Road to Cardiff - Newcastle United

In two years of The Road to Cardiff, we probably have never been dealt a bigger card than Newcastle United.

The Toon Army entertain Coventry City in the 4th Round of the FA Cup on Saturday and Heppers, Gary Peart & Ged will join many other Geordies in hoping that the Magpies can get their season kick started with a cup run.

Newcastle are one of the oldest and most famous clubs in the country and were formed by a number of works teams coming together in the North East in the late 1880's. Newcastle United was chosen (over Rangers and City) as a collective name in an effort to attract some crowds to games in 1892. They were elected to the Football League a year later and wore the black and white striped jerseys for the first time. They had pretty immediate success dominating the English League and FA Cup in the early 1900's with players mainly from across the border in Scotland.

After the WW2 Newcastle were still a force to be reckoned with completing a trio of FA Cup wins in 1951, 1952 and 1955. But they went into something of a decline after the 1955 victory, returning to the top flight in 1965 after winning the Div 2 Championship.

1n 1968 as underdogs they won the UEFA Inter Cities Fairs Cup beating Hungarians Ujpest Dozsa home and away in the final to lift the trophy.

In the early 1970's it was all about Malcolm 'Supermac' MacDonald and for years the fans enjoyed watching some great football but after his departure to Arsenal, the team slumped and there was talk of a player revolt as the Toon, playing in front of crowds of just 8,000 were relegated in 1978.

A long rebuilding programme started, which saw first Bill McGarry in charge, then Arthur Cox. The crisis around the turn of the decade deepened with disillusioned supporters drifting away from a poor team and a worsening financial plight, which eventually saw changes on the board. In 1982, Cox brought striker Kevin Keegan to St. James' for a bargain 100,000 pounds.

A team featuring budding stars such as Peter Beardsley and Chris Waddle gained promotion to the First Division in 1984. However, the board refused to give Cox funds for new players, Keegan retired and Cox left for Derby County. What had looked like a new era, turned suddenly to dust!

Jack Charlton was the next manager but he wasn't popular on Tyneside. Ex goalie Willie McFaul took over and he was the first man to give a baby faced midfielder soon to become known as Gazza his chance. However the board's lack of ambition was typified when several key players were sold, Waddle in '86, Beardsley in '87 and Gazza in '88. The club made no reasonable attempt to replace any of these players, and relegation soon followed in 1989. McFaul departed and Jim Smith took over.

Smith didn't last long either, and left in 1991 for Portsmouth, saying that the club was 'unmanageable'. World Cup winner Ossie 'knees have gone all trembley' Ardiles became a popular manager, although you would need to score 5 goals to win a game - more of that was to come with Kevin Keegan later.

In the early 1990's Sir John Hall took over the club but was faced with relegation to the old Div 3 and bankruptcy. Things had to change and change they did as Hall brought in Kevin Keegan, who saved the Magpies from relegation and who knows a Sheffield Wednesday type fate.

Keegan then took a complete new-look team up to the newly named Premiership and they won the hearts of many with their attractive passing, attacking game and finished 3rd, their highest finishing place since 1927!

2 more famous ex pro's were given a shot at leading the club - Kenny Daglish and Ruud Gullit. Neither could emulate Keegan, although Daglish did sign a certain Alan Shearer for £15m in 1996 - think he's probably almost paid for himself, don't you.

Sir Bobby Robson brought a certain amount of respect back to the club until he got the boot from that fat fcuk Freddie 'all Geordie birds are slags' Shepherd and now it is Graeme Souness who manages the Geordies with an iron fist.