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NUFC 1982/83 - Season Review


Division 25th
FA CupR3
League CupR2
Attendance24,166
ChairmanS Seymour
ManagerA Cox
CoachI McFaul
CaptainK Keegan
Top ScorerI Varadi (22)

United stunned the football world by signing Kevin Keegan from Southampton in what was probably the most audacious signing in the club's history and only when his arrival is considered within the perspective of the previous seasons can the enormity of his arrival be understood.

An opening day victory over QPR in front of a crowd of 35,718 (double the previous season's average) followed by another victory at Blackburn had everyone believing again. But one player - no matter how good and enthusiastic - cannot transform a team and United only won five of the next 22 games and had slumped to 14th by mid January.

Cox had already signed two more internationals by then, Terry Mcdermott and David McCreery, but despite all the signings United won only twice in the first 14 away games.

The last four months of the season saw a massive improvement and United lifted themselves to the brink of promotion, but they had left themselves with just too much to do and ended up 3 points shy of third placed Leicester.

The fans who had started to drift away again during the season started to return and despite the failure to gain promotion there were mass celebrations on the pitch after the last home game victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

The cup exits were both at home and particularly hard to swallow that season. United throwing away a 2-0 aggregate lead against The Tykes in the League Cup and Trelford Mills ensuring lifelong (and beyond) notoriety by disallowing two United "goals" in the last few minutes of the FA Cup tie against Brighton.

The gamble had not quite paid off, the question was would Keegan give it another go?

Kit images copyright Historical Football Kits and reproduced by kind permission



Competitions


League Division 2


Embed from Getty Images

The arrival of Kevin Keegan certainly galvanised Tyneside, but the hoped for promotion was not achieved. Once more the quality of football improved and the number of goals scored increased significantly, but there was not a commensurate improvement in results. Five less games were lost, but no more were won resulting in only 5 more points than in 1981/82.

Victories in the first 2 games were followed by 3 defeats and 2 draws and it was clear that the addition of Keegan alone was not enough. And even though David McCreery and Terry Mcdermott were also signed, United still struggled to win away from Tyneside. By mid-January Newcastle were down in 14th place.

Although United’s away form continued to disappoint, they hit a purple patch on Tyneside from January onwards, just as they had in 1981/82. A 4-0 home win over Shrewsbury was the start of a run which brought 8 victories and 1 draw from the last 9 home games. With 2 games left United were 5th and in contention for the vacant third promotion spot; albeit 3 points behind their rivals Fulham and Leicester.

The final home game saw United beat Sheffield Wednesday; but Leicester and Fulham also won and as Leicester's goal difference was 6 better than United's it was realistically game over.


28/8/82 H QPR W 1-0
01/9/82 A Blackburn W 2-1
04/9/82 A Bolton L 1-3
08/9/82 H Middlesbrough D 1-1
11/9/82 H Chelsea D 1-1
18/9/82 A Shrewsbury L 1-2
25/9/82 H Barnsley L 1-2
02/10/82 A Rotherham W 5-1 H/td>
09/10/82 A Oldham D 2-2
16/10/82 H Fulham L 1-4
23/10/82 H C Palace W 1-0
30/10/82 A Leeds L 1-3
06/11/82 H Burnley W 3-0
13/11/82 A Leicester D 2-2
20/11/82 A Carlisle L 0-2
27/11/82 H Cambridge W 2-0
04/12/82 A Charlton L 0-2
11/12/82 H Wolves D 1-1
18/12/82 A Sheff. Wed. D 1-1
27/12/82 H Derby W 1-0
28/12/82 A Grimsby D 2-2
01/1/83 H Carlisle D 2-2
03/1/83 H Bolton D 2-2
15/1/83 A QPR L 0-2
22/1/83 H Shrewsbury W 4-0
05/2/83 A Middlesbrough D 1-1
19/2/83 H Oldham W 1-0
26/2/83 A Fulham D 2-2 H
05/3/83 A C Palace W 2-0
12/3/83 H Leeds W 2-1
19/3/83 A Burnley L 0-1
26/3/83 H Leicester D 2-2
02/4/83 H Grimsby W 4-0
04/4/83 A Derby L 1-2
09/4/83 H Blackburn W 3-2
16/4/83 A Chelsea W 2-0
20/4/83 H Rotherham W 4-0
23/4/83 H Charlton W 4-2
30/4/83 A Cambridge L 0-1
04/5/83 A Barnsley W 5-0
07/5/83 H Sheff. Wed. W 2-1
14/5/83 A Wolves D 2-2
W D L F A Pts
01 QPR 26 7 9 77 36 85
02 Wolves 20 15 7 68 44 75
03 Leicester 20 10 12 72 44 70
04 Fulham 20 9 13 64 47 69
05 Newcastle 18 13 11 75 53 67
06 Sheff Wed 16 15 11 60 47 63
07 Oldham 14 19 9 64 47 61
08 Leeds 13 21 8 51 46 60
09 Shrewsbury 15 14 13 48 48 59
10 Barnsley 14 15 13 57 55 57
11 Blackburn 15 12 15 58 58 57
12 Cambridge 13 12 17 42 60 51
13 Derby 10 19 13 49 58 49
14 Carlisle 12 12 18 68 70 48
15 C Palace 12 12 18 43 52 48
16 Middlesbrough 11 15 16 46 67 48
17 Charlton 13 9 20 63 86 48
18 Chelsea 11 14 17 51 61 47
19 Grimsby 12 11 19 45 70 47
20 Rotherham 10 15 17 45 68 45
21 Burnley 12 8 22 56 66 44
22 Bolton 11 11 20 42 61 44


FA Cup


08/1/83 R3 A Brighton D 1-1
12/1/83 R3r H Brighton L 0-1

League Cup


06/10/82 R2 L1 A Leeds W 1-0
27/10/82 R2 L2 H Leeds L 1-4

Squad and Team



PlayerASG
Anderson, J 35 2 1
Bell, D 1 1
Carney S 30 2
Carr K 36 0
Cartwright P 4 0
Channon, M 4 0 1
Clarke, J 43 0 2
Craggs, J 10 3
Ferris, P 1 4
Gayle, H 8 0 2
Haddock, P 18 0
Hardwick, S 7 0
Hedworth, C 3 1
Keegan, K 41 0 21
Martin, |M 33 6 3
McCreery, D 25 3
McDermott, T 35 0 7
McDonald, N 24 2 4
Saunders, W 15 0
Thomas, M 3 0
Todd, K 5 1 1
Trewick, J 1 0
Varadi, I 43 0 22
Waddle, C 40 0 7
Wharton, K 41 4 5
own goals 2

Total number of games: 46

Total number of players used: 25

01: Carr

02: Anderson

03: Saunders > Wharton

04: Martin > McCreery

05: Clarke

06: Haddock > Carney

07: Keegan

08: McCreery > McDonald

09: Varadi

10: McDermott

11: Waddle


Player Moves


Toon In

Name Date From Fee
Anderson John 08/82 Preston Free
Clarke Jeff 08/82 Sunderland Free
Keegan Kevin 08/82 Southampton £100,000
Channon Mike 09/82 Durban City Free
Mcdermott Terry 09/82 Liverpool £100,000
Mccreery Dave 10/82 Tulsa Roughnecks £75,000
Craggs John 08/82 Middlesbrough Free
Mcdonald Neil 02/83 Professional £5,000
Ferris Paul 03/83 Professional Free

J Clarke
K Keegan
D McCreery

Toon Out

Name Date To Fee
Brownlie John 07/82 Middlesbrough £30,000
Leaver Phil 07/82 Whitley Bay Free
Davies Ian 08/82 Man City Free
Pugh Kevin 08/82 Gateshead Free
Shoulder Alan 08/82 Carlisle Free
Channon Mike 10/82 Bristol R Free
Hardwick Steve 02/83 Oxford £15,000
Todd Kevin 02/83 Darlington £5,000
Cartwright Peter 03/83 Darlington Free
Johnson Peter 03/83 Doncaster R. Free

J Brownlie
A Shoulder
S Hardwick

Drop In

Name From To Club
Gayle Howard 11/82 01/83 Liverpool
Thomas Martin 03/83 05/83 Liverpool


Drop Out

Name From To Club
Barton David Blackburn
Cartwright Peter Scunthorpe
Halliday Bruce Darlington
Halliday Bruce Bury
Johnson Peter Bristol C.

1980s Seasons