Mike Mahoney is the first goalkeeper I remember playing for Newcastle United. I would have been about 6 when I went to my first match and saw him play, but I’d heard of his legend long before from my dad singing his song when he came in drunk from the match!
Standing at only 5′ 11”, Mahoney was small for a keeper, even in those days. This was 1974 and he had been a regular with fourth division Torquay United, but Newcastle manager Joe Harvey was confident enough in his abilities to buy him for the princely sum of £25,000. He only made 2 appearances that season, but his time would come.
Mahoney appeared 37 times in the ’75/’76 season, taking over from the popular Willie McFaul and Newcastle finished 15th in the table. Despite his size Mahoney was agile and could always be relied upon to produce a spectacular save or two. He couldn’t save us from defeat in that season’s League Cup final though.
Despite the presence of another good keeper in Roger Jones, Mahoney would play every game in the ’76/’77 season and was voted our Player of the Year. He’d earned the popular terrace tribute song of “Mick Mahoney, super goalie, la la la la la”! With Newcastle finishing 5th and earning a UEFA Cup spot, the stage seemed to be set for Mahoney to go on and make the number 1 shirt his own for a long time.
However, the following season (’77/’78) was a disaster and Newcastle were relegated. Before the season even started there was the threat of strike action by players who were desperate for Richard Dinnis to be appointed manager. They got their way, but Newcastle spent almost the entire season in the relegation zone. Mahoney would only make 23 appearances and having been hit by a bottle in the away leg of our UEFA Cup tie against the Irish side Bohemians, he suffered a loss of form and was never the same keeper again.
New manager Bill McGarry clearly didn’t rate Mahoney and he was sold to Chicago Stings in the November of the ’78/’79 season. From there he played in the North American Soccer League for California Surf and the Los Angeles Lazers until his retirement in 1986. Mike joined the coaching staff of the Lazers for a couple of years until the club folded. He would stay in the States until he returned to England in 2018 to coach at Bristol Manor Farm.
Although only on Tyneside for a relatively short amount of time, Mike Mahoney definitely became a bit of a cult hero.
Middle Age Fanclub 