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Mark Carruthers: 1994, a favourite memory as Andrew Cole breaks the record

 

One of my favourite memories of Newcastle United games is a night that a long standing record was broken at St James Park. It was in April 1994 and it was a balmy Wednesday night and I remember having to go to the game in my school uniform because I didn’t have time to go home after playing a game for my school team. All of the build up to the game with Aston Villa was about Andy Cole and if he could finally break a club record for the most goals scored in a season, a record held jointly by two clubs legends, Hughie Gallagher and George Robledo.

Villa had a weakened side out and shocked St James by taking the lead early on with a cracking goal from about twenty yards out but as was the norm under Kevin Keegan they were to be demolished by superb attacking play. Paul Bracewell equalised with an equally fantastic goal and then Peter Beardsley put us ahead with a penalty midway through the first half. Then not long before half time the moment came for Cole. As usual he was played in on goal by Beardsley and you could feel the expectation go around the ground. Cole skipped around Nigel Spink and rolled the ball into an empty net for his fourtieth goal of the season. St James Park went nuts and the electricity reverberated around the stadium followed by the "Andy Andy Cole" song, that carried on right the way through half time and into the second half.

Newcastle went on to win the game 5-1 when Beardsley got another one and Scott Sellars scored late on but the night was all about Andy Cole. I remember walking away from St James knowing I had witnessed history that night and thinking I would never forget it.

Mark Carruthers

 

Newcastle United Foundation have a heritage project for fans of all ages called Toon Times.

 

Toon Times will culminate with a major Newcastle United exhibition at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle, although in the lead up to this event Toon Times wishes to reach out to all Newcastle United fans across the North East and further afield to get involved and share their memories, experiences, photos and memorabilia what people have collected over the years.

We are supporting the project by helping to collect NUFC memories online - fans can share their memories on the Replay Football website, simply select the Toon Times tag when submitting yours.

For more info contact the Toon Times Heritage Project Coordinator, Newcastle United Foundation, gavin.ferry@nufc.co.uk

Memory added on January 23, 2014

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