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When Newcastle
United won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup back in the summer of 1969
Alan Shearer wasn't even born and The Beatles were still
together. |
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A sight Newcastle
Utd fans haven't seen often enough. |
The Inter-Cities
Fairs Cup started in 1955 and was originally a tournament open
to cities that had hosted trade fairs, and not necessarily clubs
- cities with more than one club sent representative teams (e.g.
London). Barcelona won the first tournament, beating the London
XI in the final.
By the mid-1960s, it was exclusively for clubs, who usually
qualified by virtue of a high finish in their domestic league.
However, a rule that only one club per city could enter was
applied.
The competition was renamed UEFA Cup in 1971 dropping any links
with trade fairs and removing the one team per city rule. |
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The 1967-68
season saw Newcastle finish 10th in the league with Everton,
Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal above them but all of those sides
were unable to qualify for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup as
Liverpool and Chelsea had finished higher in the league.
The original back door cup entry has occurred. |
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Every round in the
competition was over two legs and Newcastle took to European
football like a duck to water. The first game saw us take on the
mighty Feyenoord at St James' Park and take them on we did,
winning 4-0 backed by over 46,000 Geordies. The second leg in
Holland was a tougher affair losing 2-0 but the lads had
arrived on the European scene. |
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Up next were
Portugals finest in Sporting Lisbon. Two very tight games saw
us win 2-1 on aggregate and increase our European pedigree even
further. |
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Another extremely
tight couple of games in the 3rd Round against Real Zaragoza of
Spain saw us sneak through on away goals after finishing 4-4 on
aggregate. By now our strike force of Wyn Davis and Pop Robson
were taking the competition by storm scoring 6 out of our 10 goals
between them. |
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We had reached the
Quarter-Finals and again faced Portuguese opposition, this time
in the form of Vitoria Setubal. The 1st Leg at St James' Park
attracted our biggest crowd so far in the competition, with over
57,000 fans turning up. Those fans were rewarded with a
fantastic display of attacking football by Newcastle United, as
we scored 2 goals in the first half, and 3 in the second half.
The Davis Robson partnership upfront was too much for the Portuguese
side, with Wyn Davis scoring in the first half, and Pop Robson
getting 2 goals in the second. |
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We travelled to
Portugal for the 2nd leg 5-1 up, and after another Wyn Davis goal in
the first half made the score 1-1 at half time and 6-2 on
aggregate, we looked to have
the tie well and truly sawn up. However 2 goals in the second
half by the Portuguese gave us a slight scare but we held on to
lose 3-1 on the night but won the tie 6-4 on aggregate. |
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The might of
Glasgow Rangers stood between us and our first cup final since
1955. The first leg was up in Glasgow and was a hard fought game
as both defences proved impossible to break down. The game
finished 0-0 and we probably felt the happier of the two sides,
even though we didn't have that illusive away goal. |
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The second leg
back on Tyneside took place 4 days after our last league game of
the season, and again was a very tight affair, standing 0-0 at
half time. Over 59,000 fans had crammed into St James Park and
the entire Gallowgate End (it was used by away fans in those
days) was packed with thousands of fans who had travelled down
from Glasgow. The city had been a sea of Blue and White, with
most Rangers fans drinking in the bars and streets all day. My
Grandad who worked for British Rail at the time, said trains
rolled into Central Station all morning from Scotland with
every other fan carrying a case of beer off the train. |
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In the second half
the deadlock was finally broken by Newcastle, with a Jim Scott
goal and then a Jackie Sinclair goal finished off Rangers as we
ran out 2-0 winners. However, the game was marred in the second
half by a couple of nasty pitch invasions from the Rangers fans.
Their intension, no doubt to try and get the game abandoned and
force it to be replayed. Sadly the trouble didn't end there, as
the Rangers fans went on the rampage in the city centre after
the match smashing shop windows, burning cars and fighting with
the police. Legend has it that drunken Rangers fans could still
be seen wondering the streets of Newcastle 2 and 3 days after
the match had finished. Today in Rosies bar, which is at the top
of Stowell Street, not far from St James Park, have got framed
clippings from the Evening Chronicle on the wall, which reports
on the trouble during and after the match. I can't remember the
exact headline but it describes the violence as the worst ever
seen in Newcastle. |
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