Top of the shop

So, Newcastle finished top of their European group with a draw in Frnakfurt, thus vindicating UEFA's seeding of us. Eintracht Frankfurt were repelled by stalwart defending, yet when they did manage to penetrate our defence, their finishing was woeful, forcing Shay Given into only one serious save. One Greek player for Frankfurt, Amantidris, had three golden opportunities in front of goal in the first half and then picked up an injury in the second half forcing his substitution. It just wasn't his night, nor for Frankfurt, who now have to beat Fenerbahce in Istanbul to qualify. When Newcastle were drawn with the other teams in the group, it wa said Newcastle had been given a terrible draw and the other British teams had bad draws as well. Yet not only have Newcastle qualified (like all the other British teams), but we finished top, despite only having 12 senior players to call upon last night.
I watched the game on Channel Five, where there were mercifully no inane statistics thrown up this time by the commentary ("16,000 people paid 248,000 euros to see this game!" : Palermo vs Newcastle). The game didn't really catch fire and being on TV meant even less reason to chant. Actually, during the Fulham-Arsenal game, I got caught up in the spirit of the Hammersmith Stand and briefly forgot where I was, chanting "come on, Newcastle," before realising what I said (luckily, amid the general hubbub, no-one heard me). Mind you, the honest craft of Newcastle was in contrast to Arsenal, who, among other things, kept taking free-kicks while the ball was still moving, an illegal action, yet the referee let van Persie and his teammates get away with it all night. Ok, it contributes to Arsenal's flowing movement of a game, but the Fulham supporters summed it up along with all the pansy collapsings - "same old Arsenal, always cheating."
Also, finishing top means we avoid any Champions League team initially, a fact accentuated by the knowledge that one of either Werder Bremen or Barcelona will be playing in the UEFA Cup come early 2007.