NUFC 1993/94 - Season Review

NUFC Squad 1993/94

Premiership	3rd
FA Cup	R4
League Cup	R3
Attendance	33,787
Chairman	J Hall
Manager	K Keegan
Coach	D Fazackerly
Captain	P Beardsley
Top Scorer	A Cole (41)

The new Leazes Stand was ready for the start of the campaign and as a result the average attendance increased by almost 20%.

It was a tremendous first season in the Premiership for Newcastle as they gradually recovered from a shaky start to claim 3rd place. Along the way their attacking one-touch football led to them being labelled "The Entertainers" by Sky. Keegan signed a new ten-year contract.

In the close season Keegan lost his two top goal scorers with Gavin Peacock being allowed to move to Chelsea on personal grounds and David Kelly being surprisingly released too.

In their place came the magical feet of Peter Beardsley who returned (at the age of 31) for a fee of £1.35 million after Keegan scared Hall into buying him by suggesting he was on his way to Wearside.

Many more of the old guard moved on and during the season the squad was gradually revamped with the most expensive captures arriving last: Ruel Fox and Darren Peacock.

United gradually found their feet and when they beat Liverpool 3-0 at home in November (the match for which 'Pool 'keeper Grobbelar would later find himself in hot water) the whole country began to take notice.

Cole and Beardsley formed a devastating partnership and shared 55 League goals between them with Cole's 41 being a club record. The Magpies finished as the top scorers and a five-game winning run in March provided the "push" that won them a UEFA Cup place.

In the Cups United were less impressive making early exits to the combined might of Wimbledon and Luton.

There was one hiccup along the way in October involving a kicked bucket from Lee Clark and an unauthorised leave of absence from Andy Cole, but it all appeared to be sorted out pretty smoothly despite the press' efforts to stir up trouble.

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

Premiership

Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images

In their first ever season in the Premiership United got stronger and stronger and eventually finished in 3rd, their highest top tier finish since they won the Championship in 1926/27. They finished as top scorers with 82 goals and had the fourth best defensive record. All-in-all an incredible achievement considering they had narrowly escaped relegation to the third-tier just 24 months earlier.

Although the Magpies lost their first two games they followed up with a deserved draw at Old Trafford which gave them the belief that they could match the best in the Premiership. That game was the start of an eight-game unbeaten run.

Two defeats followed, but then United won another four in succession including a 3-0 victory over Liverpool at home. By the end of November, they had climbed into 6th place and were only 2 points behind 2nd-placed Leeds.

After another strong run into mid-January the Magpies reached 3rd and although they had a sticky-patch when they lost 3 games in-a-row they finished with 10 wins in their last 14 games.

14/8	H	Tottenham	L	0-1	H
18/8	A	Coventry	L	1-2	H
21/8	A	Man Utd	D	1-1	H
25/8	H	Everton	W	1-0	H
29/8	H	Blackburn	D	1-1	H
31/8	A	Ipswich	D	1-1	H
13/9	H	Sheff Wed	W	4-2	H
18/9	A	Swindon	D	2-2	H
25/9	H	WHU	W	2-0	H
02/10	A	Aston Villa	W	2-0	H
16/10	H	QPR	L	1-2	H
24/10	A	Southampton	L	1-2	H
30/10	H	Wimbledon	W	4-0	H
08/11	A	Oldham	W	3-1	H
21/11	H	Liverpool	W	3-0	H
24/11	H	Sheff Utd	W	4-0	H
27/11	A	Arsenal	L	1-2	H
04/12	A	Tottenham	W	2-1	H
11/12	H	Man Utd	D	1-1	H
18/12	A	Everton	W	2-0	H
22/12	H	Leeds	D	1-1	H
28/12	A	Chelsea	L	0-1	H
01/1	H	Man City	W	2-0	H
04/1	A	Norwich	W	2-1	H
16/1	A	QPR	W	2-1	H
22/1	H	Southampton	L	1-2	H
12/2	A	Wimbledon	L	2-4	H
19/2	A	Blackburn	L	0-1	H
23/2	H	Coventry	W	4-0	H
05/3	A	Sheff Wed	W	1-0	H
12/3	H	Swindon	W	7-1	H
19/3	A	WHU	W	4-2	H
23/3	H	Ipswich	W	2-0	H
29/3	H	Norwich	W	3-0	H
01/4	A	Leeds	D	1-1	H
04/4	H	Chelsea	D	0-0	H
09/4	A	Man City	L	1-2	H
16/4	A	Liverpool	W	2-0	H
23/4	H	Oldham	W	3-2	H
27/4	H	Aston Villa	W	5-1	H
30/4	A	Sheff Utd	L	0-2	H
07/5	H	Arsenal	W	2-0	H

		W	D	L	F	A	Pts
01	Man United	27	11	4	80	38	92
02	Blackburn	25	9	8	63	36	84
03	Newcastle	23	8	11	82	41	77
04	Arsenal	18	17	7	53	28	71
05	Leeds	18	16	8	65	39	70
06	Wimbledon	18	11	13	56	53	65
07	Sheff Wed	16	16	10	76	54	64
08	Liverpool	17	9	16	59	55	60
09	QPR	16	12	14	62	61	60
10	Aston Villa	15	12	15	46	50	57
11	Coventry	14	14	14	43	45	56
12	Norwich	12	17	13	65	61	53
13	West Ham	13	13	16	47	58	52
14	Chelsea	13	12	17	49	53	51
15	Tottenham	11	12	19	54	59	45
16	Man City	9	18	15	38	49	45
17	Everton	12	8	22	42	63	44
18	Southampton	12	7	23	49	66	43
19	Ipswich	9	16	17	35	58	43
20	Sheff Utd	8	18	16	42	60	42

FA Cup

R3	08/1	H	Coventry	W	2-0	H
R4	29/1	H	Luton	D	1-1	H
R4r	09/2	A	Luton	L	0-2	H

League Cup

R2 L1	22/9	H	Notts	W	4-1	H
R2 L2	05/10	A	Notts	W	7-1	H
R3	27/10	A	Wimbledon	L	1-2	H

Squad and Team

Player	A	S	G
Allen M	12	0	7
Appleby M	1	0
Beardsley P	41	0	24
Beresford J	40	0
Bracewell p	36	0	2
Clark L	34	0	2
Cole A	45	0	41
Elliott R	15	2
Fox R	14	0	2
Holland C	2	1
Hooper M	24	0
Howey S	16	1
Jeffrey M	2	0
Kilcline B	2	2
Lee R	47	0	8
Mathie A	1	16	3
Neilson A	10	4
O'Brien L	4	2
Papavasiliou N	7	0
Peacock D	9	0
Robinson M	13	4
Scott K	21	0
Sellars S	33	2	4
Srnicek P	22	0
Venison B	41	1
Watson S	34	4	2
Wright T	2	1
Own Goals			2

Total number of games: 48

Total number of players used: 27

01: Srnicek > Hooper > Srnicek

02: Venison

03: Beresford

04: Bracewell

05: Scott > Howey > Peacock

06: Watson >Neilson

07: Lee

08: Allen > Beardsley

09: Cole

10: Clark > Fox

11: Papavasiliou > Sellars

Player Moves

Toon In

Name	Date	Age	From	Fee
Beasrdsley Peter	07/93	32	Everton	£1.5m
Papavasiliou Nikos	07/93	22	OFI	£125,000
Mathie Alex	07/93	24	Morton	£275,000
Allen Malcolm	08/93	26	Millwall	£300,000
Appleby Richard	08/93	17	Professional
Hooper Mike	09/93	29	Liverpool	£550,000
Jeffrey Mike	10/93	22	Doncaster	£85,000
Holland Chris	01/94	18	Preston	£100,000
Fox Ruel	02/94	26	Norwich City	£2,225m
Peacock Darren	03/94	26	QPR	£2.7m

Toon Out

Name	Date	Age	To	Fee
Kelly David	06/93	27	Wolves	£750,000
Stimson Mark	07/93	25	Portsmouth	£95,000
Thompson Alan	07/93	19	Bolton	£250,000
Peacock Gavin	08/93	25	Chelsea	£1,25m
Wright Tommy	09/93	30	Nottm F	£450,000
Roche David	10/93	22	Doncaster Rovers	£25,000 (p/ex)
Kilcline Brian	01/94	31	Swindon	£90,000
O'Brien Liam	01/94	29	Tranmere	£350,000
Scott Kevin	02/94	27	Tottenham	£850,000
McDonough Darren	04/94	31	Retired Injured

Drop In

Name	Club	Age	To	From
Papavassilou Nikos	OFI (Trial)	22	02/93	06/93

Drop Out

Name	Club	From	To
Appleby Matty	Darlington	11/93	11/93

Embed from Getty Images

1990s Seasons

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