An ordinary Newcastle United side that managed extraordinary things? | OneFootball

The talents of the Newcastle United team that tasted victory against Ujpest Dozsa in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup is open for debate.

Most are in agreement that the success should have been built upon, unfortunately, the opportunity was missed and the supporters’ euphoria quickly evaporated.

By 1975, Joe Harvey had given way to Gordon Lee.

History’s verdict, arguably, is that the 1969 Fairs Cup final team was an ordinary side that managed extraordinary things.

Those of us who remember, tend to gilt-edge those memories as we pass them on to subsequent generations, but let’s face it, 1969 was a missed opportunity. The Fairs Cup triumph should have been a springboard to a golden age for the Geordie Nation, instead it ushered in a long period of false dawns.

It’s fair to say that in each of the knockout rounds, including the final of the 1968-69 Fairs Cup, Newcastle United were regarded as the underdogs.

Previous to our winning year, a rampant Leeds United had beaten Ferencvaros in the 1968 final, while a season after NUFC in 1969-70, Arsenal proved to be stronger than Anderlecht.

In 1971 Don Revie led his Leeds United team to win the trophy again, this time against Juventus, which proved to be the last contested final of the then third ranked European Club Competition. The next season witnessed the inaugural UEFA Cup, with Spurs running out the winners against Wolves.

Knowing that 1971 was to be the last ever Fairs Cup, UEFA invited the three times winners Barcelona to play two time winners Leeds, Barcelona won and retain the trophy for all time.

Our triumphant Fairs Cup team started the 1968-69 tournament as rank outsiders, with Leeds the clear favourites. At the quarter-final stage, Leeds were drawn to play Ujpest Dozsa, Dozsa the victors and eventually went on to play our boys in the final.

It was a remarkable feat for The Magpies to win this cup, the win undoubtedly coming about because of the great team spirit engendered by manager Joe Harvey. Four of the team, Wynn Davies, Pop Robson, Tommy Gibb and Willie McFaul played in all 1,080 minutes of the action, while another, Frank Clark, missed only five minutes of the campaign.

The team spirit was typified by the endless running of Tommy Gibb.

Tom was born in Bathgate (Scotland). We signed him from Partick Thistle, the Jags had been reluctant to let him go, Gibbo used the argument that he needed to play to a higher standard if he was ever to play for the full Scotland Team, he never added to his one under 23 cap. The Gallowgate faithful, by and large, loved Tommy Gibb because of his workrate, one thing about Tommy was he never tried to hide, even when he was having a bad game he stood out. My greatest Gibb memory was that Eusebio moment, Tom seemed to be trapped with the ball at his feet between the corner flag and the great Portuguese International, a shoulder dipped and at the same time the elegant Tommy flicked the ball as he turned to leave Eusebio staring at the corner flag, the enigmatic Scot had gone. Tom had this in his game, if he had done it more often he would have undoubtedly joined Scottish Greats like Denis Law, Billy Bremner and Jim Baxter in the National Team. Tom’s mercurial talents took him to play for Sunderland and Hartlepool after he left The Toon.

During the 1960s and 70s it was not unusual for English teams to enjoy the services of a few Scots, this was certainly true of our Fairs Cup winners. As well as Tommy Gibb, we also enjoyed the talents of Jim Scott, John McNamee, Jackie Sinclair and one of the greatest Scots to have donned the black and white shirt, Bobby Moncur. Our tough tackling captain was hailed as one of the first exponents of the centre-back Position, before the term centre-back was used.

Bob was partnered by either John McNamee, or the Welshman Ollie Burton. Moncur not only played for his country 16 times but captained the Tartan Army as well. Born in Perthshire, Bob came to Newcastle United when he left school as a 15 year old. Notorious in that he ultimately captained every team he played for, Moncur later turned out for Sunderland and Carlisle. He mhnaged Carlisle, Hearts, Plymouth and Hartlepool. Wor Bobby has the Honour of Freedom of Gateshead.

The Fairs Cup winning squad enjoyed the inclusion of a number of North-East born players, including Alan Foggon, Keith Dyson, Frank Clark and Brian (Pop) Robson. Pop’s goals proved invaluable during the cup run. A player with undoubted ability but inconsistency, meant he only played for England once, even so he still ranks in the top ten of all time Toon goalgetters. Whisper it quietly, this Geordie hero was actually born on Wearside and enjoyed playing for West Ham, Sunderland, Chelsea, Carlisle, even Gateshead, as well as Newcastle. After an eventful playing career Robson embarked on a successful coaching career, ending up at Manchester United. Peter Beardsley tells many a tale of being coached by Pop at Carlisle when Peter was coming through the ranks.

During his early days as a Newcastle player, Robson dated and later married Maureen Heppell, she was an international table tennis player. Maureen was coached by her father Len Heppell, as well as coaching table tennis, Len was renowned for his ballroom dancing skills. Maureen’s Dad advocated that most sports like ballroom dancing and table tennis could be improved by participants learning balance techniques. His work with Pop turned heads and before long Len was training people from a lot of diverse sporting disciplines, clients included tennis star Jo Durie and boxing’s national treasure Frank Bruno.

Pop Robson’s strike partner was Wyn Davies, the big Welshman was so famous for his heading ability that he enjoyed the nickname Wyn the leap. Wynn began his career at Caernarfon and went on to play for Wrexham before catching the eye of Bolton Wanderers, it was during his spell in Lancashire that he hit national headlines, which gave him a big money transfer to Newcastle. His 34 caps for Wales would undoubtedly have been more if it hadn’t been for the equal heading ability of Ron Davies, rarely did the Welsh selectors pick them in the same team, meaning the centre-forward duties for the principality were shared between them. Wyn also distinguished himself with Manchester City, Manchester United, Blackpool, Palace, Stockport, Crewe and Bangor, before a short time in Cape Town brought the curtain down on his career.

Still regarded by many as one of the best right-backs in the club’s history, Irishman David Craig was probably the only member of the European success who could have walked into most of the our competitors’ first teams. He was renowned for his ability with the ball at his feet and his reading of the game was outstanding. He still sits among the top ten players with the most appearances for the club and he won 25 caps for Northern Ireland. David came over from Ireland when he left school as a 15 year old, Davie was a one club man and remained in the North East when his playing days came to an end.

For almost all of David Craig’s time at Newcastle he shared the full-back duties with left-back Frank Clark. Frank enjoyed appearing in the black and whites’ first team almost as many times as David. After a notable amateur playing career, even appearing in the old FA Amateur Cup final, Frank joined Joe Harvey at Newcastle (Back in 2021, Bazoox had a really good article published in The Mag about Frank Clark, entitled ‘Frankie goes to Hollywood…(well actually it was Nottingham)’ and you can read that HERE.

After a long career at St James Park, an out of contract Frank was asked to meet Brian Cough at the Scotch Corner Hotel, Brian offered Frank the left-back slot at Nottingham Forest. In the twilight of his playing days, Clarkie was instrumental in helping The Reds to win the European Cup. After Frank retired from playing, he went on to manage Orient, Forest and Manchester City. While managing Forest, Wor Frank had the distinction of selling Roy Keane to Manchester United.