David Ginola the pantomime villain – All Newcastle United needed were two signings… | OneFootball

There’s no denying that the 2000/01 season was a strange one for Newcastle United.

On the plus side, St James’ Park had increased its capacity to over fifty two thousand seats to become the second biggest in the country (whilst Wembley was being rebuilt).

No side from the top six of the Premier League that season would come away from our new-look stadium with all three points, as we racked up wins against Liverpool, Leeds and Ipswich, as well as draws with Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Not so good was the fact that we went out of both domestic cups early on and had a stop-start league campaign that led to our fourth mid-table finish in a row.

It was safe to say that in the build up to the last match (19 May 2001) of the season, not many Newcastle United fans expected Aston Villa to be such accommodating guests, especially as they’d already knocked United out of the FA cup and were currently on an eleven-match unbeaten run in the league that had fired them towards a fairly impressive eighth place finish and a potential crack at European qualification through the Intertoto Cup.

Pre-match talk was dominated by who would win the midfield battle, Former hero David Ginola was hoping to torment his previous employers whilst Nobby Solano was looking to continue his fine form against the Villains, having already scored against them in both the league and cup earlier in the season. One of them would prove to be the match-winner on a day when everything went right for the black and whites.

Sir Bobby Robson spoke of the importance of finishing the season on a high note and Newcastle United, attacking the Gallowgate, certainly started the match like they had a point to prove. With only nine minutes on the clock, Solano picked the ball up on the right wing and had just one thing on his mind, get the ball into the danger zone. Unfortunately, Carl Cort stumbled when trying to attack this perfect cross into the box, but thankfully Steven Glass was on hand to steam in at the back post and thump a low effort into the bottom corner to give United the lead. This was another impressive strike for Glass who’d already netted fine efforts against both Derby County and Manchester United earlier on in the season.

The Toon fans had barely finished celebrating when Nobby was up to his tricks once again, collecting the ball on the right after a clever pass out of defence from Dabizas and sending over another brilliant cross that was just begging to be finished. Villa Goalkeeper David James flapped at the ball and Carl Cort made no mistake this time around, smashing a Les Ferdinand-esque header into the back of the net to put the Toon 2-0 up with only thirteen minutes gone.

With United cruising and Villa all over the place, there was an air of jubilation as St James’ Park basked in the May sunshine.

Whilst Toon fans settled down and hoped for a goal-fest, NUFC decided to instead take their foot off the pedal and seemed content to comfortably knock the ball around, safe in the knowledge that Villa were causing no problems whatsoever for the black and whites due to a complete lack of attacking threat.

In the absence of further first-half goalmouth action, Newcastle United fans delighted themselves by ridiculing former legend David Ginola at every opportunity. The wing wizard had previously provided us with plenty of happy memories whilst strutting his stuff on the St James’ Park turf in the mid-nineties but was experiencing something of an off-day having been on the receiving end of one or two tough tackles early on. In addition, every touch of his was met with boos, jeers and catcalls, which hardly seemed to be improving his mood.

The frustration got too much for wor Daveed and he picked up a silly booking for dissent in the forty third minute. Much worse was to follow – on the stroke of half-time his day went from bad to worse as Aston Villa manager John Gregory decided to completely humiliate Ginola, subbing him off before the half-time whistle.

This was a hugely painful moment for the Frenchman as he slowly trudged off the pitch whilst being mocked by fifty thousand fans who by now were having a whale of a time waving him Au Revoir. He unleashed a string of expletives in the direction of his manager before ripping his shirt off, hurling it to the ground and storming down the tunnel. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the away dressing room during that fifteen minute interval!

The second half continued in a similar vein to the first, with United clearly on top despite not creating any gilt-edged chances. The fans continued to enjoy their day and created a fantastic atmosphere throughout. Kevin Gallagher, playing his last game for the club, was given a tremendous reception when subbed off for Ameobi in the seventy first minute and looked genuinely emotional as a result. He’d been a great servant to the club since becoming Sir Bobby’s first signing and the renditions of ‘One Kevin Gallagher’ were genuinely heartfelt as he left the field close to tears.

With just fifteen minutes left, Shola Ameobi twisted and turned in the area, beat his man and sent the ball across goal. Goalkeeper James and defender Delaney summed up Villa’s afternoon by getting into a muddle and forcing the ball into their own net to put the gloss on the final score and ensure NUFC’s biggest win of the season.

There was just enough time for one more incident of note, Gary Speed and Ian Taylor got into a minor tete-a-tete that was almost approaching a scuffle and the unimpressed referee promptly sent the pair of them off. Sir Bobby felt this was a tad unnecessary with only seven minutes of the season remaining and was successful in an appeal, meaning that our Welsh Dragon didn’t have to miss the first three games of the next campaign. The FA agreeing that yellow cards would have sufficed rather than straight reds apiece.

At the end of the match, Toon fans spilled out of St James’ Park singing songs, not only celebrating one of the best wins of the season but also the fact that their Mackem counterparts had just failed to qualify for the Uefa Cup with a few chants dedicated to where they were now welcome to shove their passports!

All in all, this was a day of high merriment and a great afternoon to be a Toon fan, despite a last minute Southampton goal against Arsenal depriving NUFC of a top-half finish, meaning we’d have to be content with eleventh rather than tenth place in the Premier League. This cost us almost half a million in prize money and meant that we’d have to wait for the second page of the league table on Ceefax (ask your parents if you’re lucky enough to be too young to know what that means).

Issue 148 – August 2001

Sir Bobby Robson stayed behind to applaud the fans and, when interviewed, said that he felt two new signings and some better luck with injuries could see Newcastle United challenging for Europe the following season.

Not for the first or last time, he was proved right, as the acquisitions of Bellamy and Robert for a combined sixteen million pounds (a fairly princely sum in those days) helped fire United to the top four and a place in the champions league.

Big things were happening at Newcastle United and Sir Bobby was gearing up for a genuine tilt at the title. Magnifique!