NAC Breda 0 Newcastle United 1

Last updated : 16 October 2003 By Footymad Previewer

Newcastle United go into Friday's second round draw having hardly broken sweat as they won 1-0 away to NAC Breda.

But for the second successive season, United showed that they enjoy games in Holland by snatching a late winner from Laurent Robert to win the tie 6-0 on aggregate.

With little at stake after that stunning first leg win at St James' Park, manager Sir Bobby Robson took the opportunity to rest several key players in preparation for Saturday's clash with Middlesbrough at the Riverside.

Hugo Viana came close to quietening the capacity 16,000 crowd when bringing an excellent save out of Gabor Babos after he was set up by Shola Ameobi.

Playing in their all grey European away strip, United knew that the Dutch side had to make all the running if they were to make any leeway into that 5-0 first-leg mauling.

The towering Orlando Engelaar tested Steve Harper after firing wide from a free-kick. The second occasion saw the midfielder given too much space and his low drive brought a good left-handed save out of Harper.

Kieron Dyer was handed the captain's armband and he linked well after 14 minutes with Nobby Solano to set up Ameobi, but the big front runner hesitated and Rob Penders made a timely and crucial challenge.

There was a setback for NAC when keeper Babos took a blow to his right wrist in a challenge with Titus Bramble and was unable to take any further part in the game and was replaced by substitute Gino Coutinho.

Robert flashed a shot just over before the break and just after the restart Solano's perfect delivery found the head of Ameobi but his effort was off target.

Stefano Seedorf completely miskicked when given a golden opportunity from a quickly taken Engelaar free-kick when he appeared to be watching Bramble rather than the ball.

NAC seemed to accept the inevitable the longer the second half progressed and Newcastle were quite happy to conserve their energy with Saturday's derby very much on their mind.

Ameobi did make a penetrating run after 79 minutes to pick out Dyer who was denied by a good save by Coutinho.

Then with just five minutes to go Jermaine Jenas delivered the perfect weighted through ball for Robert, who took in his stride before placing his effort wide of Coutinho much to the delight of the delight of the 1,500 travelling Geordie fans.

With time added on it should have been two, but with a chance that was harder to miss, substitute Lomanu LuaLua only managed to hit the post.