Those of you who
witnessed football under Graeme Souness in the 2005/2006 season, will know the
true meaning of the words ennui and forlorn. Indeed, football under Roeder, Allardyce, Gullit, Dalglish and Pardew was at times some of the worst football ever played by any Premier League team. All you need to do to fully appreciate how bad the game against Wigan
Athletic was, is to think about Newcastle United under the stewardship of John
Carver when Alan Pardew left and multiply it by ten. No invention, no organisation, no passion and
no excitement.
If you don’t remember the
horror of Wigan away in 2005, then just think Leicester away on 2nd May
2015 - the eighth loss in a row under Carver - and multiply that by twenty. Words don’t really describe how utterly
shambolic and clueless Newcastle were that night but, here goes anyway.
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| Oh, I thought we we doing Karate. Sorry. |
Newcastle started
the season early in the Intertoto cup but despite grabbing an away goal to Deportivo
de La Coruña in a 2-1 loss, contrived to lose the home leg 2-1 also. If only that were the worst of it; on the
back of this tie, Newcastle were somehow tricked into parting with nearly £10m
for the decidedly average Albert Luque who was substituted by Deportivo on 61
minutes of the first leg having made no impact at all and was on the bench for
the second leg.
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| Not Rob Lee or Peter Beardsley |
The season itself kicked
off with 2-0 defeats to Arsenal, Bolton and Manchester United with a 0-0 at
home to West Ham sandwiched in-between.
Two wins and two draws followed to add some respectability to the league
position but then Newcastle visited Premier League newcomers Wigan for the
first time that season. Wigan had
started the season on fire, being that season’s surprise package but this game
was tainted by some awful refereeing decisions.
That and the fact Souness chose Ameobi to replace injured midfielder Lee
Bowyer after half an hour instead of Lee Clark or Emre.
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| Not Lee Clark or Emre |
It only took three minutes for the new-look
midfield to allow Wigan the chance to take the lead and this they did. Couple that with the fact Newcastle hadn’t
scored a first-half goal in eight of the last nine league games, 1-0 was an
inevitable half-time scoreline. Shearer
had the ball in the net on 65 minutes despite a push on a defender but the
linesman and referee saw neither (or didn’t see the foul and chose to ignore
the goal). Despite an improved
performance in the second half, the game ended in defeat to a team who was now
seven points Newcastle’s superior. Pride
was restored in the next game, a 3-2 victory over Sunderland, a 1-0 against
Grimsby in the cup and a 3-0 demolition of West Bromwich Albion. Seeing both Alan Shearer and Michael Owen on
the scoresheet, arms around each other’s shoulders saluting the travelling
support is one of those moments you never forget; mostly because that was what
every Newcastle fan dreamt of the day Owen signed but, other than the 4-2
victory at West Ham later that season, I struggle to remember another occasion
when both were on the scoresheet at the same time.
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| This should have happened more often |
Despite a 1-0
victory over Birmingham City thanks to a late Emre goal, Newcastle were
destroyed by Chelsea 3-0 and outplayed by Everton in a game which ended 1-0 to
the Toffees. All wonderful preparation
for the game which will never leave the memories of all who witnessed it, for
all the wrong reasons.
The Match
Newcastle (who fielded a full strength side) were outplayed
by a Wigan team which contained seven reserves.
Back from a lengthy injury, the fans were able to see Albert Luque for
what he was but despite that, the general lack of application spoke volumes
about the players’ respect for their manager.
Souness however was nowhere to be seen during the game for some reason,
leaving all of the shouting and gesticulation to Dean Saunders on the
side-lines. Nothing he shouted or signed
was enacted however as Lee Bowyer wandered about the pitch looking completely
uninterested in anything slightly ball shaped.
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| This is because you didn't try hard enough against Wigan! |
After the game Souness told the press that the best team won and should
have won by a much bigger margin, and without naming names, called out some of
his team for not giving one hundred per cent; the actions of a manger clinging
to his job and credibility by one solitary fingernail. It was the most comprehensive one-nil defeat
of all time. Wigan dominated from start to finish having nineteen attempts at
goal and had only Shay Given and themselves to blame for not putting the game
out of reach before halftime. When
Michael Owen had signed and Alan Shearer agreed to stay on for one more year,
having previously announced his retirement, Souness had made a rallying cry to
say that Newcastle ‘had to win something’.
Tumbling meekly out of the Intertoto cup and then this defeat in the
League Cup, made a mockery of those words.
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| A Newcastle United player with a trophy, honest. (This is not photoshopped) |
Still 0-0 at halftime despite the worst performance of all
time, a drab, spiritless, inept and lethargic performance followed, during
which Wigan seemed to feel sorry for their opponents. Missing the target, placing the ball within
Given’s reach and being generally unable to really look like they could score,
Newcastle held on until the very dying minutes of the game somehow. Wigan clocked up eleven corners to Newcastle’s
none at one stage but the nearest the away side came to grabbing anything was
when Emre hit the post. It was clear to
the thousands of travelling fans that to ‘inspire’ a performance like that from
international class players, takes a truly gifted manager. Souness hadn’t just lost the dressing room by
this point, he’d had to send out a search party for it.
It almost doesn’t matter that Wigan won the game via a
penalty awarded in the 88th minute; if Newcastle had lost the game twenty-nil,
there could have been no complaints about the scoreline.
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| Never managed another club after Newcastle United. Wonder why. |
Something had to change after this game. It seems amazing now looking back that
Newcastle managed two wins and a draw in the next three games having witnessed
just how poor they’d been against Wigan.
Normal service resumed however with 2-0 losses to Liverpool and Spurs, a
scrappy late draw against Middlesbrough which was followed by three league
defeats to Fulham, Blackburn and the then-not-so-mighty Manchester City which
spelled the end of Souness ‘reign’ as manager.
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| Happier times during awful times Read more of Newcaste United's greatest (and worst) games in the book 'Newcastle United's greatest ever games' available to buy here |
