Newcastle 3 Liverpool 0 and no more false dawns | OneFootball

On a freezing cold day at St James’ Park on the 21st November 1993, Toon fans were rocking after an Andy Cole first half hat-trick produced a scoreline of Newcastle 3 Liverpool 0.

Newcastle had skimmed through Liverpool’s defence like a knife through butter,.

Andy Cole’s goals were served up on a plate by Rob Lee and Scott Sellars inside the first half hour.

In that first season in the Premier League, Newcastle United had taken the division by storm and this result felt like we had really put a marker down and truly arrived.

In the Three Bulls and the Percy afterwards, it was mental with delirious Geordies.

When things began to calm down I remember commenting to my mates that it had all seemed a little bit surreal and too easy.

That I also thought that Bruce Grobbelaar’s positioning for Cole’s goals and his attempts to stop them had been atrociously pathetic.

However, Newcastle had won again and the Entertainers had been well and truly born, so at the time who cared?

In 1994, news of an alleged fixing scandal in the Premier League broke and Bruce Grobbelaar was one of the players accused.

Grobbelaar had joined Southampton a few months after his Gallowgate horror show.

Five games that he had played in (three whist with Liverpool) had come under intense scrutiny, in particular, that Newcastle 3 Liverpool 0 match the previous year.

A series of court cases ended up with match fixing not proved but due to dishonesty having been shown on Grobbelaar’s part, he ended up bankrupt after a libel case which ended with him awarded only £1 and having to pay The Sun newspaper’s court costs.

Over 30 years have passed since our emphatic and subsequently controversial victory over the red scousers.

We actually did the double over Liverpool that season when we beat them again, 2-0 at Anfield in April 1994. Rob Lee and who else but Andy Cole inflicted the damage. David James kept goal for the reds.

Newcastle United haven’t won down there in the Premier League since, although we have bloodied their noses a few times at St James’ Park down the years.

The 4-3 in 1996 is still painful after all these years and if there is one team above all others among the Septics I want to stick it up in the next few years, it is most definitely Liverpool.

With FFP / PSR, Newcastle United as it currently stands are going to have to do it all by the book, fair and square so to speak.

It is going to be much harder for us than it was for Chelsea and Manchester City to gatecrash the Premier League cartel, headed by Liverpool and Manchester United.

However, I firmly believe that Newcastle United will eventually succeed and we’ll become so good this time that we won’t need the help of any dodgy keepers as we sweep all before us.

This isn’t going to be another false dawn like in the 90s.