Philippe Albert tumbled across the St James’ Park turf in celebration.
“Absolutely glorious”, shrilled Martin Tyler as Newcastle United finally got the better of Manchester United, with a famous 5-0 victory.
That was October 1996. But 30 years later, the Belgian defender is still more than happy to relive it.
‘Just wonderful’
“It was just a wonderful day, and everything went right for us,” Albert tells FourFourTwo.
“It’s not often you can beat the best team in the world, and they absolutely were that at the time, but to score five against them, it was just wonderful.”
ON THIS DAY in 1996 (20 years ago!), Philippe Albert scored this magnificent chip to seal a 5-0 win over @ManUtd at St. James' Park. #NUFC pic.twitter.com/yzcKt27TAkOctober 20, 2016
The victory was the result of months of built-up anger. A vengeful swipe at opponents who, until then, had simply been too strong in every previous encounter. Having chased down the Magpies’ 12-point lead at the top of the Premier League to pip them to the title, before humiliating them in the Charity Shield, Albert thinks Manchester United were owed a big defeat, and they finally got what they deserved.
“In March of that year, we should have beaten them at St James’ Park, in the season before,” Albert continued. “But they just happened to have the best goalkeeper in the world in Peter Schmeichel; if they had any other goalkeeper, we could have been three or four up at half-time.
“But he played amazingly, and we lost 1-0. That was the day, I think, that we lost the title. Then we played them again in the Charity Shield match in the summer, and they beat us 4-0, so we wanted revenge, and luckily, October rolled around, and everything went perfectly for us.”
Albert’s goal on that fateful October evening is the stuff of legend on Tyneside. An elegant flick of the left boot that gracefully floated the ball over the top of Schmeichel’s head, into the vacant, welcoming net. With Newcastle already 4-0 up, some suggest Albert wouldn’t have made such an audacious attempt had the match not already been won.
But he insists that he would have tried his luck, whatever stage the game had been at. “People always ask me about my goal. I don’t mind, it was a great goal and to do that against the best goalkeeper in the world was unbelievable,” he said.
“The thing people ask me the most is if I would have tried it if it was only 1-0, or even 0-0 at the time, and my answer is always the same: absolutely, yes. Because I scored some great goals in my career, and I trusted my left foot. It was the perfect position for it and the perfect chance. I trusted myself to score, so I would always have tried it.”
Such audacity and entertainment were de rigueur among a Newcastle team that was created by chief artiste, manager Kevin Keegan. Albert describes being a part of that side as “the best days of my career”, such was the joy of playing alongside the likes of Tino Asprilla, David Ginola and Alan Shearer.
While current boss, Eddie Howe, has since managed to go one better than Keegan and pick up silverware for Newcastle, Albert still thinks King Kev’s side deserves to be recognised just as fondly.
“It’s hard to compare Eddie to Kevin because no one will ever have that charisma, or will ever have the effect on Newcastle that he had,” he said. “When he first came, Newcastle were at the bottom of the second division. To take them from there, to where he did, it will never be repeated.
“The only other person who could have done that is Sir Alex Ferguson, that’s how good Kevin was. He is one of the greatest managers ever to have done it, and it was a real pleasure to play in his team; that’s why we’re talking about him still 30 years later.
“But people will be doing the same with Eddie, 30 or 40 years later, because he was able to win that trophy, something we weren’t able to do. We came close, but we came up against the best team in the world.”
Sadly, the start of this year brought with it the news that Keegan had been receiving treatment for cancer. While Albert has yet to speak to his former boss in person, he said he had been thinking about him and his family.
“He’s a very difficult man to get in touch with, and I would like to respect his privacy and let him be with his family at a time like that,” he said. “But I’d like him to know that I’m thinking about him and that I wish him all the best because he’s such a great man, and he doesn’t deserve to go through what he is. Hopefully, he will get through it because he’s a very strong man. He’s a wonderful bloke and a great example for everyone.”
