IT has become something of a tradition for Newcastle's players to throw punches when they visit Goodison Park. More pertinently, it has also become customary for them to throw away points.

Last season, Graeme Souness was handed an FA fine after Shola Ameobi was dismissed for throwing an ugly haymaker at Tim Cahill and referee Barry Knight missed a blatant foul in the build-up to Everton's first goal.

Yesterday, the Magpies manager was left seething after Cahill traded blows with Celestine Babayaro and referee Howard Webb missed a blatant handball that should have earned Newcastle a first-half penalty.

Stark similarities that overshadowed the most prescient point to emerge from both defeats. Amidst all the hullabaloo, the Magpies got nothing because of their own deficiencies. Unless Souness can address that problem, hard luck stories will continue to abound.

After dominating most of the first half and passing up a succession of presentable opportunities, Newcastle failed to force Nigel Martyn into a single second-half save. That, more than anything, was why they failed to lift themselves from the bottom half of the Premiership.

True, they should have had a penalty when James McFadden blocked Shola Ameobi's shot with his hand. A braver referee would also have sent off both Cahill and Celestine Babayaro when they became embroiled in a bout of fisticuffs, robbing the home side of one of their key creative threats.

But after Joseph Yobo headed Everton into a 46th-minute lead, Newcastle were unable to create anything that may have led to them levelling the game. For a side who spent almost £28m on attacking talent in the summer, that is a particularly damning indictment.

It does not help, of course, that Souness is constantly being robbed of his most creative figures. While he is unable to field his leading attacking lights, the Magpies manager is like so many of his players - hamstrung.

The optimism generated by Albert Luque's second-half return was tempered by the continued absence of Michael Owen. The England international was unable to take part in a full training session on Friday and, for the second weekend in a row, Newcastle travelled to an away game without him.

Owen's arrival has gone down in Tyneside folklore, but the 20,000 fans who flocked to St James' Park to greet him cannot have known they were foreshadowing much of what was to follow.

Three months into his Newcastle career, and those same supporters are getting used to not watching him play. Without his predatory instincts, the Magpies appear largely impotent.

Duncan Ferguson was similarly injury-prone during his time on Tyneside and, with grim predictability, the Scotsman was nowhere to be seen yesterday either.

In his absence, Dutch midfielder Andy Van Der Meyde partnered James Beattie in Everton's attack but, while the duo mixed poised with power, they struggled to trouble Newcastle's much-derided defence.

Beattie, who has been an unmitigated failure since his big-money move from Southampton, at least started brightly as the home side shaded an error-strewn opening.

He glanced Phil Neville's floated free-kick wide in the opening five minutes, before Peter Ramage furthered his burgeoning reputation with a perfectly-timed block that prevented McFadden reaching the striker's right-wing cross.

At that stage, it looked like Everton were about to avenge last weekend's 4-0 humbling at the hands of West Brom but as the first half wore on, Newcastle's midfielders gradually came to grips with the paucity of their opponents' play.

Nolberto Solano realised that McFadden's temerity in the tackle was effectively a green light to attack - although he repeatedly ran into blind alleys by refusing to stay on his flank - while both Emre and the ever-efficient Scott Parker gradually gained the upper hand at the heart of midfield.

Solano's curled free-kick, which came close to clipping the home crossbar in the 26th minute, sandwiched two Ameobi efforts that should have tested Nigel Martyn, but instead dribbled apologetically into his hands.

With Ameobi failing to fire, it was left to Alan Shearer to lead the attack and the Newcastle skipper came close to breaking the deadlock as the visitors enjoyed a purple patch in the latter stages of the first half.

An unseemly scramble led to Titus Bramble displaying a rarely-seen deftness of touch, and resulted in Shearer scampering beyond the stationary David Weir.

The 34-year-old successfully rounded the prone Martyn but, by the time he steadied himself to pull the trigger, Beattie had appeared from nowhere to hack his goalbound shot off the line.

That was a legitimate clearance but, when McFadden repeated the trick ten minutes later, Newcastle's players were rightly incensed.

This time it was Ameobi shooting on goal - the striker reacted quickest after Weir failed to clear Emre's corner - and, while McFadden diverted the ball for a corner, he was only able to do so with the use of an arm.

The offence merited both a penalty and a dismissal but, instead, referee Webb awarded only a corner. After John Terry got away with a terrible tackle on Lee Bowyer last weekend, it is tempting to ask what an opponent has to do to grant Newcastle a spot-kick.

McFadden's misdemeanour was not the only thing to have gone unnoticed by Webb. Four minutes later, the Yorkshire official failed to spot an exchange of punches that should have resulted in both Babayaro and Cahill seeing red.

Cahill missed with two ugly haymakers on the edge of the box, Babayaro connected with a retaliatory punch of his own, and Webb watched on oblivious as all hell broke loose around him.

The referee was similarly unmoved shortly after when Shearer appeared to elbow Weir in the face after lining up the Everton defender.

Sadly, for the visitors, Ramage was similarly unmoved as Everton broke the deadlock within a minute of the restart. Mikel Arteta delivered a corner from the right, and Yobo out-jumped the full-back to plant a powerful header past Shay Given.

Newcastle's response was negligible. Parker steered a half-volley wide after good work on the left from Charles N'Zogbia and Luque wasted a decent opening by flashing into the side-netting when Shearer was well-placed in the middle.

Beattie should have doubled Everton's lead 11 minutes from the end - blazing over with the goal at his mercy from ten yards out - but his miss merely underlined the questionable quality of the afternoon's play.

With a top-four finish already looking out of reach, it is time Newcastle forgot about apportioning blows and blame. Handing out retribution in front of goal would be a far more productive approach.

Result: Everton 1, Newcastle United 0.

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