NUFC 1991/92 - Season Review

NUFC Squad 1991/92

Division 2	20th
FA Cup	R3
League Cup	R3
Attendance	21,024
Chairman	G Forbes > J Hall
Manager	O Ardilles > K Keegan
Coach	T Galvin > D Fazackerly
Captain	K Scott
Top Scorer	G Peacock (21)

United entered their centenary season with renewed hope, but little tangible to base it on. It almost ended in disaster, thankfully Kevin Keegan saved the day; just.

The season started badly and continued that way. Ossie's young charges were playing entertaining open football, but shipping far too many goals. The initial optimism that saw 22,700 turn up for the first game of the season soon evaporated and attendances slipped back towards the 15,000 mark.

The club was losing money just as quickly as United were dropping points and this led to more boadroom changes. John and Douglas Hall, Freddie Shepherd and Derek McVickers replaced Gordon McKeag and Russell Cushing. Just before Christmas, Hall replaced Forbes as Chairman and pledged his support to Ardilles.

The New Year was heralded with an embarrassing 4-0 defeat at Southend and was followed a month later by a 5-2 thrashing at Oxford. Inbetween those games United lost 4-3 at home to Charlton after leading 3-0 with half an hour left. Ossie's "safe as houses" job was in ruins.

Sensationally and riskily, Freddie's Fletcher and Shepherd along with Douglas Hall persuaded Keegan (who had had no involvement with the professional game since retiring almost eight years earlier) to take on the challenge of keeping United up. H (News item)

An upturn in form followed, but Keegan had to be persuaded to return after he walked out when the money he had been "promised" for transfers failed to materialise. H (News item)

But just as the club seemed to have turned the corner a 6-2 defeat at Wolves precipitated a five game losing run that saw United tumble back down into the relegation places.

There were two games left: at home to Jim Smith's Portsmouth and away to promotion hopefuls Leicester. The tension at SJP was almost unbearable for the home game against Pompey, but the outpouring of relief was immense when David Kelly grabbed the winner five minutes from the end.

Another win was still required to be mathematically certain and it was another emotionally charged atmosphere at Filbert Street. Results elsewhere were going United's way, but Leicester's late equaliser created pandemonium which turned ugly when Steve Walsh put through his own net to restore United's lead.

The League and FA cups seemed almost incidental as United lost to lower-league opposition in both. And the Magpies were beaten on penalties by Tranmere in the Zenith Data Systems Cup after a crazy 6-6 draw.

H Youtube playlist or click on film icon in results table for individual match highlights.

Kit images copyright Historical Football Kits and reproduced by kind permission

Competitions

League Division 2

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In, some ways the 1991/92 season could be viewed as the worst in United's history. Although the results have been worse in some seasons in the top-flight they have never been worse in the second-tier. And although the Magpies were closer to relegation to Division 3 in 1937/38 their results were better overall in that campaign.

Although United's home form was poor, it was away from Tyneside where they suffered most, losing 14 out of 23. And in total contrast to the previous campaign it was defensively that United really struggled. The 84 goals conceded being the worst in the Division and second only to 1960/61 with respect to the number of goals conceded in post-war seasons.

United got off to a bad start, winning 1 and losing 6 of the first 11 games; leaving them in rock-bottom at the start of October.

Although there was some improvement during October and November another set of winless games followed and at the end of the year they were still struggling badly in 18th place.

The Magpies failed to win any games during January and a 5-2 defeat at Oxford on the first day of February proved to be Ardilles' last match in charge. He left the club one off the bottom and in dire relegation trouble.

Results picked up following Keegan's arrival and when they beat Sunderland at home on the 29th March they had clambered up to 17th and were 5 points above the relegation places.

However, this was followed by a disastrous run of 5 defeats in a row culminating in a 4-1 defeat at Derby. With 2 games left to play United were in the first relegation slot and were one of 7 teams battling for survival. Thankfully the Magpies won both the games to pull clear.

click on H for highlights

18/8	A	Charlton	L	1-2	H
24/8	H	Watford	D	2-2	H
27/8	A	Middlesbrough	L	0-3	H
31/8	A	Bristol R	W	2-1	H
04/9	H	Plymouth	D	2-2	H
07/9	A	Tranmere	L	2-3	H
14/9	H	Wolves	L	1-2	H
17/9	H	Ipswich	D	1-1	H
21/9	A	Millwall	L	1-2	H
28/9	H	Derby	D	2-2	H
05/10	A	Portsmouth	L	1-3	H
12/10	H	Leicester	W	2-0	H
19/10	H	Oxford	W	4-3	H
26/10	A	Bristol C	D	1-1	H
02/11	A	Swindon	L	1-2	H
06/11	H	Cambridge	D	1-1	H
09/11	H	Grimsby	W	2-0	H
17/11	A	Sunderland	D	1-1	H
20/11	H	Southend Utd	W	3-2	H
23/11	H	Blackburn	D	0-0
30/11	A	Barnsley	L	0-3	H
07/12	H	Port Vale	D	2-2	H
14/12	A	Brighton	D	2-2	H
20/12	A	Plymouth	L	0-2	H
26/12	H	Middlesbrough	L	0-1
28/12	H	Bristol R	W	2-1	H
01/1	A	Southend Utd	L	0-4	H
11/1	A	Watford	D	2-2	H
18/1	H	Charlton	L	3-4	H
01/2	A	Oxford Utd	L	2-5	H
08/2	H	Bristol C	W	3-0	H
15/2	A	Blackburn	L	1-3	H
22/2	H	Barnsley	D	1-1	H
29/2	A	Port Vale	W	1-0	H
07/3	H	Brighton	L	0-1	H
10/3	A	Cambridge	W	2-0	H
14/3	H	Swindon	W	3-1	H
21/3	A	Grimsby	D	1-1	H
29/3	H	Sunderland	W	1-0	H
31/3	A	Wolves	L	2-6
04/4	H	Tranmere	L	2-3	H
11/4	A	Ipswich	L	2-3	H
18/4	H	Millwall	L	0-1	H
20/4	A	Derby	L	1-4	H
25/4	H	Portsmouth	W	1-0	H
02/5	A	Leicester	W	2-1	H

		W	D	L	F	A	Pts
01	Ipswich	24	12	10	70	50	84
02	Middlesbrough	23	11	12	58	41	80
03	Derby	23	9	14	69	51	78
04	Leicester	23	8	15	62	55	77
05	Cambridge	19	17	10	65	47	74
06	Blackburn	21	11	14	70	53	74
07	Charlton	20	11	15	54	48	71
08	Swindon	18	15	13	69	55	69
09	Portsmouth	19	12	15	65	51	69
10	Watford	18	11	17	51	48	65
11	Wolves	18	10	18	61	54	64
12	Southend	17	11	18	63	63	62
13	Bristol R	16	14	16	60	63	62
14	Tranmere	14	19	13	56	56	61
15	Millwall	17	10	19	64	71	61
16	Barnsley	16	11	19	46	57	59
17	Bristol C	13	15	18	55	71	54
18	Sunderland	14	11	21	61	65	53
19	Grimsby	14	11	21	47	62	53
20	Newcastle	13	13	20	66	84	52
21	Oxford	13	11	22	66	73	50
22	Plymouth	13	9	24	42	64	48
23	Brighton	12	11	23	56	77	47
24	Port Vale	10	15	21	42	59	45

FA Cup

R3	04/1	A	Bournemouth (D3:10th)	D	0-0		H
R3r	22/1	H	Bournemouth (D3:11th)	L (p)	2-2		H

R3: Newcastle needed a man-of-the-match performance from goalkeeper Tommy Wright to keep Bournemouth at bay.

R3r: After the first match was abandoned the teams met again a week later and the visitors fought back twice before winning the game on penalties.

League Cup

R2 L1	24/9	A	Crewe (D4:9th)	W	4-3	H
R2 L2	09/10	H	Crewe (D4:6th)	W	1-0	H
R3	29/10	A	Peterborough (D3:19th)	L	0-1	H

R2 L1 - A crazy game where United were 3-0 down after only 22 minutes, before a Peacock hat-trick helped them turn the tables.

R2 L2 - A poor match in which Howey broke the deadlock three minutes from time

R3 -The Division 3 strugglers won the tie five minutes from time

Zenith Data Systems Cup

R1	01/10	A	Tranmere	L (p)	6-6		H

R1 - One of the maddest games of competitive football that the club has ever been involved in. It was 3-3 at the end of normal time and both sides doubled their tally during extra time with the home side eventually winning 4-3 on penalties.

Squad and Team

Player	A	S	G
Appleby M	20	3
Bodin P	6	0
Bradshaw D	21	2
Brock K	34	4	4
Carr F	13	3	2
Clark L	31	4	6
Elliott R	11	0
Fashanu J	0	1
Garland P	0	2
Gourlay A	0	1
Howey S	14	12	2
Hunt A	27	6	12
Kelly D	26	0	11
Kilcline B	12	0
Kristensen B	1	1
Maguire G	3	0
Makel L	6	4	1
McDonough D	2	1
Neilson A	18	0	1
O'Brien L	46	0	4
Peacock G	51	0	21
Quinn M	19	4	10
Ranson R	5	1
Robinson D	0	3
Roche D	21	8
Scott K	50	0	1
Sheedy K	13	0	1
Srnicek P	16	0
Stimson M	25	1
Thompson A	13	2
Walker A	3	0
Watson S	25	5	1
Wilson T	2	0
Wright T	36	0
own goals			2

Total number of games: 52

Total number of players used: 34

01: Srnicek > Wright

02: Neilson > Watson

03: Elliot >Stimson

04: O'Brien

05: Scott >Kilcline

06: Bradshaw > Appleby > Scott

07: Clark (Roche) > Quinn

08: Peacock

09: Quinn > Kelly

10: Carr > Hunt > Sheedy

11: Roche > Brock

Player Moves

Toon In

Name	Date	From	Fee
Harper Steve	12/91	Seaham Red Star	Free
Kelly David	12/91	Leicester	£250,000
Kilcline Brian	03/92	Oldham	£250,000
Sheedy Kevin	02/92	Everton	Free
Garland Peter	03/92	Tottenham	£35,000
Mcdonaugh Darren	03/92	Luton	£90,000
Watson John	04/92	Wallsend Boys Club	Free

A lack of money meant no new signings during the summer, but with United struggles exacerbated by the loss of Quinn to long-term injury action was forced upon them and Ardilles made the very astute signing of David Kelly.

When Keegan arrived he knew he needed someone to add strength, leadership and experience to the backline and after an initial loan (and a walk-out) he signed central-defender Brian Kilcline.

He also bolstered the midfield with another player with plenty of top-flight experience in Kevin Sheedy.

Toon Out

Name	Date	To	Fee
Aitken Roy	08/91	St Mirren	£150,000
Burridge John	08/91	Hibernians	Free
Dillon Kevin	08/91	Reading	Free
Simpson Neil	08/91	Motherwell	Free
Sloan Scott	11/91	Falkirk	£50,000
Anderson John	01/92	Retired (inj)
Robinson Dave	03/92	Reading	Free
Gourlay Archie	04/92	Motherwell	Free

With Ardilles wanting to reduce the average age of the side as well as the wage bill, a number of experienced players were released during the summer including captain Roy Aitken and 'keeper John Burridge.

In January faithful servant John Anderson was forced to retire through injury.

Drop In

Name	From	To	Club
Walker Andy	09/91	09/91	Celtic
Maguire Gavin	10/91	10/91	Portsmouth
Fashanu Justin	10/91	10/91	Unattached (trial)
Bodin Paul	12/91	01/92	C Palace
Wilson Terry	01/92	02/92	Nottm F
Kilcline Brian	02/92	02/92	Oldham

Drop Out

Name	From	To	Club
Askew Billy	Gateshead
Askew Billy	Shrewsbury
Gourlay Archie	Gateshead	07/91	03/92
Burridge John	Hartlepool	07/91	07/91

1990s Seasons

1990/91 1991/92 1992/93 1993/94 1994/95 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00