When Newcastle United come to town you can usually bank on a few goals and spectacular ones at that.
Its hard to believe but its over eight years since Newcastle last visited us, we did play them in the FA Cup back in 2006, but that was up at St James Park and we havent had their pleasure down here since they came and beat us 2-1 in September 2004 which was ironically their first victory on Saints soil since February 1972 when they beat us by the same score.
In that 33 year period Saints fans relished the Geordies coming down here, not only would we usually beat them, but it always seemed to be a game that saw goals and spectacular ones at that but more than that there always seemed to be something a little out of the ordinary each time.
The 1973/74 game for instance doesnt look to interesting on paper apart from the 3-1 win for us, but it was played in the middle of the energy crisis and therefore the Dell's floodlights were powered by a generator hired for the purpose rather than from the national grid which could have been switched off at any time with power cuts common.
It was also the last game we would play Newcastle in for over a decade with Saints bypassing the Geordies in 1978 as we came back up and they were relegated.
The opening game of season 85/86 was in many respects unspectacular, but the 1-1 draw had many things surrounding it, it was the first game in charge for new manager Chris Nichol, the pitch was damaged pre game by a pyrotechnics display that went wrong, leaving a scorched patch in the middle and oh yes a certain Paul Gascoigne made his debut for the visitors.
The following season was a cracker, 4-1 to Saints with a Colin Clarke hat trick, but a sublime goal from Mark Dennis, but it would be the 88/89 meeting at the Dell that would sttick in the memories of those who were around in the eighties.
Newcastle arrived in April 1989 desperately fighting relegation, Saints had been on a slide down the table on a run that had seen them not win a game since the 12th of November and had slipped from 3rd place to 18th, the tension in the Dell could be cut with a knife, it was 0-0 in the final minute when Rod Wallace went for a through ball, the Newcastle keeper came out and Wallace went down in a way that although common now was a rareity back then, Newcastle disputed it hotly but the referee pointed to the spot, problem was Saints regular taker Derek Statham was out, Le Tissier who had yet to take a penalty anyway was not on the pitch, so everyone was looking around, up stepped Neil Ruddock in only his sixth game for the club and with not much more played for Millwall and Spurs before, coolly he banged it home, the crowd went mad and the Ruddock Stomp was born, Saints stayed up with ease Newcastle went down.
Newcastle would return in October 1993 for the start of what would be Le Tiss's golden period against them, the game live on Sky saw protests against Ian Branfoot who perhaps because of this had picked Le God after leaving him out for three games for Paul Moody and not even using him off the bench, for an hour the game looked deadlocked and you could see Branfoot itching to drag Matt off having in his eyes proved his point, then came the show, Le Tiss opened the scoring with a well taken goal, but the drama and the best was yet to come, on 88 minutes with the score at 1-1 he controlled the ball 20 yards out on his thigh, turned and hit a dipping volley to win the game, legend has it that apart from 1,800 Geordies the only other man who didnt move was Mike Hooper in the Newcastle goal, oh and Ian Branfoot.
But 18 months later the game would perhaps be even more charged, in a feeling of deja vu perhaps of 88/89, on 22nd March Saints had won only one game since the 10th October and had once again slipped down the table into the relegation spots, this time though Newcastle were up looking for a place in Europe so this was a toughie, with less than five minutes to go the home side were 1-0 down and didnt look like equalising, people were starting to leave the ground when all of a sudden Saints sparked into life, firstly Neil Heaney prodded home when Srnicek failed to hold Watson's header, it looked like Saints might have rescued a point but there was more, Srnicek dropped a cross and in injury time Gordon Watson himself tucked it home and Newcastle's misery was complete when Neil Shipperley tucked home yet another goalkeeping fumble and like six years earlier Saints never looked back.
January 97 saw another comeback, the Geordies were 2-0 up this time at the Dell with a minute left, cue a grandstand finish with firstly Neil Madison and then a 25 yard blockbuster in injury time from Le Tiss to rescue a point, vital in that without it we would have gone down at the end of the season.
Newcastle luck initially didnt change with the move to St Mary's, they arrived on the final day of the first season, Saints fans arrived with Le Tissier on the bench hoping to mark his retirment with a farewell and the promise he would if the situation merited it, sadly it was not to be as El Khalej's foul on Dyer meant that Saints spent most of the second half down to ten men, with the game tight at 2-1 to Saints that meant WGS had to be cautious and couldnt risk Le Tiss, Saints held on and a Paul Telfer goal in the final minute made it safe.
Another classic was May 2004 a patched up Saints team with youngster Alan Blayney in goal faced the might of the Toon, it was a cracker punctuated by a wonder save from Blayney, Newcastle took the lead twice only to be quickly pegged back by Saints, going into the final couple of minutes Saints looked to have snatched a win courtesy of Leandre Griffit, but then in injury time Darren Amrose rescued a point for the visitors.
Sadly our last meeting at home in September 2004 was a damp squid from our point of view but for them the hoodoo was broken, our task now is having gone eight years without losing at home to them, we have to add another 25 as we did back then in the 70's, hopefully we can do it by playing them year in year out in the Premier rather than by default as we have managed in these last eight.