Were it not for Kevin Keegan’s powers of persuasion and this players lack of geographical knowledge, we may have lost out on our latest Gallowgate Cult Hero to Middlesborough. Thankfully, Newcastle Airport somehow made us closer to London than Teeside was and Robert Lee signed on the dotted line.
Lee was signed from Charlton Athletic for £700,000 in September 1992. An athletic and powerful right sided midfielder he would go on to become a Toon legend and develop into an excellent central midfielder. At the time that he signed Keegan told him that he’d make him an England international. And while this came true, it was as much down to Lee’s ability and the sheer amount of graft that he’d get through as anything Keegan did. Keegan – as he did with almost every player around that time – inspired belief, but the ability was all Lee.
Rob would stay at Newcastle for 10 years, thriving under Keegan and Dalglish, becoming one of Bobby Robson’s trusted ‘blue chip boys’ and surviving the politics and petty point scoring of the Gullit era.
There are enough Rob Lee ‘moments’ to fill a book, but I thought I’d pick out a few favourites, which I’m sure lots of us all share.
The first would be his disallowed goal against Brentford in the ’92/’93 season. But this wasn’t any old disallowed goal; this was one from about 60 yards out. Lee chested the ball down and lobbed the Brentford keeper at the Leazes end from well inside his own half. Cue, pandemonium in the stands. But wait. As Lee had struck the ball the ref was busy awarding Newcastle a free kick for a Brentford offside. I mean, he couldn’t possibly have just played the advantage with the home team attacking, could he? The ‘goal’ will go down as one of the strangest decisions any of us will ever see and Rob was fuming. Asked about it some years later he said, “It was the worst decision I’ve ever seen.” Me too Rob, me too.
The next moment would be one of his finest in black and white and probably one of the fondest memories any of us older supporters have. That header in the 2000 semi final against Chelsea. Not only was it a cracking goal, it also broke a bit of a hoodoo. Newcastle hadn’t scored at Wembley in the cup finals of ’98 and ’99. It felt like we never would as well, given the passive nature of both performances. At the time, I’d just moved to Leeds. I couldn’t get a ticket for the game and we didn’t have Sky, leaving me going to a Leeds pub to watch the game until a kindly new neighbour invited me across to watch it on his telly. At 1-0 I was despondent, resigned to our fate once more. Then on 66 minutes, when Shearer got the ball on the right side of their box I was up on my feet shouting for him to cross it. As he beat the fullback I was screaming at the telly and when Rob Lee met it with a peach of a header I was mid air, arms aloft in my new neighbour’s front room, swearing like a trooper and losing my mind. My neighbour had known me for a matter of hours but thankfully he didn’t ask me to leave and we became firm friends. Bobby Lee’s header still gives me goosebumps all these years later!
Sticking with the heading theme, Rob Lee also probably provided many of us with one of our favourite European memories too. In 1994 Newcastle had qualified for the UEFA Cup and had a first round away leg against Royal Antwerp. I was fresh out of university and frankly, penniless. There would be no going away for me. It wasn’t on the telly either so I found myself sat in my mate’s bedroom listening to the game on a crackly FM radio. We were both nervous. European football was something we had very little experience of so we certainly didn’t expect to roll into Antwerp and hammer them. But hammer them we did and Rob Lee came up with a hat trick of headers and another fine performance. As goal after goal went in in that first leg I remember feeling completely delirious, like this couldn’t possible be real. It’s fair to say that the LCL Pils tasted like nectar that night! While watching the video of the game writing this I was struck by the quality in that side. Lee himself, Beardsley, Ruel Fox, Scott Sellars, Andy Cole and even a young Steve Watson dancing through in the latter stages to score a brilliant fifth.
In reality Robert Lee was so much more than a Cult Hero. A club legend, an adopted Geordie and a player inducted into the Newcastle United Hall of Fame as well. Lee was someone who was central to some of my most enjoyable times watching Newcastle United and I’m sure this applies to many more of us too. Rob Lee was a genuine pleasure to watch.
Middle Age Fanclub 