Welcome back to another Magpie Moments, where we look at some famous and some not so famous moments in the history of Newcastle United. The three moments that we’ll look at this time are part of the modern history of the club, featuring the likes of McGhee, Pardew and David Kelly. So let’s dive in!
From the club who brought you Dyer v Bowyer, now Pardew uses his head! It felt easy to dislike Alan Pardew. I remember my thinking as being ‘anyone but Pardew’ when I first heard the rumours of his appointment. And then, during his time in charge of the Toon, he all too often felt like Ashley’s man. All ‘Mike said’ this and ‘Mike feels’ the other, if you’ll pardon the expression. On reflection though, he put together at least one decent squad and got us into Europe at a time in our history when that kind of thing felt like it was light years away. The moment in question though took place in 2014 in an away game at Hull City. Pardew was in his technical area when Hull won a throw and their midfielder David Meyler, once of sunderland, barged past in order to grab the ball for a throw. Pardew took exception, words were exchanged – no doubt some witty football banter – and before you knew it the two were inches apart and suddenly old Pards was sticking his head into Meyler’s face. Not quite a full on Glasgow kiss, more a Year 7 headbutt, but not exactly in the spirit of the game, either! An astonishing moment that you might expect in Sunday league , but not at the top level. Pardew was fined £100,000 by Newcastle, £60,000 by the FA and also received a ban of 7 games.
McGhee leaves it late! January 1990 saw one of the best games I ever witnessed at St. James’ Park. We were going for promotion under Jim Smith with Micky Quinn and Mark McGhee leading the line and at times we felt unstoppable…until the end of season play off that is. On this day though, we took an early lead through Mark McGhee and it felt like we’d stroll to the win. But Leicester had other ideas and scored twice before half time. Normal service was resumed straight after the break with Micky Quinn grabbing the equaliser. This being Newcastle though, by the 74th minute Leicester had retaken the lead and then extended it to 2-4. The promotion charge was officially stumbling. And then it happened. Not one, not two, but three goals in 10 minutes to put us ahead and ultimately win the game. I remember the winner well. Liam O’Brien won the ball from a breaking Leicester forward and it eventually got worked wide before being clipped into the feet of McGhee on the edge of the box with his back to goal. In an instant he fainted to go right and then turned onto his left foot and just hammered a low hard drive into the far corner of the net. The footage shows a heaving Scoreboard and Corner going mad and again, I remember only too well being thrown about in the Scoreboard, desperately trying to keep my feet while probably thinking that this was the best moment of my life!
Quinn, KELLY…that’ll do! Older Mags will remember this one well, while younger fans may well have been told about what is perhaps the most important goal in Newcastle United history. Without it, we were staring Division Three in the face. The game is seared into my memory. I’d travelled up from university, desperate to see us grab at least a point and we huffed and puffed our way through the game, never really looking much like scoring. In fact, the goal came from a Portsmouth breakaway, with Tommy Wright saving a shot and then throwing the ball long to Ray Ranson. Ranson kept it moving forward with a long, high ball which Kelly sort of flicked on towards Micky Quinn. Kelly then kept running and Quinn found him with a bouncing ball into his stride at the edge of the box. What happened next will go down in club folklore as Kelly ran onto the ball, catching it sweetly on the half volley and sending it beyond the keeper high into the corner of the Gallowgate net. Pandemonium! The final 5 minutes were spent trying to get my breath back while screaming encouragement for us to hang on. There was a slight late scare as a ball came into our box, but after what felt like an eternity the ref blew and it was all over. Mention David Kelly’s name nowadays and it is that goal that springs straight to mind. Our fate still wasn’t safe and there would be another twist in the tale to come. But we’ll save that for another time!
And there we have it. Three more Magpie Moments to get you reminiscing. And given the rich history of Newcastle United, there’ll be many more to come.
