If I could write 500 times, then I could write 500 more….
Posted on October 26th, 2010 | 76 Comments |
I’ve been scrabbling around trying to think of something special to do for it, but I haven’t been able to come up with much to do for it in way of a celebration. I could just put some photos of me up, but whilst it would look good, of that there is no doubt, it would be very NUFC related would it?
So what I have decided to do is hand pick a selection of Newcastle matches from over the years that hold some special memories for me personally, starting with the first ever match I went to. Now I’m only 28, so my reference period may not be as long as some of yours, but it’s always nice to have a look back, a wander down memory lane if you will, through the good times and the inevitable bad times.
This is the first Newcastle match I ever went to see live at St James’ Park, and it is where my love affair officially began I suppose. Don’t get me wrong, I was always a Newcastle fan, but at just 5-years-old at the time, I couldn’t really go to many matches myself, and this was the first one my Dad too me took. Not a bad one to choose to be fair as The Toon slammed 5 goals past Swindon in an FA Cup tie way back in 1988.
Next up, the day that Newcastle clinched promotion to the Premier League the first time around at Grimsby’s Blundell Park. Whilst this was undoubtedly a joyous day for Newcastle fans and effectively kicked off a new era for the club, it is well worth noting that the joy you see from fans in this clip was mirrored the season before where it took some heroics to avoid us getting relegated to what would now be League One and leave the club facing near certain extinction. Bad times followed by good – It’s the Newcastle way.
How could I leave this out? In answer to that, I couldn’t. I actually cried the day we beat Manchester United 5-0.
Keegan left, Dalglish came in and gave us a night to remember against Barcelona. He got sacked, the Ruud Gullit arrived, and got sacked. Then Newastle struck gold with Sir Bobby Robson. The lifelong Newcastle fan came home and led us to the Champions League. This night in Feyenoord sticks in my mind more than any other. I was sat in a pub with a load of Geordie contracters. That was some night!
For me, you can never beat the feeling of beating The Mackems. This 4-1 win on the cheesy chip munchers own doorstep is one of the most moemorable in my view. Unfortunately it was a game that signalled the end of Alan Shearer’s playing days, although he did manage to play a small part in his testimonial at the end of that season.
It was downhill from there as Newcastle limped out of the Premier League a couple of seasons later with a squad that, on paper, should never have got relegated. Unfortunately, football isn’t played on paper, and a season of off-pitch turmoil, managerial changes and a dressing room full of ego’s combined to take us down.
A ‘character building’ season in The Championship followed, and the turmoil continued, briefly. Nobody knew what to expect and many people tipped us to struggle to adapt to our new surroundings. We did that in spades and won the league scoring 102 points on the way. This goal by Kevin Nolan sealed promotion back to the Premier League, and if you look closely you can just about see me and my mate in the crowd in the East Stand.
I appreciate that there are loads of matches that I could have of put in, but these ones strike a chord with me, plus I had to limit myself as I doubt that you lot will want to read me rattling on forever!
That concludes my 500th ‘blog for nufcblog.org, and offers a timeline of my support from when I was a bairn right up to the modern day adult that I have (debatebly) now become.
Here is to the next 500!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Some happy memories there Toonsy, fences crap pitches, happy days.congrats on 500…..howay then where’s 501?? ;-)