He passed to Guivarc’h who proved, contrary to popular opinion, that he could put the ball in an empty net from eight yards. Mind, it only went in off the post.Newcastle briefly revived but then Karlheinz Riedle caught Laurent Charvet dwelling on the ball, it ran to Owen and he was off, spearing the ball over Given. After 16 minutes Ince hit a piledriver from the edge of the area, Given parried it and, from an acute angle, Owen thumped a volley inside the near post.A minute later Berger fed McManaman, who moved the ball on to Owen as he danced unnoticed through the black-and-white statues He drew Given and slipped the ball between his legs The home crowd fell silent. With Phillippe Albert recalled, three of Kenny Dalglish’s buys, Alessandro Pistone, Andreas Andersson and Nikos Dabizas, made way.Newcastle, inevitably, had begun with plenty of attacking brio but could only muster a mis-hit shot by Speed.

Then Dietmar Hamann went off injured and Liverpool took control. The clinical nature of Owen’s finishing augurs well for England’s trip to Sweden this week as does the form of Paul Ince.Patrik Berger scored Liverpool’s fourth in first-half injury-time. Newcastle’s only consolation was a debut goal for Stephane Guivarc’h that, for five first-half minutes, threatened to bring them back in the game. It proved a false dawn.Gullit had not picked this team but the change of emphasis was clear in its attacking intent. Gary Speed was pushed up alongside Guivarc’h and Shearer while Carl Serrant was given a debut in midfield. It will be a hard job.”Liverpool, who move top of the table, will not be unhappy that the after- match focus was on Newcastle’s failings rather than their own qualities.

This is because the attention would have fallen upon the remarkable Michael Owen, whose 15-minute first-half hat-trick punctured the Newcastle hype. “The first half was not very good and I couldn’t resist doing something about it In the second half at least we created some chances I saw some good things and we’ll work on them. Judging by what followed, its skull could be exposed to the elements for a while yet.
It took just 45 minutes for the rapturous reception accorded Gullit to be turned to boos for the team. Though things improved in the second half, Gullit having abandoned his seat in the stand to take over the team, it was still a crushing disappointment after the heady anticipation of the past few days.”It was very interesting,” said Gullit, who will at least no longer have to deal with inflated expectation. In that time, memories had been revived of the downside of the cavalier Keegan days with a shocking defensive performance. Did not start: 19 R Barrichello (Bra) Stewart-Ford; 20 O Panis (Fr) Prost-Peugeot; 21 M Salo (Fin) Arrows; 22 R Rosset (Bra) Tyrrell-Ford.CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP1 McLaren 125 pts; 2 Ferrari 102; 3 Williams 33; 4 Benetton 32; 5 Jordan 26; 6 Sauber 8; 7 Arrows 6; 8 Stewart 5; 9 Prost 1..

Newcastle United 1 Liverpool 4

JACKIE MILBURN’S statue was bewigged within hours of Ruud Gullit’s appointment, but the Angel of the North remained undreadlocked when the Dutchman’s second coming kicked off yesterday afternoon. “It shows I can be competitive in another car apart from Williams.”BELGIAN GRAND PRIX1 D Hill (GB) 10ptsJordan-Mugen-Honda 1hr 43min 47.407sec(Average speed 177.229kph)2 R Schumacher 6ptsJordan-Mugen-Honda +0.932sec3 J Alesi (Fr) 4ptsSauber-Petronas +7.240sec4 H-H Frentzen (Ger) 3ptsWilliams-Mecachrome +32.242sec5 P Diniz (Bra) 2ptsArrows +51.682sec6 J Trulli (It) 1ptProst-Peugeot +2 laps7 D Coulthard (GB) McLaren-Mercedes +5 laps; 8 S Nakano (Japan) Minardi- Ford +5 laps.DID NOT FINISH/NOT CLASSIFIED9 G Fisichella (It) Benetton-Mecachrome 26 laps completed;10 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 25; 11 E Irvine (GB) Ferrari 25; 12 E Tuero (Arg) Minardi- Ford 17; 13 J Villeneuve (Can) Williams-Meca- chrome 16; 14 T Takagi (Japan) Tyrrell-Ford 10; 15 J Verstappen (Neth) Stewart-Ford 8; 16 M Hakkinen (Fin) McLaren- Mercedes 0; 17 A Wurz (Aut) Benetton-Mecachrome 0; 18 J Herbert (GB) Sauber-Petronas 0. Eventually, Hill saw off the threat and took the flag less than a second ahead of Ralf Schumacher.”I’m incredibly happy for Jordan because they try and try,” Hill said. So now, he still trails Hakkinen by seven points, rather than leading by three.Hill had maintained his consistent form and his 22nd grand prix win and the first since winning the 1996 Championship beckoned.The safety car was sent out again as more wreckage was cleared from the track, allowing Ralf Schumacher to close up behind his team-mate.Schumacher was ordered to hold station, but Jordan’s strategy was complicated by the advance of Jean Alesi in third place. It appeared he got unnecessarily close to Coulthard when he knew he was under no pressure to take risks. In one lap Schumacher opened a five-second lead and by the middle of the race had a half-minute advantage. Schumacher wriggled free to chase Hill.For almost eight laps the Englishman resisted but as the rain fell harder the Ferrari went past.