So long, Steve

A spectacular send-off for Steve Harper, one of the most unassuming professionals in the game; a parade of famous faces; the prospect of a few spicy encounters (those in black and white v Paolo Di Canio, Alan Shearer v teammate for the night ASBO). Our correspondent Kyle was lucky enough to be there and sent us this report...

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A mild Wednesday night at St James’ Park saw the Newcastle Legends take on Milan Glorie for a testimonial to celebrate Steve Harper’s 20 years of loyal service. A crowd of over 50,000 turned out at a tenner a ticket with all profits being split between various charities, including the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.

The game had a festival feel to it with lots of young kids around and a fairly gentle tempo. Both teams had plenty of faded talent on display, with all-time Milanese greats such as Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and Pippo Inzaghi (as well as panto villain Paolo Di Canio) facing off against a Newcastle squad packed with players from the more recent glory years. Big names like Wor Al and Sir Les were backed up by cult heroes like Ruel Fox and Darren Peacock.

With nothing much of note happening on the pitch, the interest was more in how former players are looking these days. Some have certainly been enjoying their retirement and the reduced physical demands, John Beresford and Alan Thompson both cutting significantly more wind-resistant figures these days. Some don’t look a day older than when they last played, though. Nikos Dabizas in particular looked like he could step back into the first team, showing superb anticipation, strength in the tackle and some decent distribution too – perhaps a masterclass with some of the current defenders wouldn’t go amiss...

On the Milan side panto villain Paolo Di Canio’s every touch was accompanied with a chorus of boos, which to his credit he took well – it may be heresy to say it on this site but he actually looked sharp and was tidy in possession. The biggest cheer of the evening came when, in a populist nod to the crowd, ASBO cleaned him out from behind. The whole Milan team still looked pretty classy, Baresi, Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta and Mark Van Bommel in particular.

It was also a chance for players to pretend to be the player they always wished they were. David Ginola in particular swaggered around like a tiki-taka midfield general, all short passes, little flicks and gorgeous crossfield passes, notably short on dribbling (though the beer gut might have contributed to that too). Some things never change, though – within five minutes of coming off the bench, Tino Asprilla had connected with a glorious overhead kick, sadly blocked on the line, while Inzaghi was flagged for offside on a regular basis. Keith Gillespie still looked a class apart with the ball at his feet and Andrew Cole showed the old instincts are still strong when he hit the post with a clipped shot. In a nice touch Gary Speed’s two sons both got a run out in the last ten minutes to sustained applause.

As for the man himself, one nice diving save aside he didn’t have much to do in the half hour he was on the pitch, spending most of his time soaking up the cheers for his every touch and the sound of his name being sung by 50,000 fans all there for him alone. With the game ending in a 0-0 draw (surely the best way for a keeper to go out), his chance for a moment of glory came in the penalty shoot-out. Sadly, his decision to go for power didn’t pay off as he belted it straight at Massimo Taibi in the Milan goal so hard that he didn’t have a chance to get out the way. Needless to say, Di Canio put his away with Milan winning the shoot-out 2-1.

On the whole a nice evening, a lot of money raised for charity and a fitting send-off for one of Newcastle’s most loyal servants. Twenty years at his hometown club is a pretty decent career by anyone’s standards and though I wish him well in his late career swansong at Hull he’ll always be a Geordie keeper at heart.

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Well, as ways of raising money for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation go, Harps' method was a lot less arduous than running from John O'Groats to Land's End with a 42.5 kg fridge strapped to his back...

Photos from the game are available here.

Rossoneri legends rounded up

Well done to Steve Harper for lining up players of the calibre of Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta (not to mention a certain sheet-metal worker's son from Gosforth) for his charity match on 11th September, in aid of the Great North Children's Hospital, Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and Newcastle United Foundation. As someone clearly capable of attracting some of the biggest names in world football to Tyneside, perhaps he could give JFK some tips?

Welcome to Hull, Harps

At the ripe old age of 38, Steve Harper could have been forgiven for choosing to hang up his gloves and put his feet up - but instead he's sought and found a new club, and a Premier League one at that. That said, his deal with Ol' Cauliflower Face's Hull City is only for a year, and he's likely to be nothing more than back-up for the Tigers' other new custodian, Allan McGregor.

Quote of the day

"It was one of the best evenings I’ve ever had. Dad would have been gobsmacked. Steve Harper and Shola Ameobi shared some stories about Dad with Jim Rosenthal and they were hilarious really. They brought the house down. They’re two funny chaps and it was good to hear them."

Mark Robson reflects on Monday evening's charity tribute night in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and the Alan Shearer Foundation, held at the Sage on what would have been Sir Bobby's 80th birthday. In amongst the musical and comic entertainment, it seems our Geordie duo's anecdotes found favour with the audience. Perhaps we should refer to them as the Chuckle Brothers from now on?

Net profit and loss

Congratulations to Tim Krul, who has - as anticipated - been named in the Dutch squad for Euro 2012. Our young custodian will be battling with Swansea's Michel Vorm for the role of back-up to the national number one, Roma's Maarten Stekelenburg.

From our perspective, hopefully he might put his time with the squad to good effect by talking up life on Tyneside to Toon target Luuk de Jong. (Unfortunately, he can't do likewise for Heerenveen's Bas Dost, the 32-goal striker having been omitted and now the confirmed subject of a £7m bid from newly promoted West Ham.) Whatever his relations with de Jong, though, they're likely to be decidedly friendlier and less frosty than with the squad's star striker, Robin van Persie. Rumours of training-ground bust-ups imminent, methinks...

While our current first-choice 'keeper enjoys himself in Poland and the Ukraine, the player he's replaced once again finds himself contemplating his future. Steve Harper seems resigned to the fact that he'll need to go out on loan again to get the first-team action he craves - and I suspect he's right.

Kaz checks out

To the surprise of very few, Kazenga LuaLua has followed in the footsteps of his older brother by turning a loan into a permanent deal and leaving St James' Park for the south coast. While Lomano Tresor, now at Blackpool, departed for Portsmouth, Kaz has signed up with Brighton, with whom he's had three separate loan spells, for an undisclosed fee.

He undoubtedly has some ability, as well as the pace necessary to trouble a few Premier League opponents, but ultimately he becomes just another graduate of our youth development programme who's failed to make the grade. Time will tell if we've made a mistake - probably when we draw the Seagulls in the FA Cup in January...

Steve Harper, by contrast, won't be staying on at the Amex, his own one-month loan deal having expired and no agreement reached on an extension. Nevertheless, he enthused about the experience, describing it as "very, very beneficial".

Seagull Steve

Farewell, albeit temporarily, to Steve Harper, our erstwhile first-choice 'keeper having yesterday joined Kazenga LuaLua on loan at Championship outfit Brighton.

After years playing underemployed understudy to Shay Given followed by a couple of much-deserved seasons in the limelight, Harper has this campaign once again found himself out of favour, displaced by Tim Krul. Harsh, it's true, but even he couldn't dispute the Dutchman's brilliance. Since being handed his chance by Alan Pardew, Krul's not put a foot wrong.

Pardew's comment that Harper's "unfortunate to have a top young goalkeeper like Tim come through and push him to one side" glosses over the fact that Krul's selection has been the manager's decision, or that Pardew also chose to bring in another 'keeper over the summer, Charlton's Rob Elliot. The loan period is for an initial month, so he could well be back on Tyneside before too long - but the writing does seem to be on the wall.

Harper didn't have to wait long for his debut, slotting straight into the Seagulls side that took on West Ham at the Amex, at the expense of Casper Ankergren. And it was a familiar face who got the better of him for what proved to be the only goal of the game, Kevin Nolan scoring from distance to put Fat Sam's side second and condemn the division's early-season pacesetters to a seventh consecutive match without a win.

Sideshow the main man

According to the Chronicle, Sideshow Bob has been handed the captain's armband ahead of next season.

Undoubtedly one of our stand-out players last season, Sideshow Bob has improved massively from his early days with the club, when the physicality of the league looked to trouble him, and a season snuffing out Championship attacks (under the watchful eye of ex-defenders Hughton and Calderwood) clearly paid dividends.

Whether his appointment will help to convince Jose Enrique to stay looks doubtful, but it can't hurt.

Of the other candidates for the job, it seems to me that it was essentially a four horse race, with Steve Harper, ASBO and Steven Taylor the other names realistically in the frame. Of those, Harper looks to have a fight on his hands to stay in the side ahead of Krul and Forster, so is far from a certain starter next season. ASBO is too much of a loose cannon off the pitch (and in the last year of his contract) so that rules him out too. Given his criticisms of the board in recent weeks, and his Twitter comments on the Nolan transfer it was always doubtful that Jabba would sanction his appointment even if Pardew had wanted to give him the armband on a full-time basis.

That leaves Taylor, who got himself back in the team at the end of last season thanks to Mike Williamson's injury, and is now probably established as Sideshow Bob's first-choice partner, but as the second best centre-back at the club (at present) appointing him as captain would have made it awkward should Taylor lose a bit of form and Williamson perform well in training.

What will be interesting to see is who takes on the armband should Sideshow Bob be rested or injured. Will it go to one of the three mentioned above, or will Big Lad, Mr T or new boy Yohan Cabaye be entrusted with the role?

Knacked knee nobbles Harps

Tim Krul will continue to deputise for Steve Harper against Blackpool, with Alan Pardew announcing that Harps' knee injury may even mean going under the knife. Not that that's really cause for concern. Man Utd may not have been at their best on Tuesday night while Mr T and our defence were stout and resolute, meaning the Dutchman was less troubled than he might have otherwise anticipated, but he did have to pull off a magnificent save from the Little Pea just two minutes in.

With Fraser Forster continuing to excel north of the border and Ole Soderberg keen for action too, Pardew's been speaking recently about having to juggle his 'keepers again next season. It's a nice headache to have - if only we were blessed with such potential riches in other areas of the pitch.

Meanwhile, it's nice to see that not everyone has been moaning about their treatment at the hands of Tuesday night's St James' Park crowd - Stephen Ireland has described himself as being "taken aback" by the reception he got when appearing of the bench for his Toon debut. We've been critical of the on-loan midfielder around these parts, but he looked surprisingly lively and you have to give him credit just for making it onto the pitch, given his partner Jessica Lawlor's recent car crash. Here's hoping for a swift recovery for her and a few dynamic performances from him.