Newcastle United: Wear Meet Again

Article by e-Newcastle Correspondent Martin Black

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Come Saturday morning and hostilities will resume again, not that they have ever ended or are likely to do so you understand. The Police, the law enforcing variety not the band, as Sting will be in his corporate box watching the match have decided as usual to insist on an early kick off as a damage limitation exercise. All away fans have been forced to travel the short distmance in official club buses. In addition to these restrictions any ackem fans resembling horses have also been banned in case there is a repeat of that unfortunate incident from last year.

So where do these hostilities originate from? One interesting theory has it as an extension of a rivalry that goes back to the Civil war, when we found ourselves on opposing sides. Our neighbours merchants, unhappy with privileges that their counterparts in Royalist Newcastle enjoyed lead to 5under1and becoming a parliamentary strong hold. If this wasn’t bad enough, an even bigger display of their treacherous nature was shown during the Jacobite rebellion, when they sided with the Scots while Newcastle stayed loyal to the crown once more. So there you have it, never trust a Mackem!

As to footballing hostilities the first incident occurred in 1901 in what became known as the Good Friday riot. Estimates of up to 70,000 fans turned up to St James which then held far less than half that amount. The gates were forced open and the fans spilled onto the pitch. The game its self was abandoned before even a ball was kicked, which resulted in a riot breaking out. So there’s some real history to what has become one of the nastiest derbies in football.

To get in the mood for Saturday I’d like to take you back to a couple of New Years day derbies played at St James from the early to mid eighties. I know it’s not New Years day but its close enough, both games were firsts of another kind for me too. The opening game was the very first day of the 1980’s, it might have been a new shiny decade but we were still stuck in the manure heap of the old Second Division, all be it on top of the pile in the lead up to the game. Christmas had not long passed, and one of my presents had been a radio in the shape of a can, remember them anyone? Only mine wasn’t the usual Coke can replica, its rubbery plastic was white with the clubs then magpie by the Tyne and castle badge on it. And it was on this radio that I listened to my very first derby match. It’s something that I miss now that I think about it, listening to the match on a Saturday afternoon, with all the other games being played at the same time too, not dragged out half the week on the whims of SKY. It seems to always conger up images of crisp winters days, the floodlights coming on before half time, causing long shadows on the pitch. I still get a vivid feeling of what it was like, lying on the living room floor with my ear as close to the tiny speaker as possible, willing the Toon on in wave after wave of attack, actually seeing it unfold in my mind. And what better way to start the 80’s with 3-1 win over the enemy and sitting top of the league?

The second game five years later, on 1st January 1985 was the first time I was actually there at a derby game, and what a game it turned out to be! By this time we were back in the old First Division, mainly due the miracles of Kevin Keegan but both sides were languishing dangerously close to the relegation zone. The Mackems eventually ended going down after losing in the League Cup final too, an omen I hope. On the way to the match me and my Uncle weren’t filled with confidence, as not only was our league position a worry but we also had an injury crisis, with Roeder, McCreery and Chris Waddell all out. As we were discussing these grave concerns we ended up going around the away end. We never usually took this route; maybe it was a form of zoological or anthropological field trip for me as we witnessed scores of Mackems being herded up like baboons and shipped off in police vans, an hour before the match even started. Chris Waddell may have been missing but it soon became the Peter Beardsley show. Again hopefully another omen but this time read Ben Arfa for Cabaye. He coolly slotted the first from the edge of the box through a packed penalty area, right in front of us to put us 1-0 in front going into the break. But it was the second half when Beardsley, Tyneside’s very own Messi prototype ran riot. He scored another two to complete his hat trick, scoring once from the spot, missing another, and also having another near miss after he skipped around the whole of the Mackems defence, rounding the keeper but just pushing it wide. In between all this the Mackems had two sent off, including Howard Gayle who had briefly played for us. (Coincidently I’d been to another New Years day match in between in ’83 when Howard was playing in our colours, where I was nearly brained by a full size gin bottle thrown from the away end.) They scored a consolation goal and again it ended in a 3-1 victory.

So let’s hope the omens are correct, another 3-1 triumph would be nice. It’s time that natural order was restored once more. King Arfa, you have recently been restored to your throne, now give us a performances like Peter the Great from back in’85!

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