ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIP: Newcastle Utd 4 Ipswich 0:"TWO CLUBS, one legend" was the theme as those clubs identified most closely with Bobby Robson's managerial career in England met in the evening sunlight. It was happy coincidence that brought them together at the end of a week which began with a memorial service to him in Durham Cathedral.
But when Newcastle scored three goals in five minutes from the half-hour it looked more like two teams, one rubbish.
No tributes can be too great when so few in football management come near his integrity and dignity, but long before the end the home fans were as clapped out as their team.
Before kick-off Ipswich rolled out 40-odd players from Robson's 13½-year reign to 1982. They carried their greatest honours with them, the FA and Uefa Cups, though did not risk a team jig.
At half-time Lady Elsie Robson cut a ribbon to rename the North Stand after Sir Bobby. But this was Newcastle's day. "We didn't sack Bobby Robson" was the only chanted riposte.
Both sides wore commemorative shirts bearing the logo of the Bobby Robson Foundation, his cancer charity, for which they will be auctioned. But Ipswich had much to forget too. While Newcastle were a recommendation for chaos behind the scenes, Ipswich, lately restabilised, were the opposite, shambles on a sure footing.
Robson, of course, had both clubs thriving in the top tier. Newcastle are at least flying at their new level. Chris Hughton is a caretaker taking care, doing the coaching he is good at and letting lunacy rage if it will.
"A special day, special result, special performance," he said, hitting the mark as precisely as his buoyant team. In nine games they have won as many as they did under three managers last season - and one of those was on his stand-in watch.
Kevin Nolan, free of ankle problems that reduced his effectiveness then, was his former Bolton self, playing off two tall, young tearaways up front with a poacher's eye that brought him a superb hat-trick: a near-post header to a free-kick; a run and clinical finish; and a nod-in from Nile Ranger, one of those front two and cunning as a crocodile.
Ryan Taylor, twice a wide provider, scored the third with a free-kick.
Newcastle, with Nicky Butt and Alan Smith, have classy experience in midfield that Ipswich have nowhere.
"Basic defensive stuff," said Roy Keane, blaming a back four too committed on the ground and not enough in the air.
There were special scarves, too, the ultimate garment of football allegiance. These were divided laterally - one end Ipswich, the other Newcastle - with profits going also to the foundation. The clubs will be forever bound in privilege. But at present they are stretching in opposite directions (-Guardian Service)
