N64 Scenario Mode : Part One – Newcastle United 3-1 Down | OneFootball

Growing up, I used to love my N64 – whiling away the school holidays playing all kinds of games with friends and family seemed a fine use of time to the eleven-year-old version of myself.

Of particular interest was the first game Santa ever brought me on Christmas Day 1997 – International Superstar Soccer. The concept of the game was relatively simple: choose an international team to play as, qualify for the world cup then try to win the whole thing before your Mum shouts through that tea is on the table.

My favorite minigame however was ‘Scenario Mode’ where you were given tasks of varying difficulties to complete part way through a match. Some would be fairly simple (hold on to a lead or draw a match that is 0-0 with ten minutes to play etc) whereas some would be genuinely rock solid (score twice in the last five minutes to take the tie into extra time when you’ve already had a man sent off).

A difficult scenario would be to come from 3-1 down near the end to win. Tough but not impossible you may think, especially with a little bit of skill, a lot of luck and some of that good old fashioned drama that us football fans love so much.

Let’s apply the above scenario to some memorable Newcastle United matches over the years and see if we managed to achieve our objective.

Scenario – 3-1 down near the end of the match.

Objective – Win the match within ninety minutes.

2.2.97 Leicester City (home)

Ahead at half-time through an early strike from Robbie Elliot, United’s fans and players found themselves stunned when goals from Matt Elliott, Steve Claridge and Emile Heskey gave Leicester City a 3-1 lead with just twenty three minutes left to play.

Alan Shearer stepped up in the seventy seventh minute to smash home a free kick that simply flew past the goalkeeper.

With the game now on, a huge shift in momentum saw a black and white onslaught on the Leicester goal that couldn’t be repelled, first Mr Shearer squeezed an effort into the far corner of the net before a series of one touch passes ended up with him tapping home his third in injury time. This was his first hat-trick for the club and was celebrated long into the night.

Outcome – Objective complete, Newcastle 4-3 Leicester.

10.3.97 Liverpool (away)

A dreadful first half performance saw United punished three times as Liverpool hammered Newcastle United to leave us 3-0 down at the break and facing a mountain to climb to even salvage a point.

The second half wasn’t showing much of an improvement until Keith Gillespie’s speculative effort was fumbled into the net by David James with just twenty minutes to play.

David Ginola picked the ball up inside his own half in the eighty seventh minute and played an incredible seventy yard pass through to Tino Aprilla who allowed the ball to bounce before lobbing the ‘keeper with a superb strike that had the away fans behind the goal dreaming of snatching a point. Only a minute later, Tino was up to his tricks again causing chaos in a goalmouth scramble and laying the ball off to Warren Barton to slide home levelling a tie that seemed dead and buried just moments earlier.

At 3-3 and with Liverpool all over the place, the scene was set for one of NUFC’s most famous away day victories. Unfortunately Robbie Fowler had other ideas and scored an injury time header to condemn United to our second successive 4-3 Anfield reverse.

Devastating!

Outcome – Objective failed, Liverpool 4-3 Newcastle.

22.12.01 Leeds (away)

Newcastle were absolutely bouncing going into this one having come from behind just a few days earlier to humble Arsenal 3-1 at Highbury and go top of the league.

We started this match in the same vein and took a deserved lead through a Craig Bellamy strike after an excellent team move. Lee Bowyer scored an equaliser before half time and second half efforts from Viduka and Hart looked to have settled the match in Leeds’ favour. The score was 3-1 with half an hour left.

Kieron Dyer, having one of his best games for the club, brought a fine save from the Leeds keeper but Robbie Elliott was on hand to score the rebound with a diving header, reducing the arrears. When Alan Shearer equalised through a seventy first minute penalty the away end was in ecstasy and ready to celebrate more than Christmas, should NUFC find a dramatic winner.

Nobby Solano obliged in the final seconds and one of the most memorable matches in our history was sealed. United spent Christmas at the top of the league, happy memories of a fantastic time to be alive.

Outcome – Objective complete, Leeds 3-4 Newcastle.

3.11.08 Portsmouth (home)

Newcastle were absolutely blown away by three Portsmouth goals in an astonishing one-hundred-and-one second period at the start of the match leaving the score 0-3 after just eleven minutes. We did pull one back when Michael Owen forced Sol Campbell into an own goal but this hardly inspired much confidence in Sam Allardyce’s ability to engineer a comeback. With just twenty minutes remaining, United once again found themselves trailing 3-1.

A free-kick to Portsmouth at the Leazes End in the 71st minute settled matters when it went in off Steven Taylor’s knee. A bad day at the office for everyone concerned.

Outcome – Objective failed, Newcastle 1-4 Portsmouth

28.09.16 Norwich City (Home)

Newcastle United absolutely hammered their opponents for the first half of this crucial championship encounter but found themselves level at half-time due to a soft penalty conceded on exactly forty five minutes.

The second half started disastrously with two goals for Norwich leaving United 3-1 down and staring defeat in the face.

With nineteen minutes left to play, Jonjo Shelvey played a perfect pass from inside his own half through to Dwight Gayle to give the Toon a toehold in the match. It looked like all our efforts would be in vain when a twenty minute onslaught failed to bring about an equaliser.

In the fourth minute of injury time however, Gouffran buried a header to bring the teams level and two minutes later, Dwight Gayle danced through a group of defenders to slam home a simply glorious strike to win the match and send the stadium into raptures. Tremendous!

Outcome – Objective complete, Newcastle 4-3 Norwich

30.3.24 West Ham (home)

Most recently of all, Toon hosted West Ham and scored an early penalty through Isak to take the lead. The Hammers however hit back and led 2-1 at half time. Another goal early in the second half put West Ham fully in control and that’s how the score remained until the seventy seventh minute.

Isak scored another penalty with only thirteen minutes to play and belief began to whip round the stadium. Harvey Barnes had already forced a fine save from the West Ham ‘keeper and when he was played through by Isak, made no mistake to slot home the equaliser.

As the clock ticked towards the ninety minute mark, Barnes repeated the trick by scoring an even better goal, belting the ball into the back of the net to secure a fantastic win in one of the highlights of the season.

Outcome – Objective complete, Newcastle 4-3 West Ham

IMAGO/News Images

It’s safe to say Newcastle United never do things the easy way.

The scenario of being 3-1 down near the end of the match has led to some epic conclusions and moments of pure delight from both those in the stadium, as well as the ones watching at home.

Thankfully the above matches have brought more joy than tears for those of a black and white persuasion.

Will that be the case in part two when we take a look at how United have fared from being 2-0 rather than 3-1 down?