When Newcastle take on Manchester City this evening, it will be 9,275 days since they last left the blue half of Manchester with a league victory.
You have to go back in time more than twenty-five years to find the last time The Magpies took all three points away to City, on September 30th, 2000.
Robson’s revolution
Newcastle came into the 2000/2001 season full of momentum under Bobby Robson.
The former England manager had rescued The Magpies a season earlier, replacing Ruud Gullit after THAT derby defeat to Sunderland and guiding United from the relegation zone to a respectable eleventh-placed finish.
The arrival of Robson to St. James’ galvanised fans and players alike, none more so than Alan Shearer.
The Geordie icon was famously left on the bench in that rain-soaked derby defeat that saw an end to Gullit’s year-long reign as Magpies boss. Tensions between the pair had grown to the point that Shearer was considering leaving his boyhood club.
“If Ruud had stayed at Newcastle then I would have had to leave.”
Alan Shearer, 2015
But under Robson, Shearer went on to net 30 goals in all competitions during the 99/00 season, including 5 goals in Bobby’s first home game in charge, an 8-0 Demolition of Sheffield Wednesday.
The Maine Event
Despite Shearer ending the previous season as one of Europe’s deadliest marksmen, he struggled to find a similar form the following season.
By the time Newcastle travelled to Maine Road in late September 2000, Shearer was without a goal from open play in almost two months.
The Magpies came into the game on a run of decent form and found themselves third in the table.
Shearer, partnered up front by the enigmatic Daniel Cordone, one of several Newcastle transfer flops that season, went close early in the game, but his point blank header was well saved by City keeper Richard Wright.
Wright was in fine form on that sunny day in Moss Side, make spectacular saves from forwards Kevin Gallacher and Lomana Lua Lua.
But the City stopper was powerless to stop Shearer’s 74th minute header, as the recently departed England captain converted a Nolberto Solano cross to net the game’s only goal.
Newcastle’s penultimate visit to the hisotric Maine Road ended in victory.
Manchester City moved to the Etihad Stadium in 2003, a ground where Newcastle are yet to register a single league victory.
Can that change tonight?
