MAGPIES HIT BY A MACLASH
IN the sizzling summer of 1976, Malcolm Macdonald’s £333,333 move from Newcastle to Arsenal was red-hot news.
‘Supermac’ – who started out as a full-back with Tonbridge but was converted into a centre-forward – played for local club Fulham and then Luton before Magpies manager Joe Harvey signed him for £180,000 in May 1971.
Wearing Newcastle’s iconic No.9 shirt, Macdonald marked his home debut with a hat-trick in a 3-2 victory over Liverpool. The goals kept flowing and, in April 1975, he scored all five for England against Cyprus at Wembley.
Little more than a year later – after falling out with Harvey’s successor, Gordon Lee – he was on his way out of St James’ Park, much to the despair of the Geordie fans.
And Macdonald made Lee pay when Newcastle visited Highbury in the December of ’76, scoring another memorable treble in a 5-3 triumph.
Macdonald, now 71, recalled: “Gordon Lee had been saying a lot through the week and I remember Alan Ball coming into the dressing room, I think it was on the Friday, and he pinned on the noticeboard a big, two-page spread from one of the newspapers. It was Gordon Lee and he was having a right pop at me.
“Bally just said, ‘I want every one of you to read the whole thing’.
“And they started getting in a right mood for the game and I felt it incensed the Arsenal dressing room to such a degree that we all went out with a determination to be more powerful than normal.
“It was a cracking game. If memory serves, Match of the Day cameras rushed to Highbury from another ground because it was the only game that was guaranteed to be played. That made it a bit more electrifying.
“It was very cold and icy and Arsenal were the only club to have undersoil heating. Newcastle played well on the day – they took the lead, and Micky Burns scored a couple.
“It was a bit of a cakewalk in the second half, but when it was 4-1, Newcastle suddenly got a couple back, so it became a rather edgy final few minutes.’’
But the breathless contest was eventually settled by Macdonald.
Midfielder Trevor Ross delivered a right-wing cross and Macdonald was at the far post with a downward header to complete his hat-trick.