Royal Antwerp 0 Newcastle United 5 (13th
September 1994 – UEFA Cup 1st Round)
Newcastle's return to European competition after many years in the domestic wilderness couldn't have been more emphatic. The game had kicked off with plenty of energy and after just one minute
Newcastle took a quick throw-in on the left and set Ruel Fox away into the
Antwerp half. He knocked a ball square
to Beardsley who in turn rolled it into the path of the encroaching Barry
Venison. Beresford then took up the
running down the left and with Scott Sellars ahead of him, took the Antwerp
defence by surprise and crossed for Rob Lee who had made a run just inside the
area and headed it across goal into the far corner.
Pavel Srnicek then did well to keep the
Belgians out at the other end with a finger-tip save from the Antwerp number
nine, Severeyns. Normal service was
resumed however after nine minutes when Rob Lee collected the ball in midfield
and sprayed it wide right to Ruel Fox. Lee
never stopped running and by the time Fox had returned the ball into the
six-yard box, Lee was there to nod it past the goalkeeper. In his eagerness to get into the area, Lee
almost headed team-mate Andy Cole into the net too.
Back came Antwerp again with a corner from
the right which Australian international George Kulcsar headed towards
goal. A combination of Marc Hottiger’s
right foot and the post prevented it going in to start some kind of
comeback. Things quietened down until
six minutes from the end of the first half when Beardsley set Fox away down the
right and his cross found Cole in the box via a defenders head. He controlled it and looked to shoot but
noticed Scott Sellars standing all alone three yards to his right so he knocked
it sideways and Sellars did the rest, stroking it into the bottom corner for
3-0.
There was still time in the first
half for Peter Beardsley to do that thing where it looks like he’s dislocated
his right leg and then suddenly dances past a defender. He left a defender clutching at the grass
with his teeth and scampered into the Antwerp penalty area. His fierce shot cleared the corner of post
and bar by inches.
Any hopes of an Antwerp recovery were squashed five minutes after the
restart. The trademark of the fourth
goal was the willingness of Lee and Beardsley to run at the opposition. Whenever either had the ball, their only
ambition was to get the attack moving forwards quickly and incisively. Antwerp didn’t have an answer to Beardsley’s
wise sideways pass to Lee; his direct running which, although thwarted by a
fullback, ricocheted to Marc Hottiger and his cross was dispatched with skill
into the corner of the net via Lee’s head.
Rob Lee’s hat-trick of headers made it 4-0 (his eighth goal in six
games) and matched the average number of goals per game Newcastle had scored
thus far that season. They’d put five
past Southampton, four past Chelsea and Coventry (Leicester and West Ham
both picked the ball out of their net three times each).
Srnicek rescued Newcastle a couple of times
before the fifth goal went in, stopping a low drive from Severeyns and then plucking a pile driver out of the top corner from
Godfroid. Steve Watson’s seventy eighth
minute goal was a short insight into what he was all about. He picked up on a rebound on the edge of the
area, took on and beat the first defender, rode the next tackle by knocking the
ball through the defender’s legs and baffled the third defender into running
the wrong way. That left him clear on
goal with just the ‘keeper to beat.
Instead of knocking the ball either side, he took on the ‘keeper too,
dancing away to the right and sliding the ball into the net from an angle,
narrowly beating a defender on the line.
Newcastle then went on to win the second leg 5-2 and set up a second
round tie against Athletic Bilbao.
Read more of Newcaste United's greatest (and worst) games in the book 'Newcastle United's greatest ever games' available to buy here
No comments:
Post a Comment