Magpies modern classics – Arsenal 1-3 Newcastle.
Posted on May 21st, 2010 | 71 Comments |
Episode three of my series of modern memories takes us on a trip to the capital city and to Highbury, the former home of Arsenal. We had a shocking record of playing in London at the time and hadn’t won in the previous thirty visits to the capital, something that was to change that evening.
It was a night where we came out on top against a magnificent Arsenal team that featured the likes of Thierry Henry and Robert Pires in their pomp.
Arsenal dominated the early exchanges and deservedly took the lead after Newcastle failed to clear an audacious overhead cross from Thierry Henry, only for Robert Pires to pounce on the loose ball and slot home from close range. It looked like Arsenal would stroll to a comfortable success until Ray Parlour got sent off just before half-time.
Newcastle came back into the match and scraped an equaliser through Andy O’Brien before the referee decided to level the match up a little by sending Craig Bellamy off. So now it was 10 v 10, and further goals were scored for Newcastle by Alan Shearer from the penalty spot and Laurent Robert who caught Arsenal on the break to finish the game off in stoppage time.
It was a cracking result on that Decemeber night back in 2001, and one that will be remembered by me for some time due to the unlikely nature of the result and some personal rivalry with a mate who follows Arsenal and had been winding me up for a good few weeks prior to the match.
It was the sweetest bet I have ever won.
Tooooooooooon!!!!!!