Charlton Athletic 4 West Ham 2
West Ham were crushed by their London neighbours to increase relegation doubts for the Hammers, who are bottom of the Premiership table with just 17 points, four points adrift of 17th placed Bolton. And the shot-shy Hammers couldn't even score for themselves as they were assisted by a couple of Charlton own goals. And for the sixth time this season the visitors surrendered a precious lead.
The Hammers got off to the best possible start when one of those own goals, from Richard Rufus, gave them a shock lead in the 19th minute, when he deflected a Cisse shot past Dean Kiely. That lead lasted until just before the interval but it was cancelled out by a superb 25-yard free kick from Claus Jensen, three minutes from the break. Parity seemed to be the order of the day, ahead of the half-time 'cuppa', until Scott Parker appeared in the box and with a hesitant Hammers defence standing watching the midfielder who took one touch to control before instantly sweeping the ball home with his second to send Charlton into the interval 2-1 ahead.
Charlton took a firm grip on the game, seven minutes after the restart, with a great shot from Parker and looked destined to stroll to victory but West Ham got back into the match when Mark Fish deflected Michael Carrick's shot past his own keeper, just past the hour.
West Ham tried hard to get back into the game and while it was still 3-2 they had every right for optimism but a late sucker-punch meant yet another pointless game.Charlton made it 4-2 with a last-minute strike from Radostin Kishishev, after a cross from substitute Matt Svensson, for his first goal for Alan Curbishley's side, that earned them the win that took Athletic to 11th in the table and a points total of 33.
West Ham's points total is a miserable 17 and they have won just three league games, so far, but former Hammer Alan Curbishley is optimistic that his old club can survive. He said: "I can see West Ham surviving. There is a gap down there between four clubs and the rest and they will fancy it,"
Maybe so, but, if the magic survival total of 40 points is to be achieved Glen Roeder's side will need to get 23 points from 14 games. That equates to eight wins, five more than they have managed to date.
For Roeder it's 'back to the drawing board', again, and he said: "If you come away from home and score two goals, it should be one point or three. Poor decision-making is costing us. As a defender, you have to play safe. Our defenders should make more good decisions than wrong ones. We're making too many poor decisions and they are costing us.
"People have responsibilities defensively and they are not carrying them out. It's back to the drawing board again for the defenders. They will come in tomorrow and I just hope they start to learn and pick up the required skills they need. Thankfully Bolton have lost as well tonight. It's down to four clubs at the bottom and one of them will get out of it and survive."
Newcastle United 1 Bolton Wanderers 0
Newcastle cemented third place in the table with their 11th consecutive home win to go four points ahead of Chelsea, thanks to a first half strike from Jermaine Jenas which keeps Bolton fourth bottom. But for a side that harbours ambitions of pushing Arsenal and Manchester United for the title it was probably Newcastle's most unconvincing win of a run that stretches back to the win over neighbours Sunderland on September 21st.
Jenas scored after 18 minutes but, if the usual 52,000 at St James expected a goal rush they were to be sadly disappointed as struggling Wanderers dominated for lengthy periods and were deserving of at least a point.
The decisive goal came after a spell of home pressure but it was 'route one' that broke the deadlock. Steven Caldwell punted a 70-yard pass into the path of Bellamy and as N'Gotty backed off, the Welshman slipped the ball through his legs for Jenas to net with ease.
Newcastle pushed hard for the breathing space of a second goal with Bellamy and Shearer both going close but without adding to the score and a 1-0 interval lead didn't look very convincing.
After the break Bolton were on fire and were unlucky not to get a couple of penalties after clumsy challenges on Pedersen and Mendy. Wanderers continued to dominate and carved out chance after chance but it was Shearer who came closest to scoring, but his late header smashed against the bar.
Bolton missed good second half chances, through Mendy, Pedersen and substitute Ricketts, but it was Newcastle who secured the points to keep alive their hopes of a Champions League place, at least.
After the victory Sir Bobby Robson was quick to praise his 'under-fire' defence, which has come in for a lot of criticism lately. He said: "Our defence won us this game and they deserve credit for that."
As for the performance and the victory Sir Bobby added: "We are two points behind Manchester United and still in it. I am not displeased but the crowd expected a four or five-nil, which is totally unrealistic. Bolton gave us as hard a match as we have had all season."
A disappointed Sam Allardyce said: "Our second half display meant we deserved to take something from the game, but our problem all season has been scoring goals and it has come back to haunt us again.
"When you are on top against sides as good as Newcastle you have to punish them and we didn't. We should have had two penalties but we are suffering because we have not got a goalscorer in double figures and until I can rectify that we will continue to lose games we should draw."
