When Magpies stunned Barca
THE takeover at Newcastle United has finally given long-suffering fans hope of a brighter future for their beloved club.
After 14 largely miserable and forgettable years under Mike Ashley, United’s new owners clearly have the vision (and the funds) to pave the way to success in the medium or long term.
Who knows, we might one day see the return of Champions League football to St James’ Park.
September will mark 25 years since one of the greatest games ever seen at Gallowgate.
Those who were there or watched the match live on TV will never forget how the Magpies tore into Barcelona, with Colombian maverick Faustino Asprilla playing the game of his life and scoring three times to earn United a sensational 3-2 win over the Spanish giants.
The photograph of Tino rising to score at the Leazes End is one we’ve pulled from the Sunday Sun archive which recall some of what was going on around Newcastle in 1997.
Also from 25 years ago, we see Oasis in concert at Newcastle Arena, the Royal Yacht Britannia on the River Tyne, and actress Niamh Cusack filming the Catherine Cookson drama, Colour Blind.
In the news in 1997, after being in the political wilderness for 18 years, Labour was swept back into power with a landslide victory in the General Election. New Prime Minster Tony Blair also happened to be MP for Sedgefield in County
Durham. In August that year, the world woke up to the news that Princess Diana had died in a car crash in Paris.
Hundreds of thousands, many weeping openly, lined the streets of London as her funeral cortege wound its way to Westminster Abbey, with an estimated two billion watching events unfold live on television.
Elsewhere, seven people were killed and 139 injured in the Southall train crash, Britain handed Hong Kong back to China, and scientists in Edinburgh announced they had cloned a sheep – called Dolly,
Among other notable headlines, the comet Hale-bopp made its closest approach to earth, Channel 5 broadcast for the first time, we said “eh-oh” to children’s TV favourites, the Teletubbies, and the first Harry Potter book was published.