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NEWCASTLE'S best start to a Premier League season since 1996? It certainly didn't feel like it at the Madejski Stadium.

The Magpies turned in a performance every bit as anaemic as the one they produced at Derby last month and left Reading with exactly what they deserved - nothing.

True, an undeserved point looked to be there for the taking when Michael Duberry inadvertently deflected Emre's 76th-minute free-kick into his own net.

But there could have been few complaints from the visitors when Shane Long grabbed a deserved winner with his first touch of the ball after coming off the substitutes' bench. Newcastle's glaring lack of ambition counted against them in the end.

Part of that was Sam Allardyce's fault, with the Magpies manager starting with both Charles N'Zogbia and James Milner on the bench.

Newcastle predictably lacked width as a result, with neither Emre nor Geremi offering any kind of a threat from the flanks.

And while Claudio Cacapa and Abdoulaye Faye have combined effectively in previous games, here they tended to get in each other's way whenever the ball was thrown forward.

A string of wins at St James' Park have tended to obscure Newcastle's dreadful away form since the opening day of the season. Many more performances like this, however, and the criticism will increase markedly.

3:02pm Monday 29th October 2007

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