1989/1990

[McFaul 35]

I wrote this 6 years ago. The plan was to make it in to a book, not that I think anyone would buy it like, t was just this start, but I like nostalgia, there's not enough of it. I wish I could read more personal memories from before I went to games i.e. pre 1985/86, which is why I enjoyed reading "Black And White Daft" so much.Over the summer months I'll add to this, might make it in to a blog someone might enjoy it anyway, because it will take them back in time.

 

iI started doing a diary from memory of the 1989/1990, through the eyes of an 11 year old lad, me. My intention was to do loads of seasons, so in 30 years time my memories will become more vivid, as I'll have a record of what happened, but it's hard f***ing work, but enjoyable at the same time. I'll do about 6 different parts of 89/90, I've written about 20 paragraphs for the first one, and the opening game against Leeds hasn't even kicked off yet! If you're not interested that's fine, but if you're some w*** like Invicta Toon, if you have nothing good to say, say nothing, and for those who want to read more about this tragic season, I'll update it every three days.

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My memories of 89/90 Part One

I was 11 years old in the summer of 1989, and my whole world revolved around Newcastle. Even at 11 I was mortified and quite depressed at how things had gone so terribly wrong since we’d sold Gazza just 12 months before. We were relegated, and as ever Newcastle were as ever THE National joke. We were a feeder club. We bought players off Portsmouth, Birmingham and Crewe, and we’d sell players to Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton. That was the way it was in 1989. We had no self respect at all as a club. The fans had seen years of false dawns, all of their players were being sold and for what? A new stand that probably wouldn’t be filled due to the numerous body blows the side was consistently taking by, a draconian board failing to appreciate what the fans wanted.

 

All through the summer there was a lot of talk of mass boycotts. People had just about had enough of McKeag and a hierarchy who had achieved nothing really since the mid 50’s. A group formed during the summer going under the name of USFC (United Supporters For Change), looking back they were nothing more than a few teenagers and early twenties lads who thought the best course of action was to boycott matches, thus forcing senior board members to resign, enabling Malcolm Dix, Hall and the Magpie Group to take us to the promised land. While ethically I appreciate why the USFC did this, as a young child my life wouldn’t be complete without a Saturday afternoon in the Gallowgate, and there was no way I was allowing my dad and my friends to follow suit.

 

 

 

On the playing side we basically finished the previous season, with a joke side. I remember we in essence didn’t have a striker, Anth Lormor and Steve Howey played up front in the final desperate act in a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford. Mirandinha was still on the books, but he couldn’t be arsed towards the end, and he was shunted off to Portuguese side Belenenses, Smith didn’t like him at all, that much was obvious and the feeling was very much mutual.

 

On a brighter note a few of the summer arrivals, certainly proved to be decent value. Mick Quinn came in from Portsmouth for £680,000 (a big fee then), Mark McGhee crossed the border from Celtic, another Scot to join the club was young winger John Gallacher for a tiny fee, Kevin Dillon the experienced Birmingham schemer came in on a free and Smith made him club captain immediately, while Mark Stimson came North from Tottenham. Added to this we still retained a few decent players from the previous season, Bjorn Kristensen (Benny) for one, Kevin Scott, Brock was mediocre but was a decent passer, Andy Thorn was at the club, and in Tommy (the barman) Wright, we had a competent keeper, who loved the club from the word go..

 

 

 

The Second Division was looking extremely strong though aside from Newcastle. Newcastle had finished rock bottom of the First Division, and also relegated West Ham and Boro were well clear of us despite demotion. Leeds United, had done something that was almost unprecedented outside the top flight. They spent approaching £12m building what was to prove to be a brilliant side. Strachan, Sterland, Chapman, Vinny Jones, Chris Fairclough and John Hendrie, amongst others came in all with hefty fees on their heads, adding to a few magnificent young players, like David Batty who went on to play 39 games that season, and the effervescent Gary Speed. They weren’t the only decent side though, oh no. Sheffield United and Wolves both came up, from the Third Division, with feared striking partnerships. Wolves’ strikers were arguably the most potent in the division with Steve Bull, who became the clubs leading ever scorer, and Andy Mutch. Leicester had a reasonable side buoyed their inspirational captain Gary McAllister, and young impressive Arsenal loanee Kevin Campbell. Sunderland as much as I hate admitting it were one of the better sides, all in all it was a hugely competitive league. When you consider Reading won it in 2005/2006 with 112 points, it demonstrates how competitive the league was in the 89/90 season when 85 points was good enough to capture the title.

 

Leeds, who had been in almost terminal decline since their hugely controversial 1975 European Cup Final defeat to Bayern Munich, were installed as low as 6/4 to win the league, and when the fixture list came out the biggest two clubs in the division would lock horns at St James’ on the opening Saturday.

 

 

I remember my mates dad, who was likeable in a way despite being a foul mouthed, drunken, abusive, psychopath at times, said there was no way he was allowing his son to go to the Leeds game. He recounted countless tales of serious violence with Leeds fans in the 70’s and 80’s and he tried his best to convince me not to go, “they’re animals, they’re not human, they smashed up The Magpie (on Barrack Road)….” His comments seemed to me even more poignant by the fact that it had been reported in the local press that after selling the 5,000 Leazes End tickets in a matter of hours, many hundreds of Leeds fans had obtained tickets for the Newcastle sections of the ground, and without being cynical, ticket sales were so slow it wouldn’t have surprised many if the club had unofficially sanctioned it.

 

Anyway this was the first season I was allowed to go on my own, although my dad came along a lot but against Leeds there was me and two of my mates, as we walked along Stawberry Place, we picked up our usual hot dog with onions, from this funny lookin bloke, with KEEGAN’S HOTDOGS, in big letters along the side of his little food trolley, we could see that estimates of a gate under 20,000 were going to be wide of the mark. That said there were scores of people in these USFC, telling us we were killing the club by going in, **** them I thought at the time. So in we went handed over our £2 to the turnstile operator, straight up the Gallowgate steps turn right for a quick p*ss, in what was, for younger people reading who never had to put up with this, basically an open sewer, but I look back fondly on the Gallowgate bogs.

 

[McFaul 35]

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php?topic=33033.0 rest of the thread is here for anyone who's interested.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Great read Stevie, probably my favourite season to be honest. First season I went pretty much every week and properly fell in love with football and the club.

[McFaul 35]

Great read Stevie, probably my favourite season to be honest. First season I went pretty much every week and properly fell in love with football and the club.

Some mental games. That Wolves 4-1 home loss when Steve Bull scored four, and of course the mackems in the play offs are in my top 5 worst ever games. No exaggeration though, the dust has settled and everything, but Sunday was the worst footballing experience of my life. I know the play offs meant more, but we were evenly matched, we got absolutely rendered at home off them, and I didn't think it was possible.

 

The Leeds game opening day that season was absolutely amazing, 2-1 down at HT, won 5-2, literally everything fatty hit went in. We had some shite, but the likes of Mark McGhee, if we'd have had him mid 80's he'd have been absolutely immense.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Aye, the humdinger that was the Leicester 5-4 and then this last minute beauty..

 

"

Edited April 19, 2013 by sweetleftpeg

[PaddockLad 14585]

Aye, the humdinger that was the Leicester 5-4 and then this last minute beauty..

 

"

The one and only time I ever stood in the Leazes was that day Leicester was unreal...I think half walked out at 4-1...lost our car at Barnsley, wandering around in the dark for over an hour looking for the thing, Oldham away, worst pitch I'd ever seen but I think Clarkey came off the bench for the first time showed one or two nice touches...he might have captained England schools not long before, think that was the story...great days, miss the sheer simplicity of following football back then. Ran into a lad from Wooler in Kharkiv from those days, brought back a lot of memories.

[McFaul 35]

I remember the last game away at Boro where we lost 4-1. There was 17000 watched the beam back at SJP, we were supposed to stand in the Gallowgate with the big screen in the leazes, but the picture was so shit, everyone invaded the pitch after 5 minutes. I was like Percy Thrower the amount of digging I did that day taking huge mounds of turf home. That same day Leeds had their biggest riot of the last 30 years at Bournemouth, and they and Sheffield United got promoted.

[Happy Face 29]

There's not much I can offer to this thread, but the 1990 play-offs were the first time I actually followed a Newcastle game. I'm a Keegan band-wagoner through and through. in the 80s I used to watch England and the FA cup and that, and I had a soft spot for Liverpool because they were good, but without anyone older to look up to that could guide me to follow Newcastle I was hollow inside. Bereft.

 

I was mates with a Mackem at this time though and he was Sunderland mad, as was his dad. I was round their house and we listened to the SJP leg on radio Newcastle. It is ingrained on my mind as the moment I realised what proper scrots mackems really are....without a hint of Newcastle related bias associated to it whatsoever. It made me queasy to watch the podgy fuckers moan and whine over every single detail of what happened in the game, even while they were winning. I know for a fact I decided this lad wasn't going to be my mate much longer while listening to this game at his house. The dad actually went to the effort of ringing radio Newcastle to complain about the commentary. I couldn't believe a grown adult could be so petty and small minded. Cock.

 

Hated mackems ever since.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Aye, I was at the beam back for the Boro game. Big screen beam backs man , like the time we went to the cinema to watch the mackem away game when they'd barred away fans. Kids wouldn't believe you now man.

 

I always remember how they changed it to three automatically promoted the season after, the fuckers.

[Happy Face 29]

Someone was telling me last week that I went to the cinema with them to watch a few of the live games beamed back. I had no recollection of it whatseover.

 

I should have taken a load more drugs if my memory was going to be this shit anyway.

[Howmanheyman 26839]

I went to a load of aways this season and despite finishing 3rd I only saw us win one on the road which was at Molinuex of all places where most were pessimistic after Bull mauled us on New Years day 4-1. Was a great win and day out with a superb atmosphere by the Mags who went down with lots of piss taking of the Wolves fans on the steep crumbling terrace next to us. The win put us right in the running for promotion as it more or less became a three way race for the two automatic places although even then there wasn't too many happy that 3rd place wouldn't necessarily be enough to get us up as the play offs were still very new and seemed very unfair.

[Howmanheyman 26839]

Just to add on the piss taking, one of our group and a Wolves fan were exchanging insults across the fence, unfortunately for the Wolves fan the contest was like John Inman taking on Mike Tyson, the Brummie was getting hammered no doubt not helped by the fact that his face was so acne strewn you could've grated a block of cheese across it. After much laughter he started going red and spitting threats when another of our lot just said, "Ahh shut man, you daft cunt" and launched half his hot dog covered in tomato sauce straight into his face. The kid runs at the fence, half the Mags are in stiches at this point and the other half who didn't see the incident just notice a few Wolves fans surging at us so meet like for like. We then sang 'Jimmy Smith's black & white Army' whilst bouncing around the place for about a half hour without stopping for breath until it eventually died down to be replaced with, 'Newcastle, Newcastle, Newcastle'.

 

Great times and fun, at least one of our number are no longer with us and I haven't seen most of them for many years.

[Ayatollah Hermione 12767]

Good read that, Stevie, mate. Absolutely no reason you can't put something together if you stick with it; Billy Furious released a book that was him looking back on the promotion season in much a similar tone. I love reading anything like this as it properly feels like something from a different era even though it's in my lifetime. If you can remember more stories of any foul-mouthed, pissed up mates of your fatha, that'd be sound. Nowt brings a story to life more.

[McFaul 35]

Aye, I was at the beam back for the Boro game. Big screen beam backs man , like the time we went to the cinema to watch the mackem away game when they'd barred away fans. Kids wouldn't believe you now man.

 

I always remember how they changed it to three automatically promoted the season after, the fuckers.

Was The Arena that, had a quality neet in there!

[McFaul 35]

Good read that, Stevie, mate. Absolutely no reason you can't put something together if you stick with it; Billy Furious released a book that was him looking back on the promotion season in much a similar tone. I love reading anything like this as it properly feels like something from a different era even though it's in my lifetime. If you can remember more stories of any foul-mouthed, pissed up mates of your fatha, that'd be sound. Nowt brings a story to life more.

 

I will continue, it's finding time, maybe if I kept writing I'd have it all done by the end of the summer. I knew some proper radgies growing up, radgies that just don't exist anymore, and I'm pleased I knew them, they were hilarious at the time, but you grow up and realise a few of them were the worst husbands and fathers this side of Middlesbrough.

[Ayatollah Hermione 12767]

 

I will continue, it's finding time, maybe if I kept writing I'd have it all done by the end of the summer. I knew some proper radgies growing up, radgies that just don't exist anymore, and I'm pleased I knew them, they were hilarious at the time, but you grow up and realise a few of them were the worst husbands and fathers this side of Middlesbrough.

 

haha, aye, my dad knows some complete knackers like and you don't realise until you look back and think "nar, he was probably constantly out of his bracket on Tetley's". I mean it with the people you'd get knocking about at the match then because they've disappeared, it seems (for better or worse) and it properly adds some flavour and gives it the character it must have had. The match is always better when you're surrounded by 5 pissed up lunatics than it is 300 jaded 60 year olds.

 

Hope you can get a few more out like, always love reading up about the match in those days. Seems so foreign to someone that wasn't old enough to experience it with how it is now.

[The Fish 8989]

I live my life by the anonymous Hebrew proverb "At new ones,going to be the husband is most likely the master and going to be the wife is the fact that on the town relating to doors"

[Monkeys Fist 38768]

Fish on the Bath Salts.

[The Fish 8989]

... So we're just going to pretend there wasn't a spam post before mine?

 

Right

[Monkeys Fist 38768]

Yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RobH 0]

Football is about the only thing that makes me wish I'd been born 20years earlier, threads like this highlight that.

[SCOREBOARD1 0]

Canny few memories from that season.

 

1. Bradford City at home. 0-0 and in injury time. Was in the milburn paddock next to leazes. Thought I'm away to get the bus. As I'm walking out the ground McGhee goes and beats half the Bradford team to score the goal of season.

2. Leicester City and home, 4-2 and wecome back and win 5-4. Great game.

3. Wolves away. My 1st ever away game.4,000 Geordies in the old south bank which was massive. Great atmosphere. 2 sides otheir ground were closed.

5. Boro away at the beamback. Got stuffed 4-1 with Ian Baird scoring a cracker. On the pitch pulling up bits of the grass to take home.

5. Mackems away 1st leg play offs. Matesdad worked for vaux and got us tickets in the clock stand seats. Was in the corner next to the roker end which was packed with toon fans. Remember jumping up when Budgie saved Hardymans Pen.Then the cunt tried to kick his head into the Fulwell.

6. Mackems home leg play offs. Worst dayever supporting the lads. Was in the benches.

 

Still bought the season highlights on video

 

Also remember

* That after we beat Leeds on 1st day of season we lost our next 2 games both away to Stoke and Bournemouth.

* Man Utd in the cup, lost 3-2 on telly. Gave them a good game

* Beating West Brom away 5-1

* Drawing 3-3 away to Reading in the FA Cup

* Jim Smith being attacked in the dug out when Wolves beat us 4-1

* Cracking midweek game which ended 0-0 with Swindon

* Beating West ham in our last home game of the season 2-1. Then invading the picth at the final whistle

Edited April 23, 2013 by SCOREBOARD1