Newcastle count cost of penalty nightmare

Sir Bobby Robson's 200th game in charge of Newcastle United was a torment rather than a triumph, finishing with defeat in a penalty shoot out which will cost his club between £10-15m and a place in the Champions' League.

"I'm not thinking about money," he said, his voice hoarse and weary. "I'm thinking about the disappointment. We are distraught; don't come to my house tonight for a drink."

He has suffered defeat in a more painful penalty contest, in a World Cup semi-final 13 years ago, but unlike that reverse in Turin, this one will have dreadful financial consequences for a club already heavily in debt.

Before this enthralling, gut- wrenching match kicked off, Robson's opposite number, Lothar Matthäus, who by a cool irony was part of the German side which eliminated England in the Stadio delle Alpi, said that his side required "a miracle" to qualify, having lost the first leg in Belgrade. This they did not. What they required and displayed were calmness and an ability to take their chances. Matthäus pointed out that over the two games, Partizan had the bulk of the chances, although had Jermaine Jenas not missed a header from five yards or Alan Shearer seen Ivica Kralj save with an outstretched leg well into stoppage time, it would not have mattered.

Before the first leg he had declared that taking Partizan into the Champions' League would as great an achievement as the night in 1986 when Red Star Belgrade overcame Terry Venables' Barcelona to win the European Cup. Both were achieved via a penalty shoot-out.

Newcastle are famously bad at penalties and when Shearer drove the first of the evening high into the Gallowgate End, the Toon Army, not to mention the club's array of accountants, would have feared the worst. Newcastle missed their first three, while Partizan squandered two of their opening three kicks.

In tennis terms, Partizan had two match points. Ivica Iliev, who had scored the vital equaliser, aped the Newcastle captain by driving his deep into the crowd, but Milivoje Cirkovic did not. The penalties taken and missed by Sunderland and Norwich in First Division Play-off finals were heavy with pressure and financial implication but, perhaps more so, were these.

In normal time, a Serbian breakthrough was never that far away and arrived via a back-heel deep in the Partizan half from Jonathan Woodgate. It surrendered possession which was quickly fed to Albert Nadj, who slipped the ball into the area where his captain, Sasa Ilic was lurking. His square pass to Iliev presented the striker with an empty net he did not spurn.

Matthäus had said before kick-off that with Newcastle a goal ahead after the first leg, this tie would be won mentally and from that moment on Partizan believed in themselves in a way Newcastle simply did not.

Even before Partizan's opener, St James' did not appear a happy ground. For the first time since moving from Paris St-Germain for a £10m fee he has never fully justified Laurent Robert found himself dropped by Robson, who considers him perhaps the most awkward player he has had to deal with in four decades of management.

Despite his ability, a miserably indifferent display against Manchester United was something the Newcastle manager could no longer tolerate. Hugo Viana, another high-quality import who has yet to give value for money, was not noticeably an improvement and eventually Robson was forced to replace him with the wayward talent from Reunion.

It was a tribute to the high degree of organisation Matthäus has instilled in the Serbian champions that the match was more than half an hour old before Ivica Kralj was forced to make a decisive save; blocking a fearsome drive from Nolberto Solano. As Robson said, Newcastle never turned the Partizan defence and for this they paid an enormous price.

Matthäus remembers the penalty shoot-out in Turin for the magnanimous way in which Robson accepted defeat and last night the grand old man of English football was similarly gracious. In Belgrade he had hesitated an age when asked if he would take elimination from the Champions' League provided he had a guarantee he could win the Uefa Cup. Now, he has a chance to try.

Newcastle United: (4-4-2) Given; Hughes, Woodgate, O'Brien, Bernard; Solano (LuaLua, 107), Dyer, Speed (Jenas, f-t), Viana (Robert, 85); Ameobi, Shearer. Substitutes not used: Griffin, Bramble, Chopra, Harper (gk).

Partizan Belgrade: (3-5-2) Kralj; Cirkovic, Malbasa, West; Djordjevic, Stojanoski, Duljaj, Ilic, Nadj; Iliev, Delibasic (Cakar, 116). Substitutes not used: Rzasa, Bajic, Drulovic, Brnovic, Savic, Radakovic (gk).

Referee: J Wegereef (Netherlands).