When Wimbledon met United in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup at St. James’ in February 1988 it was the fourth meeting of the two sides that season and some bad blood was brewing. The Dons had already knocked United out of the League Cup and won on Tyneside in the League. It was also the season that Vinnie Jones got a grip on Gazza.
Wimbledon won the match and as the teams left the pitch Mirandinha decided he’d had enough. He ran up behind goalkeeper David Beasant and attempted a flying kick on him before running away. Mirandinha also refused to shake hands with Dons captain Andy Thorn.
The little Brazilian must have been mortified when United signed both players a few months later.
The signing of Kevin Keegan five months earlier was astonishing, but in March 1983 there were suggestions that the captain of Brazil was on his way to Tyneside.
Rumours had been sweeping the local hostelries for some weeks that Socrates, who had a degree in medicine, was on his way to The University of Newcastle and John Gibson could resist the story no longer.
He reported that Newcastle had contacted the University about the Latin medicine man and Arthur Cox was quoted as saying: "obviously if a world class star landed on our doorstep we would be more than interested".
Unfortunately quotes from University staff were less enticing. Registrar of the medical school, Derek Nicholson, said: "we have received no formal application for anyone of that name".
And Press Officer Janet Schofield also confirmed that: "we have checked and there is no record of Socrates applying to be a student or a member of staff”.
There turned out to be no truth in it at all, it was merely a prank that in modern terminology went viral, locally at least.
Newcastle player John Fraser did not have the longest of tempers as one Middlesbrough fan found out when the Teessiders beat United in the FA Cup in 1902.
After his pets scored, the fan came onto the pitch to shake Fraser’s hands, and he got his just desserts when Fraser knocked his feet from under him and smashed his pipe. He was lucky to have only his weed-consumer damaged.
When the Youth side travelled to London on the way to Portsmouth for the first leg of the Youth Cup Semi-Final in 1962 an unfortunate incident almost cost them the services of goalkeeper Stan Craig when some horseplay involving a fight for the last pear came to a shattering end.
The 13 and 1/2 stone keeper’s rear end smashed a window leaving him embedded and in great pain. And whilst the rest of the team continued on their connection down to Portsmouth, poor Stan had to have stitches in his rear end.
When United played at Newton Heath (forerunners of Manchester United) in November 1897 play was stopped at one point from a singular cause. A hole was discovered in the middle of the field, quite a foot deep, and some amusement was created by the appearance of the groundsman with a wheelbarrow and a bucketful of soil wherewithal to fill the void.
During the 1929/30 season South Shields FC wanted to move "lock, stock and barrel" to the East End of Newcastle due to a lack of support. However, the move was blocked by the Football League Management Committee after Newcastle objected.
They then were given permission to move to Gateshead without Newcastle's blessing with the Management Committee believing that as Gateshead was in a different County they wouldn’t mind. United did not appeal against the decision, but a Newcastle director pointed out that the distances involved were virtually the same.
United fan Michael Earley won a claim for unfair dismissal against Newcastle Area Health Authority. He was sacked in May 1978 after refusing to deliver some urgent medical supplies. He had refused to take them because he was only twenty minutes from clocking-off and the journey would have taken him much longer thus making him late for a testimonial game that he had tickets for.
In the 1929/30 season Newcastle were awarded a highly controversial penalty during the home game with Burnley. Hughie Gallacher magnanimously sent the ball high over the bar and he was immediately surrounded by Burnley players who manifested their appreciation of his "failure" in no uncertain fashion, much to his embarrassment.
On the 6th July 1922 a call was received at the fire service at about three in the morning and Superintendent Burrows and his men turned out to find the pavilion of Newcastle United, situated at the Strawberry Place corner of the ground, a wood and corrugated iron structure, burning fiercely.
The flames had obtained a good hold, and the building was practically gutted before the firemen got the upper hand; it was one of three major fires in the town in a thirteen-hour period.
The fire started in the back-end of the building which was used as a wash-house. Although no-one was injured, some eighteen hens belonging to Frank Watt and his son were believed to have perished in the conflagration.
During the 1949/50 season, an article in The Sphere newspaper on the Zulu dancers of Witwatersrand revealed that, as well as their more traditional costumes, some of them were attired with more modern items including deer hides and Newcastle United shirts.
When United played Middlesbrough in a pre-season friendly prior to the 1965/66 season one supporter decided to try for a better vantage point and scaled part-way up the floodlight pylon on top of the Leazes Stand. Whilst there he treated the rest of the supporters to an impromptu ten minute bout of twisting.