David Kelly changed my life. With one sweep of his right foot he changed the fortunes of Newcastle United and more or less saved them from writing the darkest chapter in their entire history. In doing so, he changed my life. And in doing so he might just have changed the life of yourself or someone you know.
David ‘Ned’ Kelly was signed from Leicester City for £250,000 in December 1991. He would go on to make 70 appearances across 3 seasons on Tyneside, scoring 35 goals.
We were in deep trouble when Kelly signed. This was the 1991-1992 season, infamous for how close we came to dropping into the third tier of English football. Kelly was signed by Ossie Ardiles, but ended the season under Kevin Keegan, scoring 11 crucial goals that would help us get just far enough up the table to avoid the drop by a whisker. It was a close run thing though!
Kelly was a workhouse of a striker, a willing runner and a chaser of lost causes. He wasn’t without ability, was blessed with a little bit of pace and had scored goals wherever he’d been; just what we needed at this time in our history.
The goal that changed the course of Newcastle United history was obviously a memorable one. Anyone who was at St. James’ Park that day will tell you. We played Portsmouth at home in the old second division and were desperate for a win. Keegan’s Newcastle made all the running that day, but with 5 minutes remaining it looked like we wouldn’t be able to make the breakthrough. And then it happened.
Keeper Tommy Wright threw out to Ray Ranson on the right side of the pitch in our own half and he advanced a little before launching a long ball up the middle. Kelly glanced it on to Micky Quinn who saw his strike partner going for the return and hooked the ball into his path. Meeting it on the bounce, Kelly lashed at it on the half volley from just inside the box at the Gallowgate and the keeper didn’t get near it as it rocketed into the top corner! Cue bedlam, mayhem, limbs, whatever you want to refer to it as.
I’d travelled up from university that day and was in the Gallowgate on my own. I felt physically sick at the prospect of us slipping into division 3 and had hated every second of the match. But as the ball hit the net, the place erupted. I don’t remember a huge amount; just being lifted off my feet in the chaos, screaming with sheer relief. The place was just a swell of joy; nobody who was there will ever forget the significance of what had just happened.
We would go to Leicester on the following weekend knowing that barring a disastrous series of results elsewhere, we would stay up. We won and Kelly was confronted on the pitch by angry Leicester fans who had raced on from the stands as we got the winner.
I met Kelly that summer in a pub in Cramlington. He was just sat at the bar with a mate, totally unassuming in a purple shell suit. I was loathe to make a tool of myself but still felt I had to say thanks for that goal. Kelly received my gratitude with a little bit of bemusement, clearly thinking that he’d done nothing special. I hope he knows the truth.
History shows that we were then promoted to the new, shiny Premier League in the following season and Kelly played his part then too. In a memorable season that ended with us as Second Division champions, Kelly was top scorer with 28 goals. Most notably, he scored the goal that clinched promotion in the 90th minute of a win away at Grimsby when it felt like three quarters of the crowd were geordies. He then went on to score a hat-trick as we walloped Leicester 7-1 at home in the final game of the season. It felt like the Kelly/Cole partnership were about the reap havoc in the Premier League. And then Kelly was sold.
Keegan decided to bring back Peter Beardsley from Everton and Kelly was sacrificed, heading to Wolves. ‘Ned’ would never be forgotten though and the love he found from those at St. James’ Park was still strong, even when he’d clearly had enough of proper football and signed for Sunderland. In fact, when he returned with the mackems a few years later Kelly was given a standing ovation as he took the field as a sub. A remarkable, instinctive and quite beautiful show of appreciation for a man who, you might just say, played a big part in saving the club.
David Kelly, take a bow.
Middle Age Fanclub 