th-minute with a volley from just outside the penalty area – a good opportunist goal and Oba’s 17^th of the season – not a bad return in his first premiership season.

Indeed Martins was a constant threat to Sheffield all afternoon and almost scored again when he beat goalkeeper Patrick Kenny to the ball near the corner flag - and then almost put the ball in the net - but it rebounded from the upright - and Sibierski, following in from seven yards somehow managed to blast the ball over the cross-bar when it looked so much easier to side foot the ball into the empty net. (When’s Michael Owen coming back?).

As we all know, Sheffield United under Neil Warnock – to their credit this season have never given up - and they were rewarded for their pluck with a fine volley from substitute Christian Nade, with 16 minutes to go.

This could have been a hammer blow to the Newcastle side – but they were having none of it – and with 10 minutes to go, the mercurial Steven Taylor powered home a fine header from a set piece. Steven Taylor deserved the goal (his 4^th of the season) and had one of those games that must take him into the England side in the future.

Steven epitomizes Newcastle United – a local lad who was a ball boy in the Keegan days – who has guts and courage galore – wears his heart on his sleeve - and will probably become a future Newcastle captain…. we need more Steven Taylor types at Newcastle.

Indeed the back four played extremely well under difficult circumstances - with Taylor and Moore superb as the center backs and Nobby Solano again starring as our right back. Let’s hope we can keep Nobby at the club for the next couple of seasons - and keep him at right back - he’s the best right back at the club.

In retrospect - if only we could have played Taylor and Moore consistently through the season we may have been much better positioned – but that’s water under the bridge now.

Last season Moore came back to play central defense when we won six of our last seven games – and if Moore’s form continues like this – I wouldn’t be surprised if Newcastle extend his contract.

We need the experience and calmness of a Craig Moore to bring through our young players like Stephen Taylor, Peter Ramage, Paul Huntington and David Edgar who are all young and budding center backs. If Craig did sign another contract we’d need him to do some fitness training on his hamstrings during the summer (like Dyer and Owen have done) - since during the last two years he has only been available for one quarter of Newcastle’s games - not a good return for Newcastle - but when he has played he’s been good.

Well – that’s it - at last a good win away from home - and well deserved.

Now we need another helping against the great Arsenal, at St James’ Park, on Easter Monday - and then we’ll really be flying.