SUPERMAC Away the lads and set a new record
ONE MORE WIN WILL DO IT
NEWCASTLE have two games left in which to smash a club record.
They need one more away win, which would be their 14th of the season, to do it and I’m utterly convinced they will.
United have to take three points off Ipswich Town on Monday or Cardiff City and the record is theirs.
It would be a fabulous achievement, it really would, and with both those clubs in the bottom half of the table I expect it to happen.
So my challenge is this: go out and do it at Portman Road and celebrate as you would deserve.
Despite the blip that was Sheffield Wednesday the Magpies have been much more geared to playing away this season and I’m hopeful they will revert to nature on Monday.
We used to play three games in four days over Easter – Good Friday, Easter Saturday, and Easter Monday – but with Newcastle’s fixture home to Leeds having been brought forward to last night because of telly, the players have an extra day to recover which will be really handy.
It was said in my day that titles, promotions and relegations were decided over Easter with three matches on the calendar. Now I’m not so certain it is cut and dried.
I have happy memories of an Easter Sunday sandwiched during those back-to-back matches.
It was during my time with Luton Town when I was forging my reputation.
We lost on the Good Friday at Bristol City 3-2 to a last-minute goal, then on the Saturday got turned over again to end a run of 38 or so matches unbeaten at home.
We trained on the Sunday because we had a match the following day and after we finished the session our manager Alec Stock called me over.
He took me into the centre of a deserted pitch and, looking round so as not to be overheard, he said: “As you know promotion is now out of the question which means we must sell our most valuable asset and that means you, my old son. You’re on your way.
“I can tell you that three clubs are interested – Chelsea, Manchester United and Newcastle United – so keep sticking the ball in the old onion bag and then off you go to make your fortune.”
True to his word after we completed our fixtures on the final Wednesday – I notched a hat-trick – I was off to meet Newcastle’s manager Joe Harvey at the Great Northern Hotel in London 48 hours later. Joe was down for the Cup final the next day.
“He called me a little so-and-so for scoring three goals because he reckoned that put ten grand a goal on my price but we did a deal quickly enough and at only 21 years of age a wonderful adventure was about to begin that would change my life forever.
Newcastle meant England caps, two Wembley cup finals, and a special relationship with the fans. It was all so great that I am back living on Tyneside of course.
There is no reason why the current United players can’t experience what I experienced in black and white if they apply themselves correctly both in finishing the current job and doing the biz in the Premier League next season.