A great point seven years ago and a vital one now
United draw at Palace: SPORT Mark Douglas on the 4-4 on this day in 2011:
THE path for perhaps the greatest comeback in Newcastle United’s history – their remarkable 20-minute salvage mission against the “Red Arrows of Arsenal” – stretched back to 2009 and the relegation which laid waste to a bloated club.
A dressing room was reformed and re-framed in the image of its captain Kevin Nolan. Promotion was won, a Premier League campaign waged with heart and fight. But – as those who were key to that remarkable day in February 2011 told us – there were other forces at play. This is the story of the men behind that day, with Jose Enrique, Steve Harper, Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan speaking at length about arguably one of the Premier League’s most remarkable afternoons.
THE BUILD-UP
The days that preceded the game were fraught. The warning signs of problems to come under Mike Ashley’s ownership – issues that had been shelved in the Championship season – were there.
Before the start of the campaign the dressing room’s player’s committee had refused to sign a bonus schedule, feeling it undervalued their contribution to salvaging the club in the Championship. Managing director Derek Llambias, working with a free hand from Ashley, tried to force it through but found the players stood up to the board and refused to budge.
The consequences were profound. Despite the team performing well on their return to the Premier League, manager Chris Hughton was to pay the price for failing to exert more authority on his squad with his job in December. Alan Pardew arrived but the club sold its prize asset, Andy Carroll, on deadline day despite assurances from the new manager he was not for sale.
A midweek defeat at Fulham, in which forward Shola Ameobi was injured, added to the sense of unease. It was keenly felt by Joey Barton, one of those strong dressing room voices. “Behind the scenes, we knew Andy had been forced out. He didn’t want to leave because we had such a good group there,” he recalls. “Liverpool came in with such a lot of money that he had to leave. He actually said to Mike Ashley ‘Give me a new contract and I’ll stay’ but he was told in no uncertain terms that wasn’t to be the case. They accepted the offer and he had to go. “Us knowing that in the camp, knowing that, it was the first time that we lost patience with him (Ashley) as a group of players. Mike being Mike and Derek Llambias being Derek Llambias they obviously made the right financial decision and probably in hindsight they turned out to be right but we didn’t care about money because we were losing a teammate and a massive part of our attacking arsenal. “We were closely knit but also we could see the potential of where we could go as a team. We might not have had the stars but the adversity of the Championship had created a choesion and a bond. “The loss of him was a psychological blow – we felt ‘He doesn’t want to build a team’ and it’s not what he claimed it was about the year before. So there was a bit of frustration but once you go into a game, especially against the likes of Arsenal – who we were going in against – we just wanted to put a good performance and do our best.”
FIRST HALF
This was not the Arsenal struggling to cling on to the coat tails of Manchester City. It was not their garlanded Invincibles side either but they were very, very good – a team chasing down Manchester United for the title.
It was a full St James’ Park but the atmosphere was tense, hesistant. Arsenal were not. Within a minute, Theo Walcott sprinted on to an Andrei Arshavin pass, brushed off Fabricio Coloccini and rolled
I remember that the fourth goal went in after 26 minutes and just thinking ‘We need half-time’ Steve Harper
the ball past Harper. Just 105 seconds later, they were two up. A clumsy foul gave away a freekick and Johan Djourou drifted into the space between Kevin Nolan and Mike Williamson to head home Arshavin’s free-kick. It got worse. Before the 10-minute mark Robin Van Persie added a third. Van Persie headed a fourth on 26 minutes. “I remember lying on my back thinking ‘This must be a dream’,” recalls Steve Harper. Harper went into survival mode. “I remember that the fourth goal went in after 26 minutes and just thinking ‘We need half-time’. I could be quite slow at the best of times but I went into super-slow mode and I remember some bloke behind me in the grumbly Gallowgate shouting at me ‘Hurry up’. “I was glancing over my shoulder thinking ‘We’re 4-0 down against the Red Arrows, we just need half-time!’.” Newcastle survived until half-time with just the four on the scoreboard. They were bedraggled and humiliated but every player recalls one thing: the crowd did not turn.
HALF-TIME
Pardew had not been at Newcastle for long. He was replacing a popular manager in Hughton and his previous job had been at Southampton, who were then in League One. It is fair to say the jury was out on him at St James’ Park as he walked into the dressing room to be confronted by a simmering group of players. It was not quite make or break. Pardew was aware of how his appointment appeared and done extensive homework. He knew this was not the time for the hair dryer. “It might look like it was the time to batter people but it wasn’t,” says Kevin Nolan. He is now a manager and recognises the importance of judging the mood in that split second. “It was about rallying each other, not digging people out. We had adults in that dressing room who knew it hadn’t been right. We were saying ‘This isn’t a five or six or seven goal defeat here’.” Harper jokes: “We went in at half-time and I said ‘Lads, if anyone puts the white flag up, I’m going to be the first Premier League goalkeeper to concede 10 goals!’ “To be fair to Pardew he made a rare good half-time team talk. He reminded us of our responsibilities, he said our families and parents were there.” Joey Barton said the fighting spirit of the Championship kicked in. “The way they were playing in that first period: if we don’t go down and start disrupting them in some form or fashion, this could be a record defeat and none of us wanted to be part of that.” Harper was first out of the dressing room. “I always used to come out early for the second half and I got a priceless piece of information from Andy Woodman, who was the goalkeeper coach, as we were walking out. He completely lightened the mood by saying ‘None of the goals were your fault, lets just keep it that way!’. It made me laugh: no techincal information but it was probably what I needed.”
FROM 4-0 TO 4-2
Newcastle did not come racing out of the traps. They didn’t dare to. “We were so shell-shocked. We’re scared to break shape because they could counter attack, break and rattle in another two or three,” Barton remembers.
“We literally just had to stop them from scoring.”
Slowly, Newcastle began to disrupt. Tackles were won, Arsenal were being knocked out of their stride. Nolan remembers it as Newcastle “earning the right to play all over again”.
“It wasn’t pretty stuff. We weren’t trying to necessarily get on the front foot, we just needed to earn the right to be in the game again and that meant working really, really hard to cover the space and exploit any little chink in their armour.”
ini and rolled the ball past Harper. Just 105 seconds later, they were two up. A clumsy foul gave away a free-kick and Johan Djourou drifted into the space between Kevin Nolan and Mike Williamson to head home Arshavin’s free-kick.
It got worse. Before the 10-minute mark Robin Van Persie added a third. Van Persie headed a fourth on 26 minutes. “I remember lying on my back thinking ‘This must be a dream’,” recalls Steve Harper.
Harper went into survival mode. “I remember that the fourth goal went in after 26 minutes and just thinking ‘We need half-time’. I could be quite slow at the best of times but I went into super-slow mode and I remember some bloke behind me in the grumbly Gallowgate shouting at me ‘Hurry up’.
“I was glancing over my shoulder thinking ‘We’re 4-0 down against the Red Arrows, we just need halftime!’.”
Newcastle survived until halftime with just the four on the scoreboard. They were bedraggled and humiliated but every player recalls one thing: the crowd did not turn.
HALF-TIME
Pardew had not been at Newcastle for long. He was replacing a popular manager in Hughton and his previous job had been at Southampton, who were then in League One. It is fair to say the jury was out on him at St James’ Park as he walked into the dressing room to be confronted by a simmering group of players.
It was not quite make or break. Pardew was aware of how his appointment appeared and done extensive homework. He knew this was not the time for the hair dryer. “It might look like it was the time to batter people but it wasn’t,” says Kevin Nolan. He is now a manager and recognises the importance of judging the mood in that split second. “It was about rallying each other, not digging people out. We had adults in that dressing room who knew it hadn’t been right. We were saying ‘This isn’t a five or six or seven goal defeat here’.”
Harper jokes: “We went in at halftime and I said ‘Lads, if anyone puts the white flag up, I’m going to be the first Premier League goalkeeper to concede 10 goals!’
“To be fair to Pardew he made a rare good half-time team talk. He reminded us of our responsibilities, he said our families and parents were there.”
Joey Barton said the fighting spirit of the Championship kicked in. “The way they were playing in that first period: if we don’t go down and start disrupting them in some form or fashion, this could be a record defeat and none of us wanted to be part of that.”
Harper was first out of the dressing room. “I always used to come out early for the second half and I got a priceless piece of information from Andy Woodman, who was the goalkeeper coach, as we were walking out. He completely lightened the mood by saying ‘None of the goals were your fault, lets just keep it that way!’. It made me laugh: no techincal information but it was probably what I needed.”
FROM 4-0 TO 4-2
Newcastle did not come racing out of the traps. They didn’t dare to. “We were so shell-shocked. We’re scared to break shape because they could counter attack, break and rattle in another two or three,” Barton remembers. “We literally just had to stop them from scoring.” Slowly, Newcastle began to disrupt. Tackles were won, Arsenal were being knocked out of their stride. Nolan remembers it as Newcastle “earning the right to play all over again”.
“It wasn’t pretty stuff. We weren’t trying to necessarily get on the front foot, we just needed to earn the right to be in the game again and that meant working really, really hard to cover the space and exploit any little chink in their armour.”
Barton and Nolan were the club’s two most important players in terms of setting the tone. In the first half, their impact had been negligible but it was a rare day when they did not have some influence.
Five minutes had passed. Newcastle needed a spark. They required something to get the crowd involved and engaged again and on 50 minutes it arrived when Abou Diaby was sent off. Barton was pivotal.
“For me, it was a case of personal pride. It’d been difficult for me that season because I’m a central midfielder, but in that team, I was playing more as a right-sided midfielder and in that position you’re depending on people in the central areas to get the ball to you.
“As a central midfielder, you can drop deep and take the ball off the centre halves and maybe dictate the pace of the game. In the first half, I’ve been on the periphery and I thought in the second half I can’t be like that.
“If you remember the tackle on Diaby, I actually came into the centre of midfield and past two central midfielders. I think I tackled him over the half-way line on the left-hand side. I haven’t gone in to hurt him, I’ve just gone in to rattle his cage and say ‘Hey, you aren’t going to dictate this game. It’s not going to be exhibition football in the second half’.
“And he just snapped. It wasn’t even that bad of a tackle – it was hard but fair but he took objection to it and he grabbed me round the back of the neck. I thought ‘If he’s grabbed me here, if he gives me any excuse to get him sent off, I’m going to get him sent off.’ I think he pushed me in the back, I went down and looked at the ref as if to say ‘What am I meant to do here?’.”
The atmosphere changes in an instant. Suddenly St James’ Park’s seige mentality is back. “You just thought the crowd were back on our side in that instant,” Nolan recalls.
Enrique goes one step further. “The noise was like we were back in the game already. It was fantastic. I have played in front of Anfield and at other big clubs with great atmospheres but St James’ Park when it is on your side is a special feeling. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the crowd right behind us when the team is 4-0 down but that is what it felt like. It was energy.”
Danny Simpson went close. The clock is ticking but Newcastle win a penalty on 68 minutes, when Leon Best is shoved. Barton converts it, rolling it into the back of the net.
“Momentum is so huge in football, which is why I’m so angry about VAR. You could lose that momentum in the midst of checking those decisions,” Barton said.
“It’s the Abou Diaby sending off that just switches the momentum. They’d gone from purring, playing Rolls-Royce football and pass, pass, pass to all of a sudden it being ‘Oh no, we’ve got 10 men’ and the momentum in the stadium just shifted.”
There are 22 minutes to go, his team has a three-goal advantage but when Nolan tries to recover the ball from the net, Szczesny holds on to it, as if playing for time.
Nolan grabs the goalkeeper round the head and a melée ensues. To the letter of the law, the referee Phil Dowd should send him off, but – somehow – there’s no punishment. Arsenal look rattled. Best then converts a second but it’s disallowed – wrongly – for offside. Newcastle are out of damage limitation mode. “I started to think we could win it,” Nolan chuckles.
Then, with 15 minutes to go, Best does score. Nolan again hares into the net to get the ball and hears something. “Kevin Nolan goes to get the ball out of the net, Wojciech Szczesny said ‘We’ve gone’,” Harper says.
“That went round us all like wild fire. The momentum shift was incredible. We rode that momentum.”
It’s why we love the game. We were celebrating in the dressing room. We were brothers. Jose Enrique