Opening day victory over Forest not guaranteed
PREMIER LEAGUE NEW BOYS WILL NOT BE A WALKOVER - I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE
THE release of the Premier League fixtures has really whetted the appetite as we optimistically look towards a new season.
I’m hoping – nay expecting – a good campaign free of worry for a change. Looking upwards instead of downwards.
However let me just add a little warning, a lesson I learned from personal experience.
And it is this: don’t take for granted that Newcastle will automatically get three points on the opening day because it’s at home to Nottingham Forest, who have been out of top flight football for 24 years.
I remember after I left Newcastle amid a blaze of publicity to sign for Arsenal our first league game was home to Bristol City who, like Forest, were strangers to football at the highest level. A perfect start!
I had played in the pre-season friendlies abroad alongside a raw kid called Frank Stapleton but when the team sheet went up on the Friday for the visit of City I was paired with old -timer John Radford.
Raddy was a Yorkshireman who spoke his mind and he came straight across to me.
“If the gaffer thinks we can play together he’s ruddy daft,” he said. “I play across the park and you play up and down. It’ll never work.”
I agreed so he got me by the arm and marched me along the corridor to Terry Neill’s office.
Without knocking he barged in and said: “Don’t be daft. We aren’t partners. Play Malcolm with Frank and get me away. I’m ready for a new challenge.”
Neill wouldn’t back down of course so it was Macdonald and Radford up front... and we lost 1-0. We were a disaster together.
It’s a warning I pass on to Newcastle. Forest will be wanting to do what Bristol City did and if the Magpies are complacent it can happen.
I don’t think it will for one moment but nothing in football is cut and dried. It is not a given for example that Manchester City and Liverpool will beat United before August is out.
The opening day is intriguing because Steve Cooper did a similar job at Forest to what Eddie Howe did at Newcastle.
Cooper came in with Forest looking doomed to relegation and actually took them up via a great day at Wembley.
Their supporters think he’s Mr Wonderful and Forest will come here bubbling. We must put out the Forest fire.
Actually the first month of the season will tell us so much and United must use it well to gauge exactly where they are for the rest of the season. There are five matches in August and they are a right mixture _ Forest home, Brighton away, Man City home, Wolves away, and Liverpool away.
What is intriguing is that the transfer window will still be open. Clubs can sign players until 11pm on Thursday September 1.
So if Newcastle are caught short in any position they can still do something about it even through the loan system with clubs ready to do business late because they know what they have got in-house. ■Just to finish my story about Arsenal – John Radford got his move, to Blackburn Rovers, within a couple of weeks and I was partnered with Frank Stapleton which worked a
Don’t take for granted that Newcastle will automatically get three points on the opening day
treat.
We were fine after that and when Newcastle came to Highbury I scored a hat-trick in a 5-3 bonanza which hardly pleased Gordon Lee!