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NUFC 1995/96 - Season Review


NUFC Squad 1995/96
Premiership2nd
FA CupR3
League CupQF
Attendance36,505
ChairmanJ Hall
ManagerK Keegan
CoachD Fazackerly/C McMenemy
CaptainP Beardsley
Top ScorerL Ferdinand (29)

Although results-wise 1995/96 is the best in the club's history in the top division it will unfortunately be remembered as the season when Newcastle "threw away" a 12 point lead.

Many theories have been put forward for United's late collapse: defensive weakness, tactical naivety, loss of bottle and the disruption to the team caused by the introduction of Asprilla.

When you look at the losses they had: in 6 out of 8 they didn't score. This was not a season of high scoring defeats as it has often been misrepresented.

Crucially they lost both games against Manchester United. The home match was particularly hard to take as Newcastle put them under intense pressure, but just could not score.

Certainly, the introduction of the maverick Asprilla and the consequential change to the team pattern was a risky move at such a crucial stage of the season.

The late goals at Anfield and Ewood Park cost United 4 points and United's inability to close games down certainly did not help.

But none of these reasons would have been relevant if Manchester United had not hit such a rich vein of form; they won 13 out of their last 15 games. A distraught Keegan offered to resign.

The League Cup brought a controversial defeat at Highbury in the Quarter- Finals whilst Chelsea knocked United out of the FA Cup in a penalty shoot-out.

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Competitions

Premiership


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As in 1994/95 the Magpies got off to a blistering start, they won 9 out of their first 10 games and by the time they met second-placed Manchester United at Old Trafford in the last match of 1995 they were ten points ahead of them.

Although Manchester United won the game, Newcastle won their next 6 games. The final match in the run was a 2-1 win at Middlesbrough where Tino Asprilla made his first appearance (as a sub) and turned the game.

At this stage, Newcastle were 9 points ahead of Manchester United and had a game in hand. Newcastle lost at West Ham and drew at Manchester City and when the rivals met at St. James' on the 4th March the gap had narrowed to 4 points.

Newcastle played brilliantly, but could not find a way past Peter Schmeichel and Cantona scored for the Reds. It was a heavy psychological blow.

They beat West Ham in the next match, but then lost in two tough away assignments at Arsenal and (infamously) at Liverpool. Manchester were now 3 points ahead but United still had a game in hand.

Although they beat QPR they lost at Blackburn after conceding two late goals. The Old Trafford side now led by 6 points. All was not lost though and the Magpies recorded 3 wins on the bounce with the last one being at Elland Road which precipitated Keegan's famous "love it" rant.

In their penultimate game United played their game in hand against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. A win would take the Magpies level on points with Manchester United although their goal difference was 6 goals better. But a 76th minute equaliser by Ian Woan denied them the necessary victory.

The only way the title could be won now was if Newcastle beat Spurs at St James' and Man U lost at Middlesbrough. They won and Newcastle could only manage a draw.


19/8 H Coventry W 3-0 H
22/8 A Bolton W 3-1 H
27/8 A Sheff Wed W 2-0 H
30/8 H Middlesbrough W 1-0 H
09/9 A Southampton L 0-1 H
16/9 H Man City W 3-1 H
24/9 H Chelsea W 2-0 H
01/10 A Everton W 3-1 H
14/10 A QPR W 3-2 H
21/10 H Wimbledon W 6-1 H
29/10 A Tottenham D 1-1 H
04/11 H Liverpool W 2-1 H
08/11 H Blackburn W 1-0 H
18/11 A Aston Villa D 1-1 H
25/11 H Leeds Utd W 2-1 H
03/12 A Wimbledon D 3-3 H
09/12 A Chelsea L 0-1 H
16/12 H Everton W 1-0 H
23/12 H Nottm F W 3-1 H
27/12 A Man Utd L 0-2 H
02/1 H Arsenal W 2-0 H
14/1 A Coventry W 1-0 H
20/1 H Bolton W 2-1 H
03/2 H Sheff Wed W 2-0 H
10/2 A Middlesbrough W 2-1 H
21/2 A WHU L 0-2 H
24/2 A Man City D 3-3 H
04/3 H Manchester Utd L 0-1 H
18/3 H WHU W 3-0 H
23/3 A Arsenal L 0-2 H
03/4 A Liverpool L 3-4 H
06/4 H QPR W 2-1 H
08/4 A Blackburn L 1-2 H
14/4 H Aston Villa W 1-0 H
17/4 H Southampton W 1-0 H
29/4 A Leeds Utd W 1-0 H
02/5 A Nottm F D 1-1 H
05/5 H Tottenham D 1-1 H
W D L F A Pts
01 Man United 25 7 6 73 35 82
02 Newcastle 24 6 8 66 37 78
03 Liverpool 20 11 7 70 34 71
04 Aston Villa 18 9 11 52 35 63
05 Arsenal 17 12 9 49 32 63
06 Everton 17 10 11 64 44 61
07 Blackburn 18 7 13 61 47 61
08 Tottenham 16 13 9 50 38 61
09 Nottm Forest 15 13 10 50 54 58
10 West Ham 14 9 15 43 52 51
11 Chelsea 12 14 12 46 44 50
12 Middlesbrough 11 10 17 35 50 43
13 Leeds 12 7 19 40 57 43
14 Wimbledon 10 11 17 55 70 41
15 Sheff Wed 10 10 18 48 61 40
16 Coventry 8 14 16 42 60 38
17 Southampton 9 11 18 34 52 38
18 Man City 9 11 18 33 58 38
19 QPR 9 6 23 38 57 33
20 Bolton 8 5 25 39 71 29

FA Cup


R3 07/1 A Chelsea D 1-1 H
R3r 17/1 H Chelsea D 2-2 H

League Cup


R2 L1 19/9 A Bristol C W 5-0 H
R2 L2 04/10 H Bristol C W 3-1 H
R3 25/10 A Stoke W 4-0 H
R4 29/11 A Liverpool W 1-0 H
QF 10/1 A Arsenal L 0-2 H

Squad and Team


PlayerASG
Albert P 23 5 6
Asprilla F 11 3 3
Barton W 37 1 1
Batty D 11 0 1
Beardsley P 40 0 11
Beresford J 35 1
Brayson P 1 0
Clark Lee 26 7 2
Crawford J 0 1
Elliott R 8 2
Ferdinand L 44 0 29
Fox R 3 2
Gillespie K 30 2 5
Ginola D 40 0 5
Hislop S 28 0
Holland C 0 1
Hottiger M 1 2
Howey S 33 0 1
Huckerby D 0 2
Kitson P 4 5 2
Lee R 41 0 9
Peacock D 40 1 2
Sellars S 4 4 1
Srnicek P 17 2
Watson S 18 11 4

Total number of games: 45

Total number of players used: 25

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01: Hislop/Srnicek

02: Barton

03: Beresford

04: Clark > Batty

05: Peacock

06: Howey > Albert

07: Lee

08: Beardsley

09: Ferdinand

10: Ginola

11: Gillespie > Asprilla

Player Moves

Toon In

Name Date Age From Fee
Barton Warren 06/95 26 Wimbledon £4m
Ferdinand Les 06/95 28 QPR £6m
Ginola David 07/95 28 PSG £2.5m
Brayson Paul 08/95 17 Professional
Hislop Shaka 08/95 26 Reading £1.575m
Huckerby Darren 11/95 19 Lincoln City £450,000
Asprilla Faustino 02/96 26 Parma £7.5m
Batty David 02/96 27 Blackburn Rovers £3.5m

F Asprilla
L Ferdinand
D Ginola

Toon Out

Name Date Age To Fee
Jeffrey Mike 06/95 23 Rotheram £100,000
Neilson Alan 06/95 22 Southampton £400,000
Venison Barry 06/95 30 Galatasaray £750,000
Fox Ruel 10/95 27 Tottenham £4m
Allen Malcolm 12/95 27 Retired (inj)
Appleby Richard 12/95 20 Ipswich
Sellars Scott 12/95 29 Bolton £750,000
Hottiger Marc 03/96 28 Everton £700,000

R Fox
S Sellars
B Venison

Drop Out

Name Club From To
Harper SteveBristol City07/9505/96
Hooper MikeSunderland07/9505/96
Appleby RichardIpswich11/9511/95

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