Rob Lee's European Masterclass - Antwerp vs Newcastle United

Royal Antwerp 0 Newcastle United 5 (13^th September 1994 – UEFA Cup 1^st 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

Newcastle United 4 Manchester United 3 (15th September 2001)

It was seventh versus second when the unbeaten Manchester United rocked up in Toon.  Imagine before kick-off hearing the Red Devil’s team sheet being read out over the tannoy...

Beckham, Keane, Giggs, Cole, van Nistelrooy, Scholes

...and then hearing names like Barthez (likely to do something weird), the 36 year old Laurent Blanc whose pace had completely evaporated, Wes Brown (see his Sunderland career for reference), Ronny Johnsen (see his Newcastle career for reference).

No, you have it. I insist.

In the summer Sir Bob had recruited Bellamy and Robert which turned the team into one which could realistically challenge the top six having not even finished in the top ten for the last five years since Dalglish took over from Kevin Keegan.  There had been a steady start, avoiding defeat at Stamford Bridge in the season opener thanks to a Clarence Acuña equaliser which cancelled out a Boudewijn Zenden opener.  An even Tyne-Wear derby followed the 4-4 epic against Troyes in the Intertoto cup, Bellamy saving Newcastle from a 1-0 defeat against Sunderland with an equaliser before half-time.  Alan Shearer returned from injury in the next game away to Middlesbrough and almost took the net off its hinges with his 76^th minute strike which made it 4-1 to the Geordies (See below) and the season was well underway.

Newcastle had wonderful balance in their team that day with Solano on one wing, Robert on the other, Rob Lee and Clarence Acuña in the middle with Shearer and Bellamy up front.  52,056 packed into the ground to watch one of the greatest games St. James’ had seen in its history and it started perfectly with a goal after just five minutes.  Laurent Blanc learned quickly that when Shearer has the ball with his back to goal, you don’t try and take it off him otherwise, a free kick will ensue.  Shearer had the ball with his back to goal and… Blanc brought him down for the free kick.  Solano and Robert stood over the ball with Solano taking the steps backwards before Robert took two steps and curled the ball into the top right corner leaving Barthez clutching at thin air.  

What happens next?

It wasn’t long before Sir Alex Ferguson, clad in a woolen trench coat, was up off the bench celebrating like a Geography teacher who wasn’t sure which team he should be supporting.  Phil Neville found himself central, twenty yards from the Newcastle box and oddly floated an angled ball out to the left.  It didn’t find its intended target but Andy Cole got up in the area to nod it down for strike partner van Nistelrooy who controlled the pass perfectly, turned his marker and stroked it into the bottom corner. 1-1, 29 minutes gone.

Bellamy was then fouled in the area but the referee turned his back and the boos rang out around the ground for a good five minutes, time enough for Newcastle to mount another attack which led to Robert firing just over from the edge of the area.  Just after the half-hour, an interception on the edge of the Manchester United area bounced out towards Rob Lee who was loitering in midfield.  His first touch took him around Verón, his second and third touches took him into the gap between Verón and the back four.  Finding himself on the edge of the ‘D’, Lee thought, ‘why not?’ and toe poked the ball goalwards.  It rolled towards goal where Barthez was crouched; it hit his knee, bounced up and ended up in the net.  The comedy Frenchman had struck again.  Lee was unperturbed as he’d just scored his first Newcastle goal for a year and a half.  His last goal had come in the FA Cup Semi-final against Chelsea in April 2000.  It had also been around three years since he last scored in the Premier League.

That went in? Seriously?

2-1 at half-time and all looked rosy for once against the mighty Red Devils.

Six minutes after the restart, a corner from the right was cleared to Laurent Robert.  He punted the ball forward towards goal but it hit a Manchester United defender and landed at the startled Nikos Dabizas’ feet.  He took one touch and lashed his foot at the ball with more venom than he’d ever put into a tackle whilst in Black and White.  Barthez didn’t even see it and was soon picking the ball out of the net having gone 3-1 down.  

I'm rather chuffed with that!

The fans were in dreamland and quite rightly expected a victory given the balance of play.  However, you never write the Mancunians off and back they came when on 62 minutes, a cross from the right hand side found Ryan Giggs completely unmarked on the edge of the area.  He swept the ball past Shay Given without much effort to reduce the deficit.  Whenever a Newcastle two-goal lead is cut to just one, the inevitable always seems to happen.  A Newcastle clearance found Juan Sebastián Verón on the edge of the area and he volleyed the ball past Given to level the scores.  Twenty six minutes remained and even the most optimistic Geordie had written this off as a 5-3 defeat.  However, with just seven minutes left on the clock, Craig Bellamy picked up the ball and took it on unchallenged into the Manchester half of the field.  He played a perfect ball through to Solano but his shot was powder puff at best and Barthez managed to get it clear.  Cue the big man; Shearer thundered in and directed the ball towards the far corner only for Wes Brown to stick out a leg and deflect an already goal-bound shot into the net to claim an OG and deprive Shearer of another strike in pursuit of Jackie Milburn’s record.

Same old Shearer

There was a little bit of drama at the end of the game when Alan Shearer cheekily stopped the opposition taking a quick throw-in to slow the game down with just one minute left on the clock.  Keane then threw the ball off Shearer’s head only for the Geordie talisman to have a few words with Keane and cause the Irishman’s face to kind of fold in on itself with rage.  He swung a fist at Shearer who just stood calmly, smirking slightly as several Manchester United players held Keane back and probably helped prevent a lengthy prison sentence.  Keane tried several times to grab at the Newcastle captain but Shearer just stood looking sternly at him as the referee brandished the red card and ordered the tantrum-having Keane from the field.  A good day all round then!

Would you like to come round to mine for tea and scones old chap?

Read more of Newcastle United's greatest (and worst) ever games in the book 'Newcastle United's greatest ever games' here.

The birth of a legend : Mick Quinn

It was 1989.  Newcastle United had said goodbye to the top tier of league football for the time being, having flirted with relegation a few times since Kevin Keegan, Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle and Terry McDermott guided them into the Promised Land just five years previous.  The already relegated side that took to the field for the final top-flight game away at Manchester United was unrecognisable from the one that ran out at St. James’ Park three months later.  

There was no John Anderson, Kenny Sansom, David McCreery, Glenn Roeder or Michael O’Neill.  Sunderland born Kevin Dillon had joined from Portsmouth, John Gallacher took up the right wing spot with Wayne Fereday on the left.  

Most importantly of all however, was the introduction of two now club legends up front.  Mark McGhee had returned to Newcastle having been sold after his first spell to Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen, winning several leagues, Scottish cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup; part of the side that defeated Real Madrid 2-1 in the final.  He’d also won the European Super Cup, scoring against Hamburg in the second leg.  Lesser known to the fans at the time was Mick Quinn.  He’d recently helped Portsmouth back into the top flight for the first time since the 1950’s.  Pompey were relegated again after one season and were almost relegated again but for Quinn’s 20 goals helping them to a safe 20^th position.  Newcastle manager Jim Smith thankfully saw a lot more in Mick Quinn than he did in Frank Pingel and signed him for £680,000.

What’s interesting about this first game of the new season is how many of the Leeds United team were big name players.  Chris Fairclough had top division pedigree, a young David Batty and Gary Speed were just finding their feet with Vinnie Jones and Gordon Strachan alongside to assist.  Leeds had signed John Hendrie from the Magpies to play alongside another ex-Newcastle player, Imre Varadi.  Lee Chapman added to the ‘combative’ edge that Howard Wilkinson was trying to imbue in his team but sadly for the The Whites, it was Newcastle who managed to make an explosive start to the season.

The mood on the terraces was a gloomy one after the fans had watched their side slip meekly out of the First Division amidst chants of ‘sack the board’.  Any discontent soon turned to encouragement as Newcastle flew out of the blocks, attacking from the first minute.  Newcastle hit the bar within the first ten minutes and a few minutes later, a long ball set John Gallacher away down the Newcastle right.  He completely outpaced Jim Beglin and forced the former Liverpool full-back to bring the speedy Scot down in the box for a penalty.  Within seconds of the offence, Mick Quinn was standing on the penalty spot gesturing for the ball.  Once the ball was placed, Quinn made his way to the edge of the box, faced his own goal and then suddenly turned, ran up to the ball and fired it into Mervyn Day’s bottom right-hand corner.  Away he ran to the Gallowgate end to celebrate with sixteen fans jumping up and down with lots of space on the terrace behind them.  One fan just stood there, hands in pockets, looking on for a moment before turning his back on proceedings and wandering back up the terrace, decidedly unimpressed.  Meanwhile, the Strawberry corner was a bouncing sea of delirious Geordies who were about to witness more goals from their team in one game than they’d witnessed in the last nine games of the previous season. 

Leeds hit back two minutes later with Gordon Strachan slicing through the Newcastle midfield with ease and releasing Baird who crossed for Bobby Davidson to fire into an empty net.  Parity then turned to disaster when a long free-kick was headed on to Ian Baird who notched one of his seventeen goals in seventy seven games for Leeds United to make it 2-1 after twenty nine minutes.  Fans and players alike thought their team was level when a corner from the right was headed goalwards by Kevin Scott.  The final touch by McGhee sent it past the Goalkeeper but the offside flag denied him.  Jim Smith’s half-time words had their desired effect and the comeback started with a corner from the left.  Two minutes after the re-start, Fereday floated the ball over and as McGhee flicked it on at the near post, the Leeds defence seemed to completely lose track of it.  Quinn read it perfectly however and nodded the ball into the net for 2-2. 

Twenty minutes later, Tommy Wright launched the ball upfield where Quinn headed it into the back of Mark McGhee who then turned and mesmerised a Leeds defender, leaving him scrabbling on the floor before releasing John Gallacher down the right.  His first-time cross found Quinn in the six yard box who claimed his hat-trick via Mervyn Day’s hand and Mel Sterland’s leg before scampering off, pointing at the sky and punching the air.  Delight turned to ecstasy with four minutes left when a throw down Newcastle’s left found McGhee who performed a hopeful punt over his head.  Peter Haddock had no idea where he was and his delicate knockback in the direction of his own goal found John Gallacher lurking behind.  The winger teased Jim Beglin with a few touches, taking the ball closer and closer to the centre of the goal before firing in an angled shot into the bottom corner leaving the Goalkeeper helpless.  During the goal celebration, Wayne Fereday paid Gallacher particular attention, speaking to him at length.  He was probably asking if Gallacher could show him how to kick the ball in the general direction of the opposition goal in training on Monday.  However, this is just a rumour.

The fifth glorious goal came just one minute later when Kevin Scott stuck out a leg to thwart a rare Leeds attack and the resultant interception set Mick Quinn through with a clear run on goal.  He took a couple of touches and fired the ball goalwards from thirty yards, surprising the ‘keeper who grasped at thin-air and could only watch as Newcastle went nap.

The success story that had started on the opening day continued throughout the season with Quinn scoring in each of the opening five games and going on to score fifteen league goals in fourteen games.  McGhee weighed in with his fair share of goals and they ended the season with fifty one goals between them.  Unfortunately, neither could find the net in the crucial final three games.  The 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough which consigned Newcastle the Play-offs and the two Play-off games against Sunderland when Newcastle failed to find the net at all.  However, for those who were there for Mick Quinn’s debut, they knew that day that a new Number Nine legend had been born.

Watch the highlights here

Newcastle United 5 Sunderland 1 (31st October 2010)

There’s a man associated with Newcastle United whose ownership has been lamentable at best.  He was plotting the removal of fans’ favourite Chris Hughton from his role as manager despite going fifth in the table after a victory away to Arsenal and this emphatic victory over local rivals Sunderland.  

He then sanctioned the sale of Andy Carroll for £35m which on paper looked good business but in reality, underlined his lack of ambition for the club as the money was not reinvested.  Despite that backdrop, Halloween 2010 was one of the greatest days in any Newcastle fan’s life.  Secret Agent Steve Bruce pretended to be Sunderland manager for a few years and, to try and convince the Sunderland fans that he was on their side, even sported a red face and white hair in tribute to the famous Sunderland club colours.

There was very little doubt about the destination of the points when after 26 minutes, almost complete Magpie dominance was rewarded when Kevin Nolan hooked the ball over his head into the Sunderland net from six yards.  

This was followed by every Newcastle outfield player lying on top of the scorer and creating a Kevin Nolan shaped indentation in the pitch.  Eight minutes later Jonás Gutiérrez took a shot which was blocked by a Sunderland foot but skipped up nicely for Andy Carroll to knock across the box for the unmarked Kevin Nolan.  After chesting the ball down and stroking the ball past Simon Mignolet, the crowd erupted in ecstasy whilst watching their current favourite scouser trot away doing a chicken impression (for some reason).  

Roll on another ten minutes and the enthusiasm of Gutiérrez paid more dividends.  At first he tried to release Nolan with a through ball which was cut out.  Nolan did manage to latch onto the rebound however, took on three defenders and was then mercilessly hacked to the floor inside the box by Nedum Onuoha.  Despite Nolan being on a hat-trick, designated penalty taker Shola Ameobi stepped up confidently and placed a perfect penalty inside the left-hand post.  Half time, three nil, game over.

Time for some comedy in the interlude between goals; enter the master of footballing mishaps, Titus Bramble.  Gutierrez knocked a ball on towards the Sunderland penalty area for Andy Carroll to run after. Over came Bramble to wipe Carroll out then get to his feet not only to see the referee waving a red card at him but all of the Newcastle fans waving their hands at him too.  

Twenty minutes to go and Danny Simpson whipped a cross to the back post which Carroll thumped against the bar with a header.  The ball then rebounded out to Ameobi on the penalty spot and he smashed it into the top corner for four – nil.  If that wasn’t enough to send the fans into dreamland, Joey Barton swung a corner in, onto the head of Ameobi whose flick-on found Nolan a yard from goal and he couldn’t do anything else but direct it into the net.  Another chicken dance accompanied the aftermath of the first hat-trick against Sunderland since 1985.  

Sunderland did nick one near the end but it didn’t dampen the spirits (remember, it was Halloween) of the fans.  On the day the clocks went back, this result gave rise to the inevitable punch line to the joke, ‘What time is it?’, ‘It’s five past Sunderland’.

Read more of 'Newcastle United's Greatest Ever Games' here.