Here at The Mag we invited a number of regular/irregular contributors to give us their Newcastle United heroes and villains.
Our thanks to ‘Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey’ for taking up the challenge.
He has looked back at his Newcastle United heroes and villains across the various decades when he has been supporting NUFC.
My hero of the 1980s was undoubtedly King Kev, the great man sadly passing away in the summer, the floral carpet outside St James’ Park placed in tribute and then the Wor Flags display before the Liverpool game.
Of course, Kevin Keegan also managed Newcastle United, not once but twice in the decades that followed, but his time spent playing in the black and white stripes in the two years between 1982 and 1984 left an indelible mark on everyone that bore witness to this incredibly special period. I’d seen nothing like the scenes in and around St James’ Park when Keegan scored on his debut against QPR and by the time he left us, he’d got back us to the big time, promoted in third place from the old Second Division in May 1984 and before the need for play-offs. The trips to Maine Road, Ewood Park and Leeds Road in that incredible run in will stay with me forever.
As for my villain of that decade, it has to be Gordon McKeag.
A club director, McKeag became chairman in 1988 and presided over a miserable relegation to the second tier, while St. James Park suffered from later low crowds and a severe lack of modernisation.
To fans, McKeag was the face of an outdated board that refused to invest in the first team and with “Sack the Board” chants, the atmosphere at home matches grew more and more hostile. The narrative of McKeag as villain was amplified by the arrival of Sir John Hall and the Magpie Group, with McKeag using his legal expertise to try and block Hall. Most fans resented that stubborn resistance, with McKeag and his acolytes seen as a symbol of an archaic footballing oligarchy.
© 1988 The Mag. All rights reserved.
When it comes to a cult hero of the 1980s…
When I began to regularly attending Newcastle United matches in the 1980s, Tyneside was gripped by industrial decline, the football club was trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of crises, and the terraces at St James’ Park were a radically different, far more volatile environment than the stadium we know today.
It was against this backdrop that in 1985, a quiet piece of history was made.
When Tony Cunningham signed on the dotted line for Newcastle United in February 1985, he wasn’t just inheriting a shirt. By stepping out onto a snow-covered pitch against Man U for his debut, the Jamaican-born striker became the first black player in United’s history to be signed on a permanent contract.
Big Tony’s time on Tyneside needs to be seen in the context of the ugly reality of the era.
Football in the 1980s was plagued by systemic racism, and St James’ Park was no exception. Sadly, I can still recall copies of the National Front publication, Bulldog being sold outside the ground. And like all black players of that era, Cunningham had to endure such prejudice from his own fans just as much as the abuse that came from fans of opposing teams.
It was Jack Charlton who bought the 6ft 2in frontman from Manchester City.
Big Jack wanted a physical, uncompromising target man and in Cunningham, what he got was someone who maybe did more to bring others into the game, as opposed to stealing the limelight himself.
I think that judging Cunningham solely on his goal return (6 goals in 51 appearances) somewhat makes my point. He was a battering ram. He chased lost causes, put his head where boots were flying, and gave absolutely everything for the black and white stripes.
On a sunny day in Nottingham in May 1987, as the players trudged off the pitch following another defeat in the season’s finale at the City Ground, hundreds of Newcastle United fans poured onto the pitch to celebrate a successful battle against relegation. One of those that made their way onto the pitch was yours truly and amongst the chaotic scenes, I asked big Tony for his shirt. Needless to say, I didn’t return to Tyneside with my intended souvenir, but despite that I’m going to say big Tony was a cult hero of the eighties.
Shortly after securing another season in the top flight, Newcastle United parted company with Cunningham when he was sold to third division Blackpool for an unremarkable £25,000 in July 1987.
We all know that the fates often conspire in football circles and just a few months after that trip to Nottingham, me and some mates were following Tony Cunningham to the same seaside resort as Newcastle United played Blackpool in a League Cup second round, first leg encounter at Bloomfield Road.
That was the evening of 23 September 1987 and the trip was a blast.
The Housemartins’ second album, ‘The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death’ had just been released and that was the soundtrack as we made our way across the Pennines. Heavy drinking as well as some recreational drug use by a number of those that made the trip, a combination of alcohol and magic mushrooms not mixing terribly well with the attractions on offer at the Pleasure Beach. This being the late 1980s, this was inevitably followed by an altercation outside the ground, although it was with a group of fellow Geordies twice our age, a case of mistaken identity.
That night, big Tony turned into a villain at Bloomfield Road.
On the stroke of half-time, a wayward back-pass from none other than Paul Gascoigne inadvertently played Cunningham clean through. Our former groundbreaking striker took full advantage of Gazza’s mistake, slotting the ball home to give Blackpool a 1–0 victory.
To add insult to injury, some of the lads were still tripping after the game and went AWOL, needing to find alternative arrangements to get home after our driver refused to hang about.
In the second leg at St James’ Park, Blackpool scoring early to take a 2-0 aggregate lead, although goals from Paul Goddard, Mirandinha, Darren Jackson and Gazza, atoning for his mistake in the first leg, gave United a 4-1 win on the night and with it, a passage into the next round.
Whilst Tony Cunningham was only on Tyneside for a little over two years before his move to Blackpool, it’s fair to say he more laid the foundation for everything that followed in breaking down those hideous barriers that existed for black players of the era, and without big Tony taking those initial, heavy blows, I think the paths that superstars like Andy Cole and Les Ferdinand took in the next decade would have been infinitely harder.