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Lee Ryder

David Batty's Kevin Keegan impression & sarnie orders at hotel - the aftermath of "I'd love it" rant

Newcastle United's trip to Elland Road always brings backs memories of Kevin Keegan's famous "I'd love it" rant after the narrow victory against Leeds back in 1996.

That night Keith Gillespie's goal in the 1-0 win resulted in three important points as United closed the gap on Manchester United at the top of the Premier League.

However, that paled into near insignificance after the game as Keegan took aim at Sir Alex Ferguson after teams like Leeds and Nottingham Forest were accused of going easy on the Magpies to aid Man United's title bid.

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Firstly here's a reminder of what Keegan said that night to Sky Sports: "No, no... when you do that with footballers, like he said about Leeds, and when you do things like that about a man like Stuart Pearce, I've kept really quiet, but I'll tell you something, he went down in my estimation when he said that.

"We have not resorted to that, but I'll tell you, you can tell him now if you're watching it, we're still fighting for this title, and he's got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and... and... I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it!"

Keegan was then on the end of suggestions that he'd lost the plot and surrendered in Fergie's mind games.

Steve Watson once told the story of how David Batty used to pull off the best Keegan impression when he said: "David Batty could do the whole speech to a tee and we just used to laugh."

However, former Toon star Lee Clark, who played in that game, told Chronicle Live: "It was one of the funniest bus journeys ever for us.

"We had a great laugh about it.

"The lads heard about what happened and were like: 'Come on get Sky Sports on'.

"We wanted to watch the interview as we knew it was going to be TV gold!

"We had such a laugh about it and in the days after that, we were preparing to play Nottingham Forest away and in the hotel we were like: 'We'd love it if we could order a bacon sandwich', and stuff like that.

"The lads had a giggle about it and Kevin did to be fair."

And when asked if Fergie's mind games were the reason why Newcastle stumbled in the closing stages of the season in 1995/96, Clark added: "You get all this nonsense about Kevin falling victim to Fergie's mind games.

"That was just Kevin being heart on sleeve.

"You get what you see with him.

"That was him also protecting Stuart Pearce too as we were lined up to play a testimonial against Forest and Fergie had suggested that we'd get an easy ride.

"He protected us and Forest's integrity.

"For us, it was mainly a laugh and as a group, we loved stuff like that because we all took the Mickey out of each other.

"We could all give it and we could all take it.

"That included the manager and his staff."

Newcastle head to Leeds again this weekend with the Magpies looking for their first win over the Yorkshire side since they returned to the top-flight in 2020 after a 16-year absence.

Yet Clark believes that modern-day players will still see the significance of this fixture against Newcastle's northern rivals.

Clark reflected: "I think the players can feel that it is slightly different.

"It's not a local derby but there is a bit of history to it.

"There's that bit of edge to the game and Leeds have that big club mentality, Newcastle are the same.

"OK, it's not too far down the road but not quite local.

"Yet there's that rivalry there and both teams want to win this fixture.

"Both teams see it as a big game when they play each other."

Newcastle's situation is look precarious but incredibly - despite winning just one game since last May - they are still in touching distance of climbing out of the bottom three.

In other seasons such a poor overall Premier League performance would have resulted in the Magpies being cut adrift.

For now, they live to fight another day, Clark told me: "Newcastle players must have the mindset that EVERY game is massive.

"It doesn't matter who the opponent is, games are running out.

"Thankfully clubs around us aren't taking many points either so we are right in the mix.

"Getting out of that bottom three with two or three wins on the bounce gives you that psychological lift.

"With each game that comes, Eddie Howe has a positive mindset.

"He will be trying to get that win and follow up with another one."

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