Archive for category: Peter Beardsley.

Magical Magpie Memories: The 80s Part Two – Coming Full Circle.

February 12th, 2012 | 16 Comments |

“Jossys Giants” visit Bobby Charlton and Willie McFaul at St James’ Park – 1985.

Aye Bobby Charlton, not Jackie Charlton who had left the club as manager in the huff over player sales and such before McFaul stepped in and faced the same old problem.

After introducing the Jossy’s lads to McFaul the ex Northern Ireland goalie, Bobby then takes them through the bowels of the old St James Park, the old away dressing room with the old plunge bath, the old physio room and so on. A magical trip down Magpie memory lane. As you can see, Bobby’s no Al Pacino when it comes to acting; then again, he could probably teach Pacino a thing or two on playing against the likes of Eusebio and Beckenbauer! (more…)


Magical Magpie Memories: The 80s Part One (Promotion, Helicopters and Tearful Farewells)

February 10th, 2012 | 8 Comments |

“Going Up” – “Northern Life” special 1984.

30 minute Tyne Tees Television special programme from 1984, where David Burton reviews Newcastle United’s 1983-4 promotion season. Featuring Arthur Cox, Kevin Keegan, and some classic Keegan, Waddle and Beardsley goals from the days when the club had a front three that I’m sure quite a few Toon fans would happily include in their NUFC all time “Dream Team”. One telling point was the commentator looks back at when the club were ninth early in the season and had problems scoring goals, “but the signing of Tyneside born Peter Beardsley changed all that”. It certainly did. As well as being one of the club’s great goalscorers, he was also quite possibly the greatest goalmaker in the club’s history. Despite all the above though, the real star of the show for me is the old St James’ Park scoreboard with those daft little gadgies kicking a football across it.

Warning: As this is the eighties, these videos do feature lots of men running around in VERY tight shorts, and a streaker! (more…)


Canaries v Magpies – Norwich City v Newcastle United match preview.

December 9th, 2011 | 8 Comments |

Delia Smith - "Where are ya?"
A drunken hooligan invades the pitch at Carrow Road.
Venue: Carrow Road, Norwich.
Date: Saturday 10th Dec, 2011.
Kick-off: 3.00pm.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Pies: D.Smith.

The Magpies of Newcastle United will be looking to pick themselves up after a tough trio of fixtures and recent injury woes as they visit the Canaries of Norwich City.

Even though this is an away game, some may have thought this would be an easy three points, until recently that is. The loss of Fabricio Coloccini with a thigh strain, as well as Steven Taylor for the whole season with a knacked achilles tendon puts a new complexion on matters as our lack of strength in depth has eventually been exposed. Like ourselves, Norwich have been something of a “surprise package” in the Premiership so far. Though Norwich City’s entire first team squad is worth far less than the amount Mike Ashley received for Andy Carroll alone, they are currently sitting quite comfortably at 11th in the table. That is quite an achievement for such a modest squad who were expected to be rooted at the bottom of the table, and not to be sniffed at, especially in the light of our recent circumstances injurywise. More on that below however…

Stats, previous matches etc…

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Meet the new mission statement; Same as the old mission statement?

October 17th, 2011 | 52 Comments |

Newcastle United mission statement.
Same master plan for world domination.
In the wake of Newcastle United’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur this afternoon, Managing Director, Derek Llambias, has released another club statement.

The statement once sgsin highlights the clubs finances, summer transfers, youth development, managing / coaching staff, training facilities and supporters. Basically, I’m still struggling to dissect the differences between this statement, and the recent Q&A with the Evening Chronicle a few months back.

Either way, it’s good to have some communication from boardroom to fans, and below I have included the whole statement for your viewing pleasure. I hasten to add also that the statement, unsurprisingly, has a little bit of information about our new under-soil heating.

Enjoy…

Introduction

Now that the summer transfer window has closed and the new Premier League season is underway, the board of Newcastle United Football Club wish to present this review of our progress and set out our aims for the 2011/12 campaign and beyond. (more…)


What is a winning attitude?

September 8th, 2011 | 22 Comments |

Pedro takes the positives from our 4-3 defeat to Sunderland.
Positives? I think not.
Newcastle United reserves lost 4-3 to Sunderland earlier in the week but some comments by Peter Beardsley got me thinking about team attitudes and how they might affect results.

Yesterday I was visited by a bunch of Bible-bashers called Seventh Day Adventists and their big beef with things – amongst all the problems the world faces – is that they think the Sabbath should be on a Saturday. I argued the advantages of making it a Wednesday to break the week up, but they soon realised I wasn’t being altogether serious and left before I had to release the caged tiger I keep for just such callers.

This reminded me of a Christian I used to know and one thing that really annoyed me about him was his eternal optimism. Our job at the time was to write software for satellites and even when two years of software work – and many more years than that of hardware work – exploded on the launching pad, he simply said “never mind, I’m sure it will all turn out okay”. He came to work happy, was happy throughout the day and went home extremely happy. And this made me very grumpy indeed.

Which brings me, in a round about way, to our reserve team’s 4-3 defeat against Sunderland earlier in the week about which Pedro said:

There were plusses from the performance – there always is.

There weren’t any though. We lost. (more…)