Only at Newcastle United – Exactly 28 years ago, Wimbledon, Barcelona, Oasis… | OneFootball

Exactly 28 years ago today, fans left St James’ Park having watched Newcastle 1 Wimbledon 3, that game on Saturday 13 September 1997.

None of them could have predicted what was going to happen only four days later…

The midweek that followed that Wimbledon defeat was an interesting one, an upcoming midweek that had left a fair few St James’ Park regulars with a dilemma.

At the time, Oasis were the most in-demand band.

Unprecedented demand the previous year (summer 1996) when Oasis played in front of 250,000 across two shows at Knebworth, shows they could have sold out many times over.

A year later and they were just as huge, Oasis on tour and set to play Newcastle Arena in front of around 10,000 punters each of the two nights, including Wednesday 17 September 1997 when a certain Barcelona were also in Toon.

Some Newcastle United fans made a terrible choice and lived to regret it…

In the 3-1 defeat to Wimbledon exactly 28 years ago today, Kenny Dalglish selected this team:

Shay Given

Warren Barton (Temuri Ketsbiai 64)

Philippe Albert

Alessandro Pistone

Steve Watson

John Beresford

Keith Gillespie (Tino Asprilla 64)

Robert Lee

John Barnes

Jon Dahl Tomasson

Ian Rush

Four days after that defeat to Wimbledon, those who weren’t at Newcastle Arena watching Oasis, saw the ultimate rock and roll performance from the Newcastle United team at St James’ Park.

The 28th anniversary this coming Wednesday, of the final scoreline reading Newcastle 3 Barcelona 2.

Of course, it will have been 28 years and one day later since that 3-2, when on Thursday, Newcastle take on Barcelona under Eddie Howe.

Only two changes were made by Kenny Dalglish to the team that had lost to Wimbledon, David Batty and Tino Asprilla coming in for Alessandro Pistone and Ian Rush.

That Newcastle 3 Barcelona 2 night saw United line up with:

Shay Given

Warren Barton

Philippe Albert

Steve Watson

John Beresford

Keith Gillespie

Robert Lee

David Batty

John Barnes (Temuri Ketsbaia 81 mins)

Jon Dahl Tomasson (Darren Peacock 78 mins)

Tino Asprilla

I think Tino was recovering from an injury and that was why he didn’t start against Wimbledon but was ok by the time Barcelona came around. Whilst having checked back, David Batty wasn’t in the matchday squad against Wimbledon because of a red card in the previous Premier League match a 1-0 home win over Villa.

(Incidentally, does anybody know why that 1997/98 season, Newcastle’s first three Premier League matches were all at home? The first PL away game was a 1-0 away win at West Ham on 20 September 1997, six weeks after NUFC had played their first game of the season!)

It looked as though it would take a miracle to defeat Figo, De La Pena, Sonny Anderson, Sergi, Miguel, Enrique, Rivaldo and the rest.

This was a great football night never to be forgotten.

The entire team (pictured above) were brilliant against Barcelona, though you do wonder what the score would have been if Ian Rush had stayed in the team and played instead of Tino Asprilla…(and if Batty hadn’t been back to replace Pistone).

Obviously, it would be a dream to repeat that Newcastle 3 Barcelona 2 result on Thursday night. However, please no pre-Champions League freeze today when Wolves visit St James’ Park, in a match where outsiders are seeing it as all but a formality for Eddie Howe’s side to warm up for Barca with a comfortable victory over Wolves.