Newcastle United 2 Blackburn Rovers 1

Jan 8 2012 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

HE has seemed on a mission to self-destruct at times this week but when it really mattered, Newcastle were eternally grateful to their Hatem Bomb for exploding into life.

Handed a licence to thrill in the wake of Toon top scorer Demba Ba jetting off to report for national service, brilliant Ben Arfa certainly didn’t disappoint.

His buoyant boss Alan Pardew hailed his slaloming second-half run and fine finish as the best goal he’d ever seen live.

No doubt many of the 30,000 Toon Army foot soldiers who dutifully filed through the turnstiles to witness a see-saw cup contest would agree with that assessment.

And for a support reared on the jinking majesty of Peter Beardsley and Chris Waddle, that really is some compliment.

But as stunning as his second goal of the season might have been, it was his all-round display – especially after he was deployed on the right wing – that really gave Newcastle reasons to be cheerful on third round day.

With Senegal looking a good bet to endure in Equatorial Guinea, Ba could be missing from action until Valentine’s Day.

By then, Tyneside’s love affair with their enfant terrible could have matured into a fully blown romance.

While life will never be simple with Ben Arfa on board, on days like this it becomes glaringly obvious why he is worth all the bother.

His maverick tendencies might mean he pulls immature stunts like convening his own Press conference to press his first-team claims, but he isn’t half a special talent when he puts his mind to it.

No one in black and white is capable of the magic that their mercurial Frenchman managed to conjure on 70 minutes.

Picking up the ball some 20 yards out, Ben Arfa accelerated past a slew of yellow shirts before lifting a delightful finish past Mark Bunn to puncture the tension that was building around St James’ Park.

Because somehow, United were tumbling out of the FA Cup at that point.

Despite making all the running, they had fallen behind to a scrappy David Goodwillie strike that had left the black-and-white public fearing another early exit from this famous old competition.

They huffed and puffed in the interim but failed to inflict any serious danger on a Blackburn team crafted to contain.