JACKIE MILBURN
1943- 57 GAMES 399 CLUB NEWCASTLE
BEFORE Newcastle, without a trophy success since 1932, had been a second- tier outfit for more than a decade. The Second World War hadn’t exactly halted any progress.
LEGACY Milburn was United’s record scorer for 50 years until a Gosforth lad by the name of Shearer came along to steal his thunder in 2006. Not that he would have minded – the painfully shy former colliery fitter hardly lived for the limelight, and was merely grateful to don the black and white stripes for 14 years.
The club were very thankful that he proved a late- bloomer: four years before the Magpies took him on, the youngster had tried to join the Royal Navy but was rejected for being too short. By the time he had grown a few more inches, he was an apprentice fitter at a local mine and avoided war service because of his reserved occupation status. In 1943, Milburn – a boyhood Sunderland supporter, no less – had seen Newcastle but “didn’t think much of them, to be honest”. He responded to the club’s ad for trialists and, after his pre- match meal of two pies, duly impressed. “I decided it was all or nowt,” said Milburn. “And, believe it or not, I managed to score six goals in the second half as we rattled in nine against the first- teamers. I was on my way.”
Milburn turned out in the Wartime League for Newcastle, so didn’t play his first official match until January 1946, which he marked with an FA Cup brace. When Second Division action finally returned that summer, Milburn – who had retained his job as a fitter – began on the wing and wasn’t moved upfront until the following year as new manager George Martin took a punt. A pretty good one, too: his young forward hit 20 goals as Newcastle were promoted in 1948.
Milburn’s proud legacy, however, will always reside with the three FA Cups he secured at Newcastle in 1951, ’ 52 and ’ 55 – latterly their most recent major domestic trophy, won with a 45- second goal against Manchester City at Wembley. Boss Doug Livingstone had initially dropped the Toon hero for the game, only for vice- chairman Stan Seymour to overrule the embarrassed gaffer and then select his own cup- winning team. Fair enough, really.
BEST MOMENT A 25- yard corker in the 1951 FA Cup Final against Blackpool – his second goal of a game that a distinctly out- of- form Newcastle weren’t expected to win against Stanley Matthews & Co. “That’s just about the greatest I’ve ever seen,” admitted opposite No. 9 Stan Mortensen.