Today I'm going back to 37 years to 1984 and a classic! Newcastle United's visit to Loftus Road to play Queens Park Rangers (QPR) in a First Division encounter.
I've mentioned previously that I had a bit of a soft spot for Newcastle United having made the effort the previous season to take in a few of their games and see Kevin Keegan before he retired. At the end of that season, Newcastle were promoted and Keegan had retired apparently with no plans for role in football after his playing career was over. However, within a decade, Keegan was back on Tyneside this time as manager as he led the Magpies almost to the summit of the Premier League but for that pesky Sir Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United team. Keegan, the player, had a testimonial against Liverpool in the week after Newcastle's promotion had been secured and at the final whistle a helicopter landed in the centre circle and Keegan was whisked away as 36,000 tearful and adoring Geordies waved him off. Interestingly, one of the ball boys there that night was one Alan Shearer. I wonder what happened to him?
Anyway, with their messiah Keegan now gone, Newcastle were always felt likely to be strugglers at the higher level and they rolled into London in need of points. I was now living in London having done my accountancy qualification in Winchester where I met up with a lifelong mate and Newcastle fan "Big Stu" Phillips who dragged me along to watch his (and my) new hero Chrissie Waddle. Little did I know that I was about to watch what has always been I think my most favourite football match ever. Why? "Magic Chris" played an absolute blinder that day, scoring a hattrick and assisting in the the other Toon goals. But, incredibly, Newcastle failed to win despite being four goals up at half time. Back came Rangers in the second half with three goals but when Newcastle's Kenny Wharton made it 3-5 to the Toon with just six minutes remaining, we thought that that was over. Not so! A late Steve Wicks header and an last minute equaliser by Gary Micklewhite and the points were shared! It's not terribly surprising that Newcastle boss Jack Charlton went bonkers in the dressing room afterwards! I can remember leaving the match with thousands of shell shocked Geordies after the final whistle and walking back to the tube in silence before Stu and I looked at each other and started laughing. I think we both knew that we'd seen something unlikely ever to be repeated. It certainly helped that nine of the ten goals scored that day were scored at the end where we were standing! And QPR could actually count themselves unlucky as they had two apparently good goals chalked off by the referee and numerous other chances. It was a real privilege to have been there that day!
One talking point about Loftus Road that season was their pitch. It was made of plastic we were reliably informed and performed a little like concrete would. It wasn't unknown for a player attempting a slide tackle to receive actual carpet burns! The QPR goalie would launch the ball forward and, if it hit the ground it would bounce. High. As it would if the ball had landed in the car park. The away fans, wags to a man, shouted "Boing!" with every bounce. Joking apart, the surface did not perform like a grass pitch would and the plastic pitches (Luton and Oldham Athletic also pioneered such surfaces) of the 1980's were light years away from the 4G and 5G artificial surfaces that we see today. QPR's plastic pitch was sand based and, following much criticism, I recall QPR adding thousands of tons of additional sand to try to deaden the bounce a little. To be fair to the "Superhoops", if you watch the video accompanying this article in my blog, I don't see much evidence to support the idea that the pitch spoiled the game. All the action looks pretty normal and, given the entertainment level for a neutral like me, I had no complaints.
Newcastle finished the season in 14th place (out of 22) and survived the threat of undoing all of Keegan's good work, avoiding the relegation places by just three points. Alan Mullery's QPR also survived but by the skin of their teeth finishing 19th and missing the drop by a single point. Perhaps it was the point that they earned in this remarkable draw that kept them up in the end? I like to think so.
CRB Match No. 327
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