It was the two old-timers - I suppose three, really, if I include me, but I'm the old, old-timer. Alan's is a classic goal - he does it all the time, loses his marker and puts it in the net. Gary's is probably a bit more spectacular because of the prodigious leap, and he's brave and he's full of courage and he's only looking for the ball. He's climbed very high and he's buried it. He's been doing that all of his career, but I guess that will be one of the best goals he's scored and one of the most important.
Key Moments
9 Shearer opened scoring 13 Bramble missed sitter 32 Bellamy fired wide 33 Jenas tested Waterreus 39 Jenas couldn't convert 52 Kezman levelled scores 54 Waterreus denied Robert 62 Bramble headed over 63 Lee tested Given 66 Speed restored lead 88 Given denied Bouma
Match Marks
Shay Given: Great late save...8 Aaron Hughes: Not too many problems from his man...7 Olivier Bernard: Penalty kick nightmare but handled Rommedahl weel...7 Titus Bramble: Gave woodgate good support...7
sub Andy O'Brien 78 mins Jonathan Woodgate: United's rock yet again...9 Darren Ambrose: Lost concentration leading to the PSV equaliser...6
sub Shola Ameobi 81mins Jermaine Jenas: Continued his recent good form...7 Gary Speed: A super show - and also the winner...9 Laurent Robert: Dead ball maestro...7
sub Hugo Viana 90 mins Craig Bellamy: Deserved better service than he got...7 Alan Shearer: Same old Shearer always scoring...8 Subs not used: Steve Harper, Robbie Elliot, Kieron Dyer, Michael Bridges.
Newcastle win 3-2 on aggregate. They say that two heads are better than one but throw in a left foot and the effect can be mesmerising.
On a night when Newcastle needed the aerial prowess of Alan Shearer and Gary Speed more than ever, the two elder statesmen of St James's Park proved nothing beats experience in such vital clashes.
Marseille will be the next team to try. For Laurent Robert, the architect of all three goals against reigning Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven, next month's trip to the south of France will be especially poignant.
Berated by some for a modest performance against champions elect Arsenal on Sunday, the classy winger reminded a boisterous United crowd why his reputation is untouchable abroad.
Indeed, if there is one player Fabien Barthez and company will fear next Thursday then it is the exiled international who left Paris almost three years ago determined to make his name with the Magpies.
Neither Shearer nor Speed need persuading of Robert's dead-ball prowess but another influential performance might just silence his fiercest critics.
If not now, then when? Seeking his 172nd Newcastle goal, Shearer's first contribution was to shield the ball from his markers in the far left corner.
Even by the wily United striker's standards such a familiar delaying tactic was surely premature but the Magpies' No 9 was simply toying with those defenders sticking tight to his famous jersey.
Eight minutes later Shearer shimmied, shook and shaped to shoot only for his abortive right foot effort to skim off a PSV shin and out for a corner.
Unperturbed, the former England captain strode purposefully towards Ronald Waterreus' near post and moved into position ready to receive Robert's left-wing corner.
On occasion Newcastle's mercurial French winger can deliver dead-balls with all the panache and precision of a Sunday park player, but on form, he is one of the finest exponents of an in-swinging corner in Europe.
If ever there was a time to prove the point then that moment came as Eindhoven's nervous defenders lined up to repel the Reunion islander's cross.
Spotting Shearer's initial movement, Robert picked out his colleague in an instant and the cumulative effect was quite devastating.
Neither Waterreus nor Wilfred Bouma could react in time to offset the obvious danger and their respective attempts were utterly hapless. Shearer rose powerfully and proud and the net bulged in appreciation. Moving one goal clear of Craig Bellamy in the race for this season's Uefa Cup Golden Boot, the Premiership's all-time leading scorer had delivered the early breakthrough a buzzing crowd craved.
Had equally presentable chances fallen to Shearer before a quarter of an hour had elapsed then Newcastle could have ended a tense tie as a contest.
However, Aaron Hughes and Titus Bramble emerged as the wrong players in the right place within three minutes of one another. The latter's bungled far post header, marring an otherwise outstanding performance, proved a most profligate miss at a time when United were moving in for the kill.
Sir Bobby Robson had never lost a Uefa Cup tie at St James's Park and PSV knew they would have to succeed where Roma, Basel and Mallorca had failed if they were to progress in this season's competition.
Judging by the Dutch team's lame first half performance it appeared Guus Hiddink's men lacked the appetite for a full-blooded fight, let alone the desire to make the semi-finals. Bellamy's near-post blast into the side-netting, Jermaine Jenas' long-range strike and a misdirected header from the in-form England midfielder all made the PSV fans wince but at 1-0 down the visitors were very much in touch.
At the same stage seven years ago Monaco were cruising past Kevin Keegan's black and whites; Newcastle's experienced European campaigners should have found themselves in a similarly powerful position with a quarter of this quarter-final tie to play.
Hiddink's decision to replace the ineffective Dennis Rommedahl with towering former Sunderland target Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink hinted at mild desperation but anything was worth a try in a bid to lift a lacklustre Eindhoven side.
In fact the visitors' ultimately stinging riposte to Shearer's early strike was made in South Korea as South East Asian wide men Lee Young-Pyo and Park Ji-Sung combined to provide Mateja Kezman with the chance to equalise.
Allowed too much time to measure his pass, Lee floated a long cross into Shay Given's area and Olivier Bernard crucially failed to trap the ball. The onrushing Ji-Sung Park, who had dived for fun in the Philips Stadion the previous week, was quick to seize on his French opponent's error and a penalty area collision was inevitable.
Bernard's wild kick made referee Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez's job that much easier and Kezman dispatched the spot- kick with aplomb.
Extra time loomed but Newcastle, far from wallowing in their own self-pity, regrouped to display the character and commitment necessary to win any cup competition.
Turning to the tactic which had served them so well at the outset of a tight affair, United packed PSV's area in anticipation of another Robert corner 24 minutes from time.
Varying his theme, the result was the same, as the midfielder picked out Speed at the far post for the Welshman to head home.
Back in control, Robson suddenly lost Bramble but Andy O'Brien joined the fray for the thrilling climax.
Given leapt to his right to beat away Bouma's stinging free-kick three minutes from time and Newcastle could begin to make plans for the visit of Marseille.
It was the two old-timers - I suppose three, really, if I include me, but I'm the old, old-timer. Alan's is a classic goal - he does it all the time, loses his marker and puts it in the net. Gary's is probably a bit more spectacular because of the prodigious leap, and he's brave and he's full of courage and he's only looking for the ball. He's climbed very high and he's buried it. He's been doing that all of his career, but I guess that will be one of the best goals he's scored and one of the most important.
