Fabian Schar turns air blue, Newcastle United punch thrown and players locked in dressing room
Newcastle United’s away days at Southampton have been nothing but memorable down the years
A trip to Southampton used to be enough to send a shudder down the spine for Newcastle United fans in the Premier League. The sense of doom started the day Matt Le Tissier decided to turn on the style at the old Dell with a pair of crackers as Kevin Keegan’s side were beaten 2-1.
Even an Andy Cole strike that day could not wipe away the gloom in a fixture more famous for Lee Clark and Keegan clashing angrily on the bench as the midfielder booted a bucket of water over in response to being dragged off for a poor performance.
Clark recalled in his excellent book: “KK was going to kick me out the club after the petulance of being substituted at Southampton. It was after the infamous moment when I kicked the trainer’s bucket and nearly broke my toe.”
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It wouldn’t have been the first broken bone suffered by a Newcastle man on the South Coast, but more of that later in the column! Keegan’s defeat in 1993 was followed by losses in 1995 (twice) and the former Saints star never experienced a victory as Toon boss at his old club.
In 1997, his replacement Kenny Dalglish thought he’d cracked the South Coast hoodoo but watched on in horror as Clark, of all people in the fixture, fired the Magpies 2-0 up with eight minutes left before Neil Maddison and that man Le Tissier again struck to snatch a point. A year later, Le Tissier smashed home a penalty in a 2-1 win and the run went on and on for another four seasons. Even Le Tissier’s retirement and a stadium move did not improve things for a while.
Worse still, in summer 2002, Tahar El Khalej steamed into Kieron Dyer in a 3-1 defeat and caused knee damage just days after he’d been called up to the World Cup squad by Sven-Goran Eriksson.
The rot would be stopped by Sir Bobby Robson but even that was only a draw as Craig Bellamy’s strike only yielded a 1-1 stalemate. When the FA Cup third round draw was made in 2004, there were groans on Tyneside but Sir Bobby’s side eventually claimed a 3-0 win thanks to two from Dyer and a strike from Laurent Robert.
Only the Premier League run was not finished. A 3-3 draw later in the same season resulted in a Darren Ambrose stoppage time equaliser that kept alive hopes of a European place.
But the hoodoo in the Prem was passed on to Graeme Souness. For all his failures as Newcastle boss, he managed to fire his team up to finally beat the Saints away from home in the Premier League in a 2-1 win, courtesy of a Stephen Carr thunderbolt at St Mary’s. It would be the last time the two teams met in the Premier League for seven years.
