It’s a time before the Premier League. When football was football, and Newcastle were dirt-poor. Can Martyn Green lead them to the top? We’re genuinely asking.
It’s the CM89/90 Challenge.
Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
Find the previous episode here!
Find everything you need to complete your own adventure at https://cm8990.wordpress.com/
With two convincing wins under our belt, and a new system in place, I am quietly more confident that at any previous point in the season. We had our little wobble in December and January but have somehow managed to steal a 3-point lead at the top of the table. Finances are tight – this is Newcastle, after all – and the Leazes End is still in rubble, but the top flight seems closer than ever before. We can almost touch it, so long as Liverpool target Micky Quinn keeps finding the net. Good times.
First up in February is the longest trip in English football. Plymouth turned us over at St. James’ Park back at the start of the season, but haven’t done much of anything since and are right in the middle of a relegation dogfight. There’s added pressure on these games, not because we’re top of the league and there’s expectation, but because the fans travel so far that you just have to give them a good day. And the only way to do that is to win. And win well. Mark Stimson is suspended (given how early he got sent off last time out, I suspect he just didn’t want to long trip), so Paul Sweeney has another chance to impress.
We start brightly, and are rewarded early on when the Irish Platini himself, Roy Keane, puts a lovely, floating through ball over the defence and onto Gary Brazil’s head. The inside forward (as we are now using him) loops the header over the goalkeeper and into the net. 1-0, and Keane headbutts the advertising hoarding in celebration. 20 minutes later he’s at it again, bringing the ball down and spraying it beautifully out to John Gallacher on the right. He crosses low, and Quinn steals in to double our lead. Plymouth come out strongly in the second half, but we hold them at arm’s length and look dangerous on the counter, although we can’t add to our tally. I’ll be honest, when I thought about exciting, attacking football, young Roy Keane was not the player I was thinking of. But I’m delighted.
The Roy Keane I do think of is the one that has picked up a suspension, so misses the next game. His youthful frustration at missing out expresses itself in training when he goes in a bit too hard on Liam O’Brien, and they both come out of it with injuries. Kevin Dillon and Warren Barton will, as much as possible, cover for the next month.
Portsmouth are up next, and John Gregory is technically Player/Manager. Except he’s only made one substitute appearance all season. They sit in second, just 3 points behind us, and he prefers a 352/532 formation that aims to keep our full backs deep and stifles out midfield. We’re not going to change anything we don’t have to, so we will go hard, we will go strong, and we will go swinging. Possibly literally, given the violence at the core of our playing squad.
They are exceptionally good at stifling us, and not very good at creating much themselves. All of which makes for a very dull game. When Micky Quinn’s shot on the hour – only the third of the game by both teams combined – flies into the crowd, there are boos. When Mark McGhee comes on for him, there are ironic cheers, but he only gets the one chance himself which he lobs gently into the Alan Knight’s hands. Warren Aspinall launches one out of the Leazes End from range, and that’s the closest they come. On the one hand, they don’t gain any ground on us. On the other… snooze.
It’s not really fair when the footballing authorities mess with the timetable. It’s not fair on the players, and it’s not fair on the fans. It’s especially not fair to send a team from the far north east all the way to the south coast on a Friday night. But that, in all their wisdom, is what the FA have chosen to do.
Brighton sit 7th, outside the playoff places on goal difference and with a real chance to get amongst it. Barry Lloyd has them playing a flat 442, with Alan Curbishley dictating things in the middle. Gary Brazil has picked up a knock, so Lee Clark comes in, but otherwise we’re unchanged from the Portsmouth game. Time to put our foot on the pedal and power toward the finishing line.
Well, that’s a bump back to reality. The Friday night journey obviously had an impact, and we’re sluggish. When Tommy Wright makes a good save the defence is slow to react and Kevin Bremner steals in to give Brighton the lead. We struggle throughout and are lucky when Mark Stimson equalises deep into first half injury time, but despite a couple of half-time changes we can’t get a foothold in the game. Curbishley scores from a corner just before the hour, and there’s nothing we can do to get back in the game. It’s a disappointing trip.
The scouts have left a report on my desk when I get into St. James’ Park the following day. It’s a goalkeeper from Germany. I’m not sure we’ve got much chance of signing him at the moment, but I put the report in the filing cabinet for the future. Apparently, they’re all quite excited about Karlruhe’s Oliver Kahn.
I’ve barely closed the filing cabinet draw before Leicester’s coach pulls into the car park for our Tuesday night fixture. Sam Ellis leads them now, having been appointed after doing well at Bury, and has taken things back to basics. They are unlikely to be relegated, but aren’t too far clear, but in Gary McAllister they have real quality that wouldn’t be out of place in any side. Gary Brazil comes back in, and really we just need to find some consistency now.
It’s another disappointing result. Maybe we’re just not very good at evening fixtures. All of the good feeling from January has disappeared and there’s a worrying number of fans starting to find their way among the rubble at one end again. When Martin Williams beat Gary Brazil easily, it was bad. When he went past Mark Stimson like he wasn’t there, it was worse. And when Paul Kitson headed home his cross, it was disastrous. I try to change things up again at half time, but Leicester immediately bypass us by going route one, with Hodge’s goal kick looping over Scott and Thorn for Kitson to run on and score again. Once more, we just can’t get ourselves into the game and it’s another defeat. Not the kind of consistency I meant.
We are lucky to come off the pitch and discover that Portsmouth and Leeds both lost as well, so we have kept our four point advantage, although they both have a game in hand. I’m not happy, and it needs to change. I’m not going to jump straight to meddling again, but we’re missing the creative genius of Roy Keane and, more than that, we’re missing the aggressive terror of Roy Keane.
Wolves are another side deep in relegation trouble, and with a very real chance of returning immediately to the Third Division. Which is surprising, because up front they have the dangerous Andy Mutch, and the frankly terrifying Steve Bull. He’s too good for this level, especially at a rocking Molineux, and we’ll have to be much better to keep him quiet.
Well, we keep Bull quiet, but that’s about the only thing you can say about our performance. I can’t say it hasn’t been coming, but this was the worst we’ve played all season, and it showed. Andy Mutch put them ahead after just 5 minutes, and just moments later Kevin Scott gives away a penalty for 2-0. Quinn gets his twentieth of the season to give us hope, but Mutch gets his second straight from kick off. I just can’t seem to have an impact on them at half time, their heads are down, and Wolves add a fourth in the second half.
The long trip back north is completed in near silence. One win, three defeats, from five games, is simply not good enough. Not at the top of the table, not at the bottom of the table, not ever. Something is going to have to change. And not just my windshield, through which some frustrated fan has deposited some Leazes End rubble. I wish they’d fix that stand.
We aim to keep this site ad-free. Please help us by donating below.