In honour of our last game of the season away to QPR this weekend, I thought it would be fitting for my second ‘Remember When’ to be a quite remarkable game at Loftus Road from the 1980s.
QPR 5 – 5 NEWCASTLE UNITED
Date: Saturday 22nd September 1984
Venue: Loftus Road
Newcastle team:
Kevin Carr (GK), Malcolm Brown, Wes Saunders, John Anderson, Glenn Roeder, Peter Haddock, Neil McDonald, David McCreery, Kenny Wharton, Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle
On Saturday 22nd September 1984 newly promoted Newcastle United travelled to Loftus Road to play Queens Park Rangers for their 7th game of the season in Division One.
After winning their opening three games Jack Charlton’s side had lost their next three, which forced Charlton to play a more defensive formation in this game. Newcastle line-up with five defenders in Brown, Saunders, Anderson, Roeder and Haddock, three in midfield with McDonald, McCreery and Wharton, and Beardsley in hole behind lone striker Waddle.
Three minutes into the game and Newcastle took the lead through a McDonald header after a fine run and cross from Chrissy Waddle. Waddle doubled the Toon’s lead on 17 minutes when he ran into the box and rounded the keeper to cooly slot the ball home from an acute angle.
Five minutes later and Newcastle were 0-3 up. From a Roeder free-kick a deflected Wharton shot hit the post and rebounded to Waddle who calmly tapped the ball home.
With four minutes remaining in the first-half Waddle got his hattrick, picking up the ball just outside the area he then curled a brilliant strike into the top corner.
0-4 at half-time and the plastic pitch hoodoo looked a lifetime ago.
Four minutes into the second half and QPR pulled a goal back through Gary Bannister and then an unfortunate own goal by Wharton got the home side back into the game.
John Gregory made it 3-4 on the 74 minutes as QPR threatened a remarkable comeback.
However, with six minutes remaining Newcastle seemed to finish the game off with a goal to make it 3-5. Beardsley played a long ball down the right wing to Waddle who crossed for Wharton to slot home from three yards out. Cue chants of ‘You’re not singing any more’ from the travelling Toon Army.
QPR wont done yet though, Steve Wicks headed in a goal from a free-kick and then with 90 minutes on the clock some poor Newcastle defending (where have we heard that before!) allowed Gary Micklewhite into the box and he cooly lifted the ball over Kevin Carr in goal to level the scores at 5-5.
Manager Jack Charlton didn’t mix his words after the game, he said:
“Saturdays game was a total embarrassment, absolutely diabolical. I have never seen anything like it in my 32 years in the game. I went mad at the players because there were times when they were going to give me a heart attack. They just stopped playing”
A classic game that went down in Newcastle folklore for all the wrong reason. I remember listening to the game on the radio at Grandparents house and as a 9 year old I couldn’t quite understand how we managed to blow a 0-4 and a 3-5 lead.
On YouTube you can watch nearly 50 minutes of highlights of the game in five parts, so if you are old enough to remember this game like me, or you want to see some classic footage of Newcastle in the 80s, then this is well worth a watch. The chanting of the Toon Army can be heard very loud and clear throughout the match, the standard of football may not be the greatest but the performance from Chrissy Waddle is a classic.
Part One: – Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five
Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army
