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Oliver Jones

Newcastle's 'pivotal' point in Premier League title race as United hero makes Liverpool point

Former Newcastle United striker Les Ferdinand has spoken about his memories and thoughts on the Magpies' 4-3 loss to Liverpool in the 1995/96 season that ultimately derailed their title hopes.

Before the match, Newcastle trailed Manchester United in the Premier League table by three points after previously leading them by 12 points at Christmas but had two games in hand to make up the difference.

Despite being 2-1 and 3-2 up during the match, Newcastle still lost following a 92nd minute Stan Collymore volley and the Magpies' hopes of a first top-flight league title since 1927 suffered dramatically.

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When asked about the 4-3 Liverpool game on BT Sport’s ‘The Premier League Storybook with Jake Humphrey’ , Ferdinand spoke about how different it could've been had Collymore not scored his two goals.

"Had we won that game that would have given us the momentum to go on and win the rest of our games for the season because I think it would have given us such a lift. Unfortunately, we lost that game. I think although things had started to go wrong before then, that to me was a real pivotal, pivotal point in the season for us.

"We were 12 points clear with a game in hand. And I always remember losing that first game, where we went down to being nine points clear, but the feeling in the dressing room was that doesn't really matter. It's still nine points clear with the game in-hand: it doesn't matter.

"Then you’ve got Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday: you've lost three games and all of a sudden that 12-point gap now becomes a three-point gap because you haven't won your game in hand yet. And we just there wasn't enough…., it's hard to say winners in the team because I think we all were winners, I don't think you play football without being a winner.

"But sometimes knowing how to win. And I think we had a real kind of blasé team in terms of: you score two, we'll score three, your score one, we’ll score two. And I think for the neutral, it must have been great to watch. And for the forwards it was great to play.

"But I think everyone knows to win the Premier League at times you need to win a game one nil. And we just probably didn't have that in our in our makeup."

Les Ferdinand features in an upcoming episode of ‘The Premier League Storybook with Jake Humphrey’, part of brand new line-up of free podcasts, BT Sport Pods. Visit btsport.com/pods.

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