Barclays Premier League

Newcastle 0-1 Man City

MatthewLewis/GettyImages

Obafemi Martens of Newcastle holds off Bolton's Dietmar Harmann.

Scoring Summary

Newcastle United	Manchester City
	Emile Mpenza (80')

Match Stats

Newcastle United

Manchester City

15(6)	Shots (on Goal)	7(5)
9	Fouls	16
8	Corner Kicks	1
2	Offsides	4
55%	Time of Possession	45%
1	Yellow Cards	3
0	Red Cards	0
3	Saves	4

Teams

Newcastle United	Manchester City
1 Shay Given	1 Andreas Isaksson
18 Craig Moore	22 Richard Dunne
33 Celestine Babayaro	3 Michael Ball
27 Steven Taylor	15 Sylvain Distin
2 Stephen Carr	17 Sun Jihai
17 Scott Parker	16 Nedum Onuoha
11 Damien Duff	33 Michael Johnson
22 Nicky Butt	21 Dietmar Hamann
4  Nolberto Solano	8 Joey Barton
8 Kieron Courtney Dyer	11 Darius Vassell
9 Obafemi Martins	9 Emile Mpenza
Substitutes
12 Steve Harper	Nicky Weaver 12
15 Oguchi Onyewu	Hatem Trabelsi 27
20 Antoine Sibierski	Bernardo Corradi 30
16 James Milner	Georgios Samaras 20
5 Belozoglu Emre	Ishmael Miller 43
Substitutions
Oguchi Onyewu for Craig Moore (73)	Georgios Samaras for Dietmar Hamann (46)
James Milner for Nolberto Solano (76)	Hatem Trabelsi for Nedum Onuoha (85)
Antoine Sibierski for Kieron Courtney Dyer (77)
Yellow Cards
Craig Moore (68)	Darius Vassell (35)
	Sun Jihai (70)
	Joey Barton (90)
· Rosters: Newcastle United | Manchester City

Newcastle's slim hopes of European qualification were ended as Manchester City snatched an invaluable 1-0 victory at St James' Park.

Emile Mpenza, who scored his first goal for the club at Middlesbrough a fortnight ago, struck 10 minutes from time to claim a second win in as many games and further ease the pressure on manager Stuart Pearce.

The toothless Magpies were booed from the pitch by a crowd of 52,004 after a disjointed and uninspired display, although defender Steven Taylor might have snatched a point at the death with a header which hit the crossbar.

That would have been harsh on City, who were also denied by the woodwork before the break, after a performance characterised by excellent organisation and total commitment.

• Pearce admits City not safe

By contrast, Newcastle were wasteful in possession, short on ideas and inept in front of goal to leave a season which went flat with their European exit in Holland dwindling into mediocrity.

The debate on Tyneside this week has been whether or not record signing Michael Owen will be able to play alongside £10million man Obafemi Martins in attack next season.

If they are provided with the kind of service the Nigerian and strike-partner Kieron Dyer were given today, the answer is a resounding no.

The pair were quite simply never in the game, with Sylvain Distin and Richard Dunne dominant to the extent that Dyer spent much of the game camped on the halfway line desperately trying to get himself involved.

City, who ended a run of five successive Barclays Premiership defeats with a 2-0 win at Boro, arrived at St James' Park determined not to leave empty-handed.

Striker Darius Vassell was asked to play wide on the left of a five-man midfield as Mpenza took on the home defence alone.

However, with Newcastle failing to deal with free man Joey Barton as he repeatedly broke from central midfield, it was they who looked the more likely to break the deadlock.

Indeed, they came closest to the opening goal before the break when Mpenza made the most of hesitancy in the home defence to blast a left-foot shot against the crossbar from 25 yards with Shay Given beaten.

Newcastle skipper Scott Parker had earlier seen a 17th-minute strike ruled out for offside and Nolberto Solano had whistled a long-range effort just wide.

But with their side struggling to make any headway at all in a congested midfield as City stifled virtually every move at its conception, and Damien Duff seeing as little of the ball wide on the left as his frontmen, it was a largely turgid affair.

At the end of a week which saw England fans turn on their side in Barcelona, there were boos from the packed stands at St James' when the half-time whistle sounded, with Glenn Roeder's men in dire need of inspiration.

Pearce made a change at the break when he replaced holding midfielder Dietmar Hamann with striker Georgios Samaras, although he kept the same system, with the new arrival lining up wide on the right as Sun Jihai moved inside.

Samaras endured a tough opening as Duff prospered down the left, sending in a 48th-minute cross which was just too strong for Martins and Solano, and then providing Parker with a chance which he thumped just over the bar.

Dunne headed well over from a 57th-minute Barton corner as City temporarily relieved the pressure, but defensive partner Distin had to make a vital block two minutes later after Duff found Solano at the far post.

There was no faulting Newcastle's endeavour as they sought the breakthrough, but there was a distinct lack of quality when they got into the final third, with keeper Andreas Isaksson untroubled.

Solano was not enjoying one of his better days and there were calls from the stand for James Milner's introduction as he warmed up on the sidelines.

Given saved from Vassell on 71 minutes, but there were boos from the home supporters when Roeder made his first change and replaced Moore with fellow central defender Oguchi Onyewu.

Milner and Antoine Sibierski soon followed as replacements for Dyer and Solano, but the mood was becoming uglier by the minute.

There was worse to come, however, when Michael Johnson picked out Mpenza in acres of space and he fired gleefully past Given to claim all three points.

Taylor rattled the crossbar with a minute remaining and Stephen Carr and Onyewu both went close to an equaliser, but it was simply not Newcastle's day.