Newcastle standing a little taller after derby comeback.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

To rework Gloria Swanson's line from Sunset Boulevard, Newcastle United are still a big club, it was the results that got small. There were times when a 1-1 draw even against Sunderland would not have counted as a flag day for the Geordie Nation but those days are long gone.

The stakes are too high to worry about style, a quality that has always been cherished on Tyneside. Had Sunderland clung on to their lead, they would have completed a double in the Tyne-Wear derby for the first time since 1967; the year Joe Kinnear won the FA Cup with Tottenham and Newcastle finished third bottom -- which in an era when only two sides were relegated from the old First Division was enough to survive.

Since they ended the old year humiliated 5-1 at home to Liverpool, Newcastle have looked a team well capable of third bottom, which now would bring even greater financial catastrophe than its owner, Mike Ashley, has already suffered and an even greater cull of players than whoever is managing the club will be expected to carry out in the summer.

Given what was at stake, it was a risky match for Ashley to attend. His last appearance at the stadium he now obviously regrets buying had been in August. Kevin Keegan was still manager; "wow signings" were being touted as the transfer window prepared to close and Newcastle, after a goalless draw at Old Trafford and a 1-0 win over Bolton in which Kevin Nolan had missed a penalty, had begun the season with a surprising jauntiness.

Now another transfer window is preparing to close. Nobody on Tyneside expects "wow signings", just competent players who might save them from relegation. Nolan was back at St James' Park but clearing a Sunderland shot off the line rather than seeing Shay Given save his spot-kick. Given was in Manchester preparing to join City after emotionally losing patience with a club he had so obviously loved.

When Shola Ameobi struck his penalty with a power and placement Alan Shearer would have envied, the owner, swathed in a ...