Alan Shearer became Newcastle's record scorer on Saturday when he scored in a 2-0 win over Portsmouth, his club's first game since firing manager Graeme Souness.
Acting as assistant to temporary manager Glenn Roeder, former England captain Shearer added the second goal in the 64th minute after French forward Charles N'Zogbia netted his first in 18 games for the Magpies. Shearer's 201st club goal moved him clear of the old record set by Jackie Milburn.
"After [goalkeeper] Dean Kiely's pulled off some excellent saves in the first half you begin to think `is it my day?'" Shearer said. "I was just delighted to see it hit the back of the net and that feeling, when I know it's gone in, I can't describe it. Even I got a little bit emotional even five minutes after. I knew the fans would give me a great reception but that was something special."
PHOTO: AFP
After only one point from its last six Premier League games, Newcastle fired Souness on Thursday with the team sliding to 15th.
Arsenal, which lost 3-2 at home to West Ham on Wednesday, had eight defenders missing but its young side dominated Birmingham. Togo forward Emmanuel Adebayor scored after 21 minutes and Henry added the other in the second half. Birmingham had Emile Heskey sent off near the end for two yellow cards.
"With the youth of our side it was very promising for the club," Wenger said. "They have not only shown quality but character as well and a determined attitude and efficiency and I'm very pleased today."
PHOTO: AP
The victory lifted the Gunners to fifth, 23 points behind leader Chelsea, which hosts third-place Liverpool today. Second-place Manchester United hosted Fulham later Saturday, while fourth-place Tottenham hosts Charlton today.
In other games, Bolton and Wigan tied 1-1, Everton continued its improvement by edging Manchester City 1-0, and Aston Villa won 4-0 at struggling Middlesbrough.
West Ham overcame last place Sunderland 2-0 and West Bromwich Albion climbed further away from the relegation zone by beating Blackburn 2-0.
Stelios Giannakopolous put Bolton ahead after 63 minutes only for Andreas Johansson to reply for Wigan 13 minutes from the end.
Scotland defender David Weir scored Everton's winner against Manchester City as the Toffees made it five league wins in six games. City's Stephen Jordan was sent off in the second half for two yellow cards.
Luke Moore scored a hat trick as Villa coasted to victory at Middlesbrough and pushed manager Steve McClaren's team closer to relegation danger. Kevin Phillips scored the other for the visitor at the Riverside.
"Everything went wrong for us from the kickoff to the final whistle," said McClaren, who is assistant coach to England's Sven-Goran Eriksson and a candidate to take over when the Swede quits after the World Cup.
"We were very poor. There are no excuses. We've had injuries but once we've conceded the first goal you could see all the confidence drain out of the players."
Dean Ashton scored on his West Ham debut nine minutes from the end against Sunderland, and Paul Konchesky added the second with a 25m shot. Sunderland had been playing with 10 men since Stephen Wright had been sent off in the 23rd for a second yellow card.
Veteran striker Kevin Campbell gave West Brom a sixth-minute lead with only second goal of the season against a Blackburn team which had posted five victories and a tie in its last six Premier League games. Jonathan Greening volleyed the second in the 32nd.
League Championship leader Reading fell behind at last-place Crewe but hit back to win 4-3 and take its standings lead to 10 points over second place Sheffield United, which was idle.
Rangers' disappointing season continued when it lost 3-0 to visiting Hibernian.
The fourth-round defeat -- Rangers' second 3-0 home loss to Hibs this season -- means neither Celtic nor Rangers will appear in the final for the first time since 1997, when Kilmarnock beat Falkirk. It's another 10 years since neither made it to the fifth round.
Hearts thrashed Aberdeen 3-0 through first-half goals by Michal Pospisil, Calum Elliott and Steven Pressley.
At Ibrox, Garry O'Connor opened the scoring for Hibs in the 50th minute, heading in a cross from close range. Nine minutes later, he won a long ball from Simon Brown and played it into the path of Ivan Sproule, who scored.
Christopher Killen finished off the home side's best hope of domestic silverware in the 78th, when he made it into the box and scored on his own rebound for his first club goal.
Rangers is third in the Scottish league, 15 points short of leader and city rival Celtic, with progress to the Champions League second round the only highlight of its season.
In Saturday's other action, Airdrie drew 1-1 with FC Dundee, Clyde and Gretna played to 0-0 draw, Ross County and Falkirk finished 1-1, Hamilton played out a 0-0 draw with Alloa Athletic, and Partick Thistle came from behind to tie Inverness C.T. 2-2.
Ronaldo returned from injury to score a goal and Zinedine Zidane had two to lead Real Madrid's 4-0 win over Espanyol, moving it within 10 points of Spanish league-leading FC Barcelona.
Jose Maria "Guti" Gutierrez also scored for Madrid, which won its seventh straight in league and Copa del Rey play to continue a revival under coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro, who replaced Vanderlei Luxemburgo in December.
"We did a great job in terms of our ability, organization and work. What was most important was the team worked with the right attitude and we have to carry on like this," Lopez Caro was quoted as saying by news agency Efe.
In a late game, David Villa scored from the halfway line to earn Valencia a 1-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna. Earlier, Malaga beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 and moved out of last place.
Valencia's victory at Deportivo's Riazor stadium extended its unbeaten league run to 11 games and kept it in second place, nine points behind Barcelona. It also provided some consolation for the team's elimination from the Copa del Rey by Deportivo on Wednesday.
Barcelona leads the league with 52 points, Valencia has 43, and Madrid has 42.
AS Roma beat Parma 3-0 on three second-half goals -- two by Brazilian Amantino Mancini, earning a club record-equaling seventh straight Serie A victory and moving within two points of fourth-place Fiorentina.
Francesco Totti played a role in all three goals, including the finale by Simone Perrotta, at Parma's Tardini stadium, improving the Roman side record to 12-6-5 and 42 points -- and continuing its climb from 10th place in mid-December.
Also on Saturday, Erjon Bogdani scored his seventh goal of this season to rally Siena to a 1-1 draw with Ascoli. The two matches were the first of the 23rd round, which was to be completed today.
Michael Ballack scored a 36th-minute winner to give Bayern Munich a 1-0 victory over visiting Bayer Leverkusen.
Bayern, which leads the league ahead of Werder Bremen and Hamburg, struggled to find its form early, and Bernd Schneider's header hit the cross bar for Leverkusen in the 27th minute.
Nine minutes later, Ballack stopped Willy Sagnol's cross with his chest in the box and scored with his left foot. Bayern nearly doubled its lead when Roy Makaay hit the post in the 75th.
Leverkusen goalkeeper Hans-Joerg Butt knocked away a series of shots to keep his team in the match. And the visitors missed a chance to draw even in the 88th when Andriy Voronin ran in on Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn but couldn't control the ball.
Bayern, which has won 16 of its 19 matches this season, leads the league with 50 points, eight more than Bremen and nine ahead of Hamburg.
Bremen trailed 2-0 after 13 minutes against visiting Mainz, but Nelson Valdez scored his first of two goals in the 39th, and Johan Micoud and Ivan Klasnic scored in first-half extra time to give the hosts a 4-2 victory.
Hamburg also needed a comeback victory, beating visiting Arminia Bielefeld 2-1.
Isaac Boakye put Arminia ahead in the 26th minute, but Piotr Trochowski pulled Hamburg even in the 51st and Sergei Barbarez scored the winner in the 71st.
Schalke remained fourth in the standings with 35 points but lost ground on the leaders with a 0-0 draw against local rival Borussia Dortmund.
Fifth-place Hertha Berlin dew 1-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt, and sixth-place Stuttgart drew 0-0 at Cologne.
Also, Duisburg gave up a 2-0 lead at home and drew 2-2 with Kaiserslautern in a battle of teams in the relegation zone.
Today, Wolfburg hosts Borussia Moenchengladbach and Nuremberg plays at Hannover.
Auxerre missed a chance to close the gap on second-place Bordeaux, losing at Ajaccio 1-0.
Senegalese striker Moussa N'Diaye scored the winner for Ajaccio in the 82nd minute, but the Corsican club still remains in the relegation zone.
Auxerre, meanwhile, stays in third place with 42 points from 25 matches -- three less than Bordeaux.
Today, four-time defending champion Lyon can extend its lead at the top to 12 points if it beats visiting Bordeaux.
Arsenal defender Sol Campbell, who appeared to go missing after walking out halfway through a game, will be back in training next week.
Campbell was substituted at halftime of Wednesday's 3-2 home loss to West Ham and left the ground before the game ended. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said Friday he had not spoken to the England centerback since.
"Sol is absolutely fine. I have been in continuous contact with him," Campbell's lawyer Bon Battu said Saturday. "He needed time and space to gather his thoughts. He has no personal problems whatsoever. He will be back in training next week."
Campbell has also failed to show at a reception organized by the Football Association with Prime Minister Tony Blair and World Cup organizing president Franz Beckenbauer.
Arsenal teammate Robert Pires was quoted as saying the defender had a personal problem to sort out.
Assis denies test results
Benfica midfielder Nuno Assis was suspended for an undisclosed period of time after a test showed traces of a banned steroid.
The 28-year-old, who joined Benfica last season from Guimaraes, tested positive for norandrosterone on Dec. 3 after Benfica's 1-0 league win over Maritimo.
If charged, Assis could face a suspension of up to two years.
"I have not taken it and I would never take a forbidden substance because all matches are subject to control in this club," Assis said Friday. "This fell like a bomb on me, but my conscience is clear."
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
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