With 13,000 travelling fans, Spurs 1 Newcastle 0 is easy to remember – NUFC 1987 FA Cup | OneFootball

With the League Cup semi-final out of the way, it’s Birmingham City in the FA Cup next, so I thought I’d whet the appetite by taking a nostalgic look back at a previous campaign, the one of 1987.

Such was the disappointment of supporting Newcastle United in the late 70s and early 80s, the fact we progressed to the last sixteen of the 1987 Challenge Cup competition seemed like quite an achievement at the time.

That mini cup run was played out against a sorry set of results in League Division One, with five consecutive defeats preceding the arrival of Fourth Division Northampton Town on 21 January 1987.

The fixture had been postponed because of snowy conditions earlier in the month and although that put paid to the 5,000 or so expected from Northants for the game originally scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday 10 January, a very respectable 2,000 Cobblers fans still made the trek north on what was a bitterly cold Wednesday evening.

Whilst Northampton were in the fourth tier, they would go on to lift the title, so weren’t to be taken for granted.

Despite them falling behind to a Paul Goddard strike in the third minute, they gamely held out, managing to equalise after 67 minutes, although their naivety showed when Andy Thomas restored United’s lead a minute later as the away fans were still celebrating.

So 2-1 it finished and next up were Preston North End, another home tie for the Magpies, also against Fourth Division opposition and another club that would gain promotion from the fourth tier at the end of the season.

This one took place on 31 January and despite the cold conditions lingering, the Preston fans filled the entire Leazes End, as well as a block of seats in the East Stand, a tremendous turnout from a club whose glory days were well and truly behind them.

At the time, not many clubs brought as many fans as Preston did that day. I’m not sure whether it was because fewer fans in general travelled to away fixtures (one of the exceptions being Newcastle United of course) or whether it was because Tyneside was such an outpost. Perhaps above all else, it was due to the city centre being, shall we say, a little less hospitable back then to football fans from foreign climes.

At the time, one of the few clubs that travelled in numbers to St James’ Park was Chelsea and there were some memorable days in the 1980s when they were in town. I can also recall Sheffield Wednesday, Manchester City, Leeds United and Huddersfield filling most, if not all of the Leazes End, but that was about it.

I don’t recall the more successful clubs of that era, such as Arsenal, Liverpool or Everton bringing that many fans, and the only time I can recall Manchester United turning out in numbers was for an FA Cup tie the following season.

Despite their sizeable backing, Preston were put to the sword. Glenn Roeder scored our opener just after the hour mark and Paul Goddard added the second. During that 1986/87 campaign, Goddard was instrumental in Newcastle United retaining its top flight status, the shrewd acquisition from West Ham scoring in seven consecutive games during March and April.

When the fifth round draw was made, it was Tottenham away.

Perhaps typical of Newcastle United is that despite Spurs being in contention for the First Division title, they failed to beat us in the league, but in the game that really mattered, the toon narrowly lost, a Clive Allen penalty edging Spurs into the last eight on a day when the toon acquitted themselves really well.

Many estimates reckon the Geordie contingent accounted for at least one third of the 38,000 in attendance and we were caged in like sardines behind the goal (see video below, NUFC fans behind goal compared to other areas of terracing in the stadium), before someone had the good sense to open one of the gates in the perimeter fence and slightly alleviate the pressure that was quite obviously building.

Whoever had the presence of mind to spring open the gate where I was standing, quite clearly managed to avoid a quite serious turn of events unfolding, unlike those in charge of crowd control at Hillsborough just over a year later.

After coming through the gate, I can still recall standing ankle deep in gunge on the cinder track at the edge of the White Hart Lane pitch, my brand new Adidas jeans trainers ruined.

To add insult to injury, those who had made it from the terracing behind the goal, were led to the paddock area below Tottenham’s infamous Shelf, where the Spurs fans gleefully rained missiles down on us. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire, although being pelted with coins and other projectiles was in hindsight, infinitely better than the alternative.

Afterwards, there was serious disorder on the streets outside and I nearly came a cropper on my way to Seven Sisters tube station after being separated from my mates, but that’s another story.

Having made it safely back to King’s Cross to board the football special back to Newcastle, the sad realisation that our flirtation with the FA Cup was over for another year dawned, but it was the first time in over a decade we’d got that far, a feat we went on the emulate the following season.

As for Tottenham, they went on to beat Wimbledon and Watford on their way to the Final, before losing an epic encounter against Coventry City.

Despite all of Spurs’ opponents finishing above us in the league, it was still a case of most toon fans left wondering what if, had we somehow managed to beat them that February afternoon.