ASK Sven Goran Eriksson why he chose Aston Villa against Newcastle as his game of choice on Saturday and he will probably say he was running the rule over some England probables.

But if you had sought the opinion of the conspiracy theorists they might have come up with an altogether different assumption for his presence in the directors' box.

After all, thanks to the Fake Sheikh, Eriksson's controversial reign at the Football Association is set to end earlier than he had originally anticipated.

And in that now infamous News of the World sting he made quite a big deal about taking the manager's coat, if not the shirt, off David O'Leary's back.

Add to that the suggestion, since refuted, that Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd had enquired about the Swede's availability following the axing of Graeme Souness and you can see why two and two might make five in some people's eyes.

While this charade was played out behind them, O'Leary and his Newcastle counterpart Glenn Roeder quietly got on with the job at hand.

O'Leary, clearly, has no intention of relinquishing his grip on the Villa helm. However, the same cannot be said for Roeder, who insists that despite a record of two wins from two since taking over as caretaker manager at St James' Park, he will not be offered the job on a permanent basis.

The former Magpies captain, who has temporarily relinquished his role as United's Academy manager while Shepherd scours the footballing world for Souness' replacement, claims that, like a soldier called to arms, he is just doing his duty.

"He said 'Glenn, pick the reins up, get as many points as you can until I find a new manager and then you can go back to the Academy.' It is like someone saying 'your club needs you', I had to do it," insisted Roeder. "I had to say yes, there wasn't any possibility of me saying no. It was like, 'your country needs you', well my club needed me.

"It would be absolutely wonderful if over the next few weeks the chairman finds a new manager and I can hand the reins over to someone who is going to take over a club going really well."

If that is to be Eriksson it will have to be after the World Cup, however, more wins like this one, which came courtesy of goals from Shola Ameobi and Charles N'Zogbia and despite the sending off of Celestine Babayaro, and the position might have already been offered in-house.

As much as he might downplay his impact, Roeder has clearly gone a long way to righting a sinking ship in a very short space of time.

Players that looked listless and lacked motivation two weeks ago, now look hungry and full of desire and though he'll never make a silk purse out of a sow's ear on the defensive front, at least the likes of Jean-Alain Boumsong and Titus Bramble look up for the battle.

It took just two minutes for Newcastle, unchanged from the side that beat Portsmouth last week, to take the lead. Former Villan, Nolberto Solano fed Alan Shearer who found Ameobi in space on the right side of the area and his shot across Thomas Sorensen nestled in the far corner.

Scott Parker prevented Luke Moore, Middlesbrough's nemesis after a Riverside hat-trick last week, from getting a shot off with a timely intervention on the edge of the area. However, Bramble was not so quick off the mark on 17 minutes, when from a free-kick he had conceded, he allowed Moore to get in front of him at the near post and steer a deft header past Shay Given to level the match.

A Magpies capitulation was feared, but Roeder appears to have engendered a 'never-say-die' attitude in his players and Newcastle came again.

Shearer slipped the ball through to Solano who let off a rasping shot which Sorensen could only parry. The Villa defence had a chance to clear the danger, but they dallied and N'Zogbia was quickest to react, prodding the ball home to restore the lead.

It was an advantage they were not to relinquish again, despite living on their nerves in the second half, especially when Babayaro brought down substitute Milan Baros and referee Mike Riley pointed to the spot before sending off the Nigerian.

Baros stepped up to take the kick, but instead of opting for one side or the other, he fired down the middle, and the athletic Given was able to make contact with his feet and divert the ball high and wide.

Given was called upon again when Juan Pablo Angel picked the ball up on the edge of the box, the keeper tipping over the Colombian's dipping effort.

From the subsequent corner Liam Ridgewell hammered a header against the bar, and despite numerous incursions into their box, Newcastle held firm.

O'Leary described United as fortunate after the match, suggesting the club appoint Roeder straight away because "if they are that lucky they will go on and win the league".

It was an unfair statement and it clearly irked the normally reserved Roeder.

"Let me be controversial for once in my life. That's a bit spiteful isn't it?" he said. " I thought Villa were very lucky to only be 2-1 down at half-time," he added in reference to Mark Delaney's terrific goalline clearance from a Shearer strike before the break.

"3-1 at this level, for me, is thank you very much, three points.

"Is it luck that Shay Given is such a great goalkeeper that he saves the penalty? Was it luck that the defenders kept heading the ball out of our box?

"The boys need some credit."

Roeder, too, is due a great deal of credit. Whether he will receive enough to convince him to rethink his future plans and in so doing push Eriksson's name out of the running, only time will tell.

Result: Aston Villa: 1, Newcstle United 2.

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