SHAY GIVEN looks set to travel to Dublin to meet up with his Republic of Ireland teammates for the Euro 2008 qualifier with San Marino on Wednesday evening.

Given did not play for Glenn Roeder's men in a dour draw at the City of Manchester Stadium yesterday , however, reports from Newcastle suggest the Donegal man has recovered well enough from his recent stomach operation to at least join Steve Staunton's squad. A decision will be made about his matchfitness later.

It was referee Graham Poll who found himself the centre of attention yesterday after disallowing a Georgios Samaras goal that would have given Manchester City a deserved win.

The World Cup official, already in the spotlight following the high-profile dismissals of John Terry and James McFadden in the past seven days, cut City's celebrations short when he spotted Bernardo Corradi pulling Stephen Carr inside the Magpies box midway through the second half. It appeared a debatable call and proved to be crucial given Samaras turned the ball home after Richard Dunne had nodded Joey Barton's corner goalwards and left City cursing more bad luck.

The hosts, who are still unbeaten and yet to concede a goal at home, should have wrapped up the points anyway but Barton and Corradi wasted good chances.

However, they might also be thankful a late Newcastle rally did not see the Magpies fly off with the points as Kieron Dyer and Antoine Sibierski both went close before James Milner was left waiting in vain for a pass in the final second when completely unmarked in the middle of the City area.

The result does little to ease the pressure on Newcastle boss Roeder, whose side have now gone eight games without a win and look set for a long winter battle to pull themselves clear of trouble. As neither side could claim to have set the world alight in any sense this season, a spectacular contest was not expected. Nevertheless, the sheer awfulness of the opening period still came as a shock. It did not take much but undoubtedly, City were the better side.

In Barton they had the only player capable of lifting himself above the mediocre. The only disappointment for the City man was he did not get his name on the scoresheet, forcing one good save out of Givens' replacement Steve Harper when he nicked the ball past Parker then let fly with a volley that the Magpies keeper did well to save.