1996-97 Season - February
Summary
After the upheaval of January it was a relatively quiet month on Tyneside.
The club were linked with a young star of the future in Robert Pires and an established star of the present in Del Piero; in the end the only new arrival was Icelandic wonder kid Bjarni Gudjonnson who arrived for a second trial.
Kitson was offloaded to West Ham and Pav's transfer request was accepted with the adopted Geordie looking for a "fresh start".
Dalglish had also been back to his old club Blackburn to recruit coach Alan Irvine.
On the field a maximum six point haul lifted us up to 3rd and kept the Magpies in touch with leaders Man United but the news that Shearer needed another groin op (his third in less than 12 months) put a dampener on things.
Meanwhile Keegan broke his silence by unconvincingly suggesting that it was "the expression on the face of Gerry Francis" (during United's hammering of Spurs) that made up his mind. "The elation of winning suddenly meant nothing" and "is never as great as the despair of losing".
He did go on to reiterate that this was not the sole reason for his departure and that he wasn't looking for another club whilst also refuting suggestions that he'd been pushed. "No one has ever pushed me anywhere I don't want to go".
Diary
| 1996/97 | 2nd Feb | Prem | Leicester [H] | Won | 4-3 [1-0] | 36,396 |
- 15 - Hislop
- 19 - Watson
- 26 - Elliot [1]
- 05 - Peacock
- 27 - Albert
- 04 - Batty
- 07 - Lee
- 11 - Asprilla
- 09 - Shearer [3]
- 10 - Ferdinand
- 18 - Gillespie
- 20 - Clark [s11]
- 14 - Ginola [s18]
Asprilla's performance against Everton earned him his first start in two months as he replaced Beardsley
It was a classic comeback as the Black and Whites stormed to victory after being 3-1 down with only a quarter of the match left to go
Robbie Elliot had given United the lead after only three minutes but United failed to build on the lead in the first half. They paid the price when sloppy defending allowed Matty Elliot (55), Claridge (60) and Heskey [69] to put The Foxes in control.
Ginola left the bench and it was the flamboyant Frenchman who was felled on the edge of the area to give Shearer a dead ball opportunity which he thumped straight in with typical aplomb [77].
Shearer then completed his first hat-trick for the club with goals in the 83rd and 92nd minutes.
The caricutare of Shearer is by the fabulously talented Mick Hollinworth. Tou can buy a full sized copy of it from his website.
| 1996/97 | 22nd Feb | Prem | M,boro [A] | Won | 1-0 [1-0] | 30,063 |
- 15 - Hislop
- 19 - Watson
- 03 - Beresford
- 05 - Peacock
- 27 - Albert
- 02 - Barton
- 07 - Lee [1]
- 08 - Beardsley
- 09 - Shearer
- 10 - Ferdinand
- 20 - Clark
United travelled to Teesside in good spirits as they prepared to take on bottom placed Boro. Warren Barton came in for the suspended Batty and Lee Clark replaced Asprilla as Dalglish adopted a more cautious approach.
Sir Les got us off to a dream start as he drilled in a cross shot off the inside of the post to send the travelling fans wild in the 8th minute.
But Dalglish's more pragmatic approach appeared to be coming to the fore as United were happy to defend their lead.
Even so it was more luck than skill that kept our clean sheet with several near misses, a brilliant goal line clearance by Peacock and a Ravenelli "goal" controversially chalked off.