When Wor Flags unfurled the last bit of their display just before kick-off against Leicester City last weekend, it was 30 years in the making. A long overdue nod to Ned.
Memories of David ‘Ned’ Kelly’s famous goal against Portsmouth back in 1992 have faded for some. You can include Kelly himself in that list. He thought he was nearly 30 yards out when he cracked his half-volley home, rather than just inside the box.
The Wor Flags tribute was a vital reminder of an iconic moment in the club’s history. Emblazoned across the Gallowgate, the words of commentator Clive Tyldsley were echoed: Kelly: That’ll do. You cannot put a price on that goal.
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It may not have the status of Tyldsley’s more famous lines, but there won’t have been many that have rung truer. A priceless goal. The modern-day Newcastle United history would have been very different without it.
There would have been no Entertainers, no beating Juventus or Barcelona in Champions League nights on Tyneside. No Andy Cole, no 206 Alan Shearer goals, no 52,000-stadium capacity.
Possibly no club at all.
This is the story of the men behind that goal, those right at the heart of that tension-filled day and the games against Pompey at St James’ Park, and then Leicester City at Filbert Street. Sir John Hall , Kelly , Lee Clark , Gavin Peacock and fans Marc Corby and Steve Wraith relive arguably the most important week in the club’s recent history.
THE BUILD-UP
In order to fully appreciate the significance of Kelly’s goal you have to first understand the perilous situation the club was in 30 years ago.
Kevin Keegan had arrived in the February, returning from an eight-year hiatus from the game, tempted to give up the Spanish fairways by the challenge of rescuing Newcastle from oblivion. Relegation to the third tier beckoned for the first time in the club’s history, a footballing and financial disaster. Tycoon Sir John Hall had pumped in more than £1million to bail the club out with the bank before launching a takeover - but it was by no means certain his investment would pay off, or that he would finance United in the old Division Two.
The last roll of the dice was Keegan, and initially it seemed to be a gamble that was paying off as thousands returned to St James’ Park to watch the Magpies pick up much needed points including a 1-0 derby win over Sunderland. But two days later, a 6-2 thumping at Wolves heralded a run of five successive defeats that left Newcastle slumped in the relegation zone with just two games to go.
It meant the visit of Portsmouth to St James’ 30 years ago this weekend - April 25 to be exact - suddenly became a must-win. With Plymouth Argyle, Oxford United and Port Vale competing with United to avoid the drop, anything less than three points would almost certainly mean a miracle was needed.
For 86 long minutes, the weight of a city threatened to overpower the side until Kelly’s stunning strike. It meant the pressure was off as the team headed to Filbert Street a week later where another dramatic afternoon, with results going their way, ensured survival.
From there, lift off.
THE OWNER
Sir John Hall had completed his takeover of the club just a few months earlier, and decided to sack Ossie Ardiles and replace him with Kevin Keegan in a final gamble.
“One of the troubles with Newcastle, if you like, was it was so dependent on the fans. The fans were so loyal but we didn’t know how they would react if we went down. We were dependent on them for revenue, there was no TV money.
“If we had have been relegated it would have been difficult to survive in that league. It was a great relief when we got those wins against Portsmouth and Leicester.
“It’s hard to remember too much about it. It was so hectic at the time, we were just focused on beating the drop.
“You are sitting there as a businessman and you have put all that cash in. You don’t want to think about the consequences, we were just trying to stay in the division. It would have been a brutal realisation of where we were at.
“I didn’t actually want to own a football club. I got in by accident rather than design. When I was in, I just had to make it work.
“If we’d gone down, the players wouldn’t have stayed. They have to look after their careers. We would have had to totally revamp the club if we’d wanted to get out that division.
“I don’t know if Kevin would have stayed. He was always up for a fight but it would have been a big decision for all of us. As a board, we would have sat down and decided whether to stay and fight - or get out. There would have been no real incentive to stay and do what we did if we’d gone down.
“I look back now and think ‘how the hell did we do it?’ None of us knew how to run a football club. It was a gamble.”
THE HERO
Republic of Ireland international striker David Kelly had signed from Leicester City in December 1991 and had already made himself a hero with the winner against Sunderland as well as two goals in Keegan’s first game in charge.
“I hadn’t really seen the goal since I scored it until I was up in the North East last weekend for the Leicester game. I was having a pint in Whitley Bay and one of the lads got the clip on YouTube and we watched it.
“I honestly thought I was about 10 yards outside the box when I hit it, but it turns out I was five yards inside it! I was gutted!
“It was a decent move. I’d flicked it on to Quinny, he’d knocked it back to me and I was fortunate enough to find the top corner. It was fantastic scenes, and then we went to Leicester and there were more great scenes when we won.
“Keegan was really good in the build-up. He was always positive and confident. I can’t remember if we played well to be honest but I do remember at half-time he said that the chances will come. He always said we would win, he had that confidence in the team.
“When the goal went in, I felt like it was the weight of the city taken off us. It ranks up there in the top two or three goals I ever scored, purely for the significance of it.
“We were aware it would have been a disaster if we’d gone down but you’re never sure of the severity. When we stayed up, I just knew the club was going places.
“Sir John Hall wouldn’t have invested if we’d gone down, but it was now exciting times ahead. It was like there was sunshine again. Strap yourselves in, it’s going to be a great ride.
“The supporters have always been very kind to me. I’m always made so welcome when I’m back at St James’ Park, and the amount of fans who want to talk about that goal is incredible.
“I’ll have to stop saying I was outside the box when I scored it now!”
THE PLAYERS
Lee Clark was just 19 at the time, but already a mainstay of the Newcastle squad.
“As a young player, I didn’t really feel the pressure. We had a young squad under Ossie Ardiles but Kevin came in and called on the experienced lads. Brian Kilcline galvanised the club, you had Liam O’Brien and Kevin Sheedy and David Kelly, and the spine started to look more experienced. They didn’t allow the youngsters to be affected by the pressure.
“It’s only when you look back now, you think ‘Jesus, what the hell would have happened to the club if we’d gone down?’. Would we have been able to keep players? Would we have sold players like myself? There wouldn’t have been the financial clout.
“I’d hedge a bet that Kevin wouldn’t have hung around. We would have been looking for a new manager, we wouldn’t have signed the likes of Paul Bracewell, John Beresford, Rob Lee, I don’t think we would have been able to attract the senior players who helped me so much. My career could have been very different.
“The Portsmouth and Leicester games were huge. I was always nervous and desperate to do well but I wasn’t more nervous than other games.
“Nothing really changed in the build-up for Kevin. He just wanted us to go out and play for the fans. I remember us being quite dominant but we just couldn’t get the goal until Ned scored late on. Ned scored a lot of crucial goals but that one is one of the biggest in the club’s history. You would have worried for the club’s future if he hadn’t scored. It would have been horrendous.
“That season was when Sir John Hall had just taken over with the Magpie Group and had big plans - they would have been scuppered. It would have been very similar to what the new ownership at the club would have experienced if the club had gone down this season.”
Gavin Peacock finished the 1991/92 season as top goalscorer, playing a pivotal role in survival and then the Championship-winning team the following year.
“When Kevin came in for Ossie, he got us all in the gym at Benwell and said two things - one, if anyone doesn’t want to be here then they can go now and two, we will survive and then just watch us take off.
“It went to the wire but Kevin always kept believing. I always thought we would survive as we had enough in the team to win games - me and Ned could get goals, Clarky was great, Franz Carr could destroy teams on his day - but the games just kept slipping away.
“Going into the Portsmouth game, there was pressure. I have had pressure since in cup finals and going for promotion and the like but this was something else.
“We knew the club could have gone under, you couldn’t get away from that sort of thinking. But we had a great leader in Kevin. There was no one else who could have done what he did, he was so positive and kept lifting us. He insisted we would do it.
“I can’t remember much about the Portsmouth game or how I played to be honest, but I just remember the relief when the goal went in. Pure relief. It was just oxygen to us.
“I remember more about the Leicester game. There were players throwing up in the toilet before the game through nerves, the young players. I always thought we would win that game and I knew I was going to score, but then they equalised late on. My calves were cramping up but then Tommy Wright launched that huge kick and I had to chase it. I was trying to get there but my legs wouldn’t let me, but Steve Walsh put it in his own net.
“The thing was though the ref knew there was going to be an invasion so he called full-time pretty much straight away. I’d bent my run towards where the Newcastle fans were and they’d started coming on to the field too, where the Leicester fans were. I was the furthest away from the tunnel and I had to somehow weave between supporters and try to get off the pitch to safety. I think I ended up jumping into Steve Watson’s arms!
“I was out of contract in the summer. I was going to be a free agent and other clubs were sniffing around but I had to put it out of my mind. I had West Ham, Middlesbrough and Chelsea sniffing around and as a free agent, if we had gone down I wouldn’t have stayed on.”
THE FANS
Marc Corby, of True Faith, played a key role in the Wor Flags tribute to Kelly. It was his idea that the former striker be honoured, having been in the Gallowgate for the Pompey game.
“The Gallowgate End was filling up early and the atmosphere continued to build as kick off approached. However, the tension around St James’ Park was palpable - we knew relegation and possible liquidation was a real possibility.
“I was just 13 at the time and went with three friends. We still go to the game together now, 30 years on. We watched from our usual place in a packed Strawberry Corner as Kelly scored arguably the most important goal in United’s history.
“The passion on the terraces back then was in a league of its own. The euphoria and bedlam that followed the goal hasn’t been matched since. Kelly appeared to be willing to run through a brick wall for the good of the team and played for Newcastle like a ‘real fan’ would.
“Scoring that goal guaranteed his place as a United ‘legend’ but tragically his contribution seemed to have been forgotten by a new generation, so I spoke to Wor Flags and we put the tribute in progress. Once I found out he was up for the Leicester game, we knew we had to get it done in time.”
Steve Wraith, fan and host of NUFC Matters podcast, was in the Gallowgate End.
“I’d already experienced relegation in 88/89 so I had a sense of impending doom, which has surrounded me and many in my age group ever since.
“I remember a tense, nervy game with chances going begging at both ends and there was a sense of panic setting in among the 25,000-plus crowd as the clock ticked down.
“Then Ned Kelly set himself and hammered the ball towards goals and the crowd sucked the ball in. Cue screaming, crying, people who were leaving early to catch the bus rushing back in to see if it was true. It was total pandemonium. I remember the final whistle just never seeming to come despite the Gallowgate whistling like starlings.”
THE EPITAPH
The 2-1 win at Leicester City sealed survival, but it had been largely achieved seven days earlier with that Kelly wonder goal. The club was not only saved, it was reborn in the ensuing months.
The board invested. They backed the manager that summer as Keegan brought in Paul Bracewell, Robert Lee, John Beresford and Barry Venison, as well as failing in an audacious bid to bring Chris Waddle back to Tyneside from Marseille. The team built on the euphoria of winning the last two games by winning the first 11 of the new season on their way to claiming promotion to the Premier League, and as Andy Cole, Scott Sellars and then Peter Beardsley were all added to the squad, the Entertainers were born.
St James’s Park was revamped, and when eventually in 1996 Newcastle smashed the world transfer record to sign Alan Shearer for £15million, it was hard to believe just four years earlier they’d been on the verge of extinction.
The final word goes to Sir John. “You could say we paved the way for how the club is today but it wasn’t easy.
“The epitaph on my headstone when I die will be ‘he didn’t want to own a football club’. But we made it work, we survived and made the magic work.
“The consequences if we hadn’t would have been horrendous. It was unthinkable.”
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