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Modern Magpies 1991/92: Sir John And King Kev
BACK in the season 1991-92, the former Spurs and Argentinean World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles was finding it hard to come to terms with the pressure of rebuilding an ailing Newcastle United having taken over from Jim Smith as boss.
They had Newcastle slumped to bottom of the Second Division table for only the fourth time in their history. Ardiles had to do something special to halt a slide that was sending Newcastle United into Division Three in what was their official Centenary Year. At the same time, actions off the football field were creating headlines with Sir John Hall's Magpie Group making a sustained bid to control the club.
Sir John Hall, the Tyneside entrepreneur and property developer, eventually gained part control of the Magpies which resulted in a boardroom restructuring in November 1991. However, at the very first meeting of the new management, United fans witnessed a shock coup. It was a move that came about because of the horrendous economic plight of the club.
Sir John noted, "We are haemorrhaging money at the rate of between £600,000 and £700,000 a year in interest charges. The financial position is such that we have reached a point where I couldn't sit on the sidelines any longer". United's worsening position needed drastic action, and very quickly.
Newcastle needed Sir John's financial muscle and business acumen. He took on the biggest challenge of his life, to transform United into the one of football's super-clubs with his enterprise and drive. In the coming months the Cameron Hall empire would overhaul the club from top to bottom. He was one step away from a complete take-over and rebirth of the Magpies.
For the next few months a power struggle developed as the old regime battled to counter Sir John's dynamism. Eventually the Magpie Group succeeded, and Newcastle United never looked back.
In the dressing-room Ardiles had little to offer in attempting to reverse his side's flagging fortunes. The board recognised they had to make a change and rapidly to have any chance of saving the club from relegation.
Following a low point in an away fixture against Oxford during February 1992, a game in which the black'n'whites lost 5-2, Ardiles was sacked and immediately replaced by Kevin Keegan - out of football since leaving the Magpies back in 1984.
When Keegan took over at St James Park it was a sensational appointment which captured the whole nation's imagination. Installed as a consultant-manager until the end of the season, he had one job - to save the club from relegation. Failure would almost certainly result in the club going under. That was unthinkable, but a real possibility.
The former England skipper inspired his players and by the time of the do-or-die confrontation took place at Filbert Street, Leicester at the end of the season, United had been on a roller-coaster of emotions as they fought against the drop.
Keegan used all his motivating skills to gee up his team for the final contest against promotion chasing Leicester. He noted, "We need a result, but we'll get it, survive and take-off". And Newcastle did exactly what the manager predicted.
In a white-hot atmosphere Gavin Peacock gave United a first-half lead, but Leicester rallied and grabbed a late equaliser to the agony of the massed United support. However Peacock was always a menace and Newcastle immediately hit-back in the dying minutes as United's star-man forced defender Steve Walsh into an injury time own-goal to give the Magpies a deserved 2-1 victory.
Three points which guaranteed Second Division football and with it, the Magpies' future. United's triumph in adversity was the turning point in Newcastle's fortunes.
Season 1991-92
(Old) Division Two
Pos Pld W D L F A Pts
20th 46 13 20 8 66 84 52
FA Cup: R3
League Cup: R3
Top scorer: Peacock 20
Avg Attn: 20,748
They had Newcastle slumped to bottom of the Second Division table for only the fourth time in their history. Ardiles had to do something special to halt a slide that was sending Newcastle United into Division Three in what was their official Centenary Year. At the same time, actions off the football field were creating headlines with Sir John Hall's Magpie Group making a sustained bid to control the club.
Sir John Hall, the Tyneside entrepreneur and property developer, eventually gained part control of the Magpies which resulted in a boardroom restructuring in November 1991. However, at the very first meeting of the new management, United fans witnessed a shock coup. It was a move that came about because of the horrendous economic plight of the club.
Sir John noted, "We are haemorrhaging money at the rate of between £600,000 and £700,000 a year in interest charges. The financial position is such that we have reached a point where I couldn't sit on the sidelines any longer". United's worsening position needed drastic action, and very quickly.
Newcastle needed Sir John's financial muscle and business acumen. He took on the biggest challenge of his life, to transform United into the one of football's super-clubs with his enterprise and drive. In the coming months the Cameron Hall empire would overhaul the club from top to bottom. He was one step away from a complete take-over and rebirth of the Magpies.
For the next few months a power struggle developed as the old regime battled to counter Sir John's dynamism. Eventually the Magpie Group succeeded, and Newcastle United never looked back.
In the dressing-room Ardiles had little to offer in attempting to reverse his side's flagging fortunes. The board recognised they had to make a change and rapidly to have any chance of saving the club from relegation.
Following a low point in an away fixture against Oxford during February 1992, a game in which the black'n'whites lost 5-2, Ardiles was sacked and immediately replaced by Kevin Keegan - out of football since leaving the Magpies back in 1984.
When Keegan took over at St James Park it was a sensational appointment which captured the whole nation's imagination. Installed as a consultant-manager until the end of the season, he had one job - to save the club from relegation. Failure would almost certainly result in the club going under. That was unthinkable, but a real possibility.
The former England skipper inspired his players and by the time of the do-or-die confrontation took place at Filbert Street, Leicester at the end of the season, United had been on a roller-coaster of emotions as they fought against the drop.
Keegan used all his motivating skills to gee up his team for the final contest against promotion chasing Leicester. He noted, "We need a result, but we'll get it, survive and take-off". And Newcastle did exactly what the manager predicted.
In a white-hot atmosphere Gavin Peacock gave United a first-half lead, but Leicester rallied and grabbed a late equaliser to the agony of the massed United support. However Peacock was always a menace and Newcastle immediately hit-back in the dying minutes as United's star-man forced defender Steve Walsh into an injury time own-goal to give the Magpies a deserved 2-1 victory.
Three points which guaranteed Second Division football and with it, the Magpies' future. United's triumph in adversity was the turning point in Newcastle's fortunes.
Season 1991-92
(Old) Division Two
Pos Pld W D L F A Pts
20th 46 13 20 8 66 84 52
FA Cup: R3
League Cup: R3
Top scorer: Peacock 20
Avg Attn: 20,748
© Paul Joannou, Club Historian to Newcastle United FC
