December 28 – Magnificent Seven | On This Football Day

December 28 – Magnificent Seven

CHRISTMAS time means one thing to TV schedulers: re-runs of classic movies you have seen hundreds of times already yet are strangely drawn to every time they come on. Here at OTFD we are looking at an old classic as well, but in our Magnificent Seven, Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson are nowhere to be seen. Instead the heroes are Kevin Keegan, Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand.

After the massive disappointment of losing out on the most famous title battle in years in 1996, Keegan decided to cheer himself and the Geordie nation up by buying their most famous son: Alan Shearer. A record £15m move in the summer led everyone to believe a major assault on the title would follow. By Christmas however, things were not looking so good. Newcastle were on a bad run having not won for seven league games and also having been knocked out of the League Cup by wannabe rivals Middlesbrough. They were sixth in the table, eight points behind the leaders Liverpool today in 1996 when they took on Tottenham at St James’ Park. The Toon supporters were probably fearing the worst when they turned up given their poor form, but as always with Newcastle and KK, expect the unexpected.

Spurs meanwhile were being characteristically inconsistent under Gerry Francis and sat ninth in the league as they laboured on towards yet another mid-table finish, although Gerry might have been thinking it was a good time to visit St James’ Park.

The first 20 minutes of the match were dire, with David Ginola missing for Newcastle and Chris Armstrong and Darren Anderton (surprise surprise) out for Spurs, the game struggled to get going and nothing happened to get the fans excited.

Typically it fell to Alan Shearer to rouse his team and the crowd. After one chance which flew over the bar, he made sure with his second when he fired in a stunning volley into the top corner under heavy pressure from the Spurs’ defence. They were up and running, and save for one chance for Sheringham moments later, Spurs chances of getting anything from the game were over.

Les Ferdinand soon added a second as the Tottenham defence showed worrying signs of fallibility. Newcastle went in two up at the break, but in typical KK style had no intention of sitting back on their lead.

Shearer could have got a third soon after the restart but his volley flashed wide, as did a header from the big man a few moments later. Spurs were all over the place and suddenly David Batty and Rob Lee had acres of space in the midfield to supply the front men. Ferdinand added a third before Lee decided to go himself and scored a low shot that put the home side 4-0 up.

Soon it was getting ridiculous and Newcastle centre half Phillipe Albert found himself totally unmarked on the left hand side of Spurs box. His shot was not the best but Ian Walker could not save it and the Magpies had a fifth.

Shearer and Rob Lee added the sixth and magnificent seventh goals to cpmplete a rout for the home side that was trademark Keegan. It would not be trademark KK without some dodgy defending and Spurs did manage a consolation goal when Nielsen pulled one back with just minutes left to play. There was still time for a missed chance for Shearer to claim his hat-trick before the referee put Tottenham out of their misery and blew the whistle.

The home fans were jubilant but their usually emotive manager refused to celebrate which was a clue to the mental state of the emotional KK. After just two more matches Keegan shocked Tyneside by resigning, and the KK dream was over. He never did win them any trophies but he was loved by the Toon fans precisely because of days like this.

Have a look at all the goals below and check this out to read about a genuine goal-fest from this day in football history.