NUFC – Some Things Never Change.
Posted on September 29th, 2009 | 21 Comments |
I was a homesick student nurse living in London and in fact QPR was probably the nearest big ground to where I lived.
One of the best bits about following the Toon away from home for an exiled geordie was being surrounded by your own people. Hearing the geordie voices, the usual banter, talk of familiar places was like being wrapped in a cloak of familiarity that you didn’t want to take off. A couple of hours later it all came to an end. Watching the Toon fans get back on the coaches – knowing their next stop later that evening would be Newcastle – I would fight the urge to jump on the coach as well to go back home. Anyway on to the game …
Our manager at the time was big Jack Charlton (I know), and our first 3 wins of the season had been swiftly followed by 3 defeats when we started what was our seventh game of the season at Loftus Road on Saturday September 22nd 1984. Looking back at the attendance figures a crowd of only 14,234 were present but I remember quite a lot of mags being in the crowd. Loftus Road had recently installed their plastic pitch, remember them?
The Newcastle team that day comprised: Carr, Brown, Saunders, Roeder, Anderson, Haddock, Macdonald, Mcreery, Wharton, Beardsley and Waddle.
Charlton decided we needed to tighten up defense after leaking 10 goals in the previous 3 games so while everyone else battened down the hatches, Chris Waddle was left to go it alone, and it seemed to work as Chris Waddle scored a great hat trick after a fourth minute goal by the young Neil McDonald. With the Toon winning 4-0 at half time, who could have predicted what was to follow in the second half …
QPR had clearly had a mighty rocket from their then manager Alan Mullery and looked a different team in the second half and Newcastle just fell apart. With Newcastle complacent with the 4 goal lead, QPR took advantage and pulled one back within 4 minutes of the restart. Clearly our lot wanted a bit more of a challenge so a freak own goal made it 2-4 to QPR.
QPR clearly sensed all was not lost and bombarded the Mags until their third went in with a john Gregory effort on 74 minutes.
Now we’ve all been here too many times to mention, when a nice comfortable lead is obliterated and it was odds on that QPR would equalise with their fourth. Undaunted with 6 minutes to go a nice piece of play between Waddle and Beardsley ended with Kenny Wharton scoring our 5th from 3 yards out. 5-3 surely that was it a two goal cushion and just under 6 minutes of normal play left? Clearly not when just a few minutes later they got their fourth. With Toon fans screaming for the final whistle the unbelievable happened on the 90th minute when QPR equalised. 5-5 unbelievable!
The Mags were absolutely stunned while QPR understandebly went mental. It was one of those games when you wonder if you really had just witnessed that or whether it had all been a really really bad dream. I remember walking away from the ground to get the tube home from White City and just feeling absolute disbelief at what I had just witnessed. Another day in the life of a Toon supporter.
NUFCBlog Author: geordie deb
geordie deb has written 38 articles on this blog.
“Hearing the geordie voices, the usual banter, talk of familiar places was like being wrapped in a cloak of familiarity that you didn’t want to take off.”
Exactly what I feel as an exiled Geordie at matches too.
Nice article BTW.