THOSE who dismiss as fanciful Kieron Dyer’s plan to play in this summer’s World Cup would do well to watch a video of this game. In his first start since August, the injury-hit player scored the goal that took Newcastle into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and showed that he has lost none of his sparkle.

Partnering Shola Ameobi up front, his goal came midway through the second half of a curious fifth-round tie in which Newcastle were as dominant before half-time as they were subdued after it. Although Newcastle’s caretaker manager, Glenn Roeder, had insisted that Dyer’s return would not be rushed, an injury to Alan Shearer forced his hand. In the first half, at least, he was the fulcrum around which Newcastle revolved. His change of pace, willingness to go looking for the ball and imaginative link work gave his team another dimension. When his deft flick allowed Scott Parker to set up Ameobi, the striker’s shot was an ideal height for the keeper.

Dyer unsettled Southampton at every opportunity, most notably when a slick exchange with Nolberto Solano gave him an acute angle from which to test Bartosz Bialkowski, Southampton’s 18-year-old goalkeeper. The young Pole got down quickly to block with his legs, as he had done earlier from a similar shot by Solano.

As Newcastle’s pressure grew, Bialkowksi was increasingly busy. His confidence soared with every passing save, and just before half-time his intervention verged on the heroic. When Ameobi’s left-foot volley looked destined to flash under the crossbar, a hand appeared from nowhere to tip it over. From the resulting corner, which Jean-Alain Boumsong somehow bundled against the post with a scrappy header, he gathered at the second attempt.

It was another suspect show from Boumsong, whose every performance provokes growing consternation on Tyneside. In Kenwyne Jones, Southampton had a player capable of troubling Boumsong, and indeed his teammates. The lanky striker caught the Frenchman in possession just before half-time before doing the same to Robbie Elliott just after the interval. Had the Trinidadian been more assured, he might not have struck his shot over the bar.

Jones had already demonstrated that he was also a handful in the air, glancing a header past the post, but it was in the second period that he really emerged. George Burley made a double substitution at half-time, replacing Claus Lundekvam and Marian Pahars with Darren Potter and Nathan Dyer, and it invigorated the visitors.

When Peter Madsen checked an inviting ball into Jones’s path, the striker’s shot wasn’t low enough, a mistake that allowed Shay Given to flick over the bar. By the time Alexander Ostlund had cut the ball back from the byline, and Madsen had swiped another chance high over the bar, Burley was tearing his hair out on the touchline.

Dyer’s goal was hard on Southampton. Just when their threat was at its peak, Charles N’Zogbia rode a couple of tackles in midfield and slipped the ball to the onrushing Dyer, who stroked it into the bottom right-hand corner.

Bialkowski, for one, didn’t deserve that. The goalkeeper’s disappointment was later compounded when he had to be carried off after landing awkwardly and twisting a knee. Striker Dexter Blackstock donned his jersey, but had little to occupy him during what remained of the match. That might have been different had Dyer not already left to a standing ovation.

STAR MAN: Kieron Dyer (Newcastle)

Player ratings. Newcastle: Given 7, Ramage 6, Bramble 6, Boumsong 5, Elliott 6, Solano 6, Parker 6, Emre 6, N’Zogbia 7, K Dyer 8 (Bowyer 76min, 5), Ameobi 6 (Luque 70min, 5)

Southampton: Bialkowski 7, Ostlund 6, Powell 6, Lundekvam 5 (Potter 45min, 5), Brennan 6, Cranie 6, Wright 6, Jones 7 (Blackstock 76min, 6), Oakley 6, Pahars 5 (N Dyer 45min, 5), Madsen 6

Scorer: Newcastle: Dyer 67min

Referee: M Atkinson

Attendance: 40,975

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