Martins nabs a pair to secure UEFA passage

8:48am Friday 29th September 2006

Newcastle United 2, Levadia Tallin 1.

At a time when Newcastle United are ready to install a technological system that analyses the on-field performances of their players, there was only one statistic that mattered last night.

After gaining the upper hand a fortnight earlier, the Magpies booked a place in Tuesday's draw for the group stage of the UEFA Cup with a stuttered victory over Levadia Tallinn of Estonia.

And Obafemi Martins, the £10m striker who has failed to look anywhere near worth his valuation since arriving, finally started to repay manager Glenn Roeder for his faith with the double that secured progress.

Not even a headed away goal from Levadia substitute Indrek Zelinski could alter the outcome as Newcastle - who will need new signings in January if they are to go all the way in European club football's second competition - became one of 40 teams in the next stage.

Martins' brace inside three second half minutes, his last was a real stunner from 20 yards, brought relief around St James' Park, not least on himself after a disappointing start to life on Tyneside following his expensive move from Inter Milan.

Roeder was delighted with his striker: "It was a good night's work. We never doubted Oba having seen him in training - it's nice that he is up and running and scoring at St James' Park.

"I know he will be successful here I am surprised some people have been impatient with him.

"Players like Shevchenko and Bellamy are not scoring and they have gone to new clubs. Oba just needs time to settle and we have seen tonight how good he can be.

"That will endear him to our fans, he is a different number nine to some of those who have worn the shirt before, it is typical of people in this country. But he has proved me right tonight, it was only a matter of time".

And, given his work rate on the night, the Amisco system that has been lined up by Roeder to assess his players would have done wonders for a player previously short of confidence had it been around.

Emre, Tyneside's Turkish playmaker, was by far the brightest light and it was no surprise when, less than 180 seconds after the restart, his corner into the area was met by the leaping figure of Martins.

If that lifted the weight of anticipation from his shoulders then it must have felt like he had got the legacy of Alan Shearer off his back within minutes when he added a second of real class.

Stephen Carr's centre from the right was knocked down by Antoine Sibierski and Martins took a touch before cracking in an unstoppable left foot drive off the underside of Artur Kotenko's bar.

In between goals, Steve Harper had left his mark at the other end with a fantastic stop to deny Vladimir Voskoboinikov which would have made things interesting.

As it was, after the strikers withdrawal, his replacement Zelinski went one better when Harper failed to deal with a downward header from the substitute.

But Newcastle, who went close shortly after, when Nicky Butt rounded the keeper and hit the post, never seriously looked like throwing their handsome advantage away.

Levadia did rally but Martins' magic meant the Magpies moved on.

During a week in which assistant manager Kevin Bond was sacked by the club in wake of his inclusion in Panorama's investigation into corruption within football, it must have been nice for Roeder to at least concentrate on football.

But, even last night, the spotlight was on the Newcastle boss for the way he stood by Titus Bramble in light of the way he added to his error-strew copy book with a dreadful display against Everton on Sunday.

Bramble, suspended from this weekend's trip to Manchester United, is considered to be treading dangerously towards the last chance saloon at St James' Park and the return to the side of Steven Taylor after injury piled more pressure on the former Ipswich defender.

And, after a shaky first touch, Bramble managed to successfully spare Nicky Butt's blushes after a pretty ordinary opening half from the Premiership club, in which Scott Parker was rested.

Butt's stray pass back towards Taylor gifted striker Voskoboinikov in a free run in on goal but Bramble was alert to track and his timely intervention, with a sliding tackle, ensured Newcastle escaped.

Roeder could not have been happy with the start, although Emre's sharpness throughout livened things up.

An early run of his led to him beating three opponents before firing over from distance.

While Emre and Charles N'Zogbria looked like breaking down Levadia's rearguard, there was also an over tendency on the home side's part to gift the Estonians too much possession.

Butt was the chief instigator, regularly failing to find his man with routine passes, but Taylor could not be overlooked for blame when Levadia should have pulled the aggregate score level midway through the opening period.

Voskoboinikov, a towering centre forward, was the threat again when he worked his way free of his marker, but directed his header over from Konstantin Vassiljev's cross.

Levadia struggled with Newcastle's attacks when they were troubled with crosses from either flank but goalkeeper Kotenko looked a safer bet than those operating in front of him.

Anyone from the home side looked like opening the scoring then it was Emre and he had two decent efforts from free kicks before the interval.

The first curled two yards over while the second, from almost the byline wide on the right, broke a finger tip save out of Kotenko.