Newcastle were regular opponents for Albion from 1898 until about 1973. In the 37 seasons since then, we've been in the same division as them only eleven times.
Here's the complete record:
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | |
| Home | 54 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 105 | 69 | 36 |
| Away | 53 | 14 | 11 | 28 | 73 | 111 | 38 |
| Total |
107 |
38 | 29 | 40 | 178 | 180 | -2 |
It's a long time now since we've beaten them in the League:
| 2009-10 | Championship |
Albion |
1 | 1 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
Albion | D | |||
| 2008-9 | Premiership |
Albion |
2 | 3 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
2 | 1 | Albion |
L |
L |
| 2005-6 | Premiership | Albion | 0 | 3 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
3 | 0 | Albion | L | L |
| 2004-5 | Premiership | Albion | 0 | 0 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
3 | 1 | Albion | D | L |
| 2002-3 | Premiership | Albion | 2 | 2 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
2 | 1 | Albion | D | L |
| 1990-1 | Division Two | Albion | 1 | 1 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
1 | 1 | Albion | D | D |
| 1989-90 | Division Two | Albion | 1 | 5 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
2 | 1 | Albion | L | L |
| 1985-6 | Division One | Albion | 1 | 1 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
4 | 1 | Albion | D | L |
| 1984-5 | Division One | Albion | 2 | 1 | Newcastle |
Newcastle |
1 | 0 | Albion | W | L |
| 1977-8 | Division One | Albion | 2 | 0 | Newcastle | Newcastle | 0 | 3 | Albion | W | W |
| 1976-7 | Division One | Albion | 1 | 1 | Newcastle | Newcastle | 2 | 0 | Albion | D | L |
Newcastle won only seven games in the Premiership last season, and - as you can see, if you didn't already know - two of them were against Albion. Their victory at The Hawthorns on 7th February was one of only two after Christmas; it was also the game that most Baggies fans will probably look back on as the one that effectively sealed our fate. We'd just lost 5-0 at home to Manchester United and Rob Styles, then drawn away to Hull. After losing to Newcastle, we then went another eight games without a win.
Before 1989, the last time we'd played Newcastle in the Second Division was in 1948-9.
Not much that I can add to the above table to cheer anyone up ...
Newcastle
United: club historyNewcastle United trace their history back to a club called Stanley, formed in 1881, which changed its name to Newcastle East End in 1882. By 1892 they had a strong team, but their rivals Newcastle West End had St. James’ Park. After a string of defeats at the hands of East End, the West End board suggested a merger; the team and the name would be East End’s, while the ground and many of the backroom staff would be West End’s.
East End jumped at the chance, but the merger did not please the paying public. In an attempt to raise the standard of competition the club applied to join the Football League, but were not impressed by the League’s offer of a place in the Second Division. They changed their name to Newcastle United FC in an effort to appease disaffected supporters of the two previous clubs; the following year, when the League repeated its offer, the club accepted.
They were promoted to the First Division in 1898, and in 1905 they won the League title for the first time. They repeated this two years later, and again two years after that.
Between 1905 and 1911 they also appeared in five FA Cup finals, but won only one – in 1910, at the fourth attempt.
They won the Cup for a second time in 1924, and three years later they added a fourth League title. In 1932 they won the Cup again, but two years after that they were relegated for the first time. Their first-ever spell in the First Division had lasted 36 years (32 seasons), during which time they had won the League championship four times and the FA Cup three times.
They got back to the First Division in 1948. In 1951 they won the FA Cup for a fourth time, and the following year they became the first club since Blackburn Rovers in 1891 to retain the trophy. (Tottenham have since repeated this achievement twice – in 1961 and 1962, 1981 and 1982.)
In 1955 Newcastle won the FA Cup for the third time in five seasons and the sixth time altogether. The other two FA Cup finals in those five seasons were of course the “Matthews final” and Albion’s victory over Preston.
Newcastle have reached the FA Cup final three times since 1955 – most recently in 1998 and 1999 – but lost all three. They have now played in 13 finals, winning six and losing seven.
But they have won one major trophy since 1955. In 1968 they finished only tenth in the League, but qualified for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup owing to the bizarre qualification rules (something about only one team from each city being allowed). Much to everyone’s surprise – not least, one suspects, their own – they reached the final; there they beat Ujpest Dozsa 6-2 over two legs to become the second British club – after Leeds the previous year – to win this trophy.
In the League, Newcastle’s form was distinctly ordinary throughout the 1960s to the 1980s. They were relegated in 1961, conceding 109 goals in the process, and returned as Second Division champions in 1965. Over the next 11 years their highest finish was 7th and the lowest 20th; but then 5th place in 1977 was followed by 21st and another relegation in 1978.
This time they stayed down for six years, the arrival of Kevin Keegan from Southampton proving the catalyst for their revival. Five years later they were relegated once again however, and by 1992 the Third Division was beckoning when Sir John Hall took over the chairmanship from Gordon McKeag and appointed Keegan as manager. Over the next fifteen years or so Newcastle re-established themselves as one of the top sides in the country, although it hasn't by any means been plain sailing.
In 1993 they walked away with the First Division title, winning their first 11 games and scoring a total of 92 goals (four more than Albion who, with SuperBob in his pomp, were the top scorers in the Second Division that year). Newcastle’s top scorer was Albion fan David Kelly with 24, while Andy Cole arrived from Bristol City in mid-March and averaged a goal a game in his first twelve appearances.
In their first Premiership season (1993/4) they kept the momentum going in no uncertain terms. With Cole scoring 34 goals and Beardsley 21, Newcastle finished third behind Manchester United and Blackburn. But then Cole went to Manchester United, and with no-one to replace his firepower Newcastle could only manage 6th place.
Les Ferdinand arrived in 1995, and when £15 million man Alan Shearer joined him a year later Newcastle were back to their old selves. In both 1996 and 1997 it was only Manchester United that denied them the League title; but in January 1997 they were left reeling after Keegan resigned – six months into a new ten-year contract. Little did anyone at St. James's Park, let alone in the wider world of football, know that this was merely establishing a precedent.
For all Keegan’s faults, neither Kenny Dalglish nor Ruud Gullit was able to reproduce his results, and Newcastle slipped into mid-table mediocrity alleviated only by those two ultimately disappointing Cup runs in 1998 and 1999. But in September 1999 there came a new dawn with the appointment of Bobby Robson. He wasn't to become Sir Bobby until 2002, but the former Albion star and England manager was greeted as another local hero; born and raised near Durham, in a mining family, he claimed a lifelong affinity for Newcastle United. His methods took a couple of years to bear fruit, but in his third season (2001/2) Newcastle qualified for Europe by finishing 4th in the Premiership. They went on to finish third in 2002/3, and fifth in 2003/4. But they made a poor start to the 2004/5 season, and Robson was sacked by chairman Freddy Shepherd after just four games, with what many saw as indecent haste - although there were stories that suggested his age was catching up with him (he was 71).
Graeme Souness was a controversial choice to replace Sir Bobby, but results improved immediately: Newcastle were unbeaten in their next six games (including a 3-1 victory over Albion at St. James's Park). This saw them move up to seventh place, but the revival didn't last; they finished in 14th place.
Michael Owen signed for Newcastle in August 2005, for a fee of £16 million, but the 2005-6 season was a story of inconsistency: several sequences of three or four wins were followed by as many games without a win. Shepherd finally lost patience with Souness in February 2006, amid reports of dressing room unrest and dissatisfaction amongst the fans.
Glenn Roeder was promoted from the youth academy, and he saw the Magpies to a 7th place finish in 2006. But 2006-7 ended with a disappointing 13th place, after which Roeder left the club "by mutual consent".
The surprising replacement for Roeder was Sam Allardyce, and soon afterwards Shepherd sold his stake in the club to the sportswear magnate Mike Ashley. Allardyce lasted only a matter of months, leaving in January (also "by mutual consent") with Newcastle 11th in the Premiership. They'd just lost three consecutive games, but it's also worth noting that they were the only team to lose to Derby County that season. The defeat at Pride Park was in September, but they also could only manage a draw against the Rams at St. James's Park in December.
Kevin Keegan's reappointment to replace Allardyce was greeted by the fans, predictably, as the second coming of the Messiah; but the next eight months turned Newcastle United, frankly, into a laughing stock. The appointment of Dennis Wise as "Executive Director (Football)" went down like a lead balloon with Keegan and the fans alike, and it was over two months before Newcastle won their next game. Keegan stayed until the end of the season, but eventually resigned four days after the end of the summer transfer window, stating that he had not been in charge of buying players and could not operate in this way.
At this stage Ashley announced that he was putting the club on the market. Joe Kinnear was another surprising choice as Keegan's replacement; but one suspects that the number of British managers who would be prepared to work under the system to which Keegan objected so strongly restricted the choice somewhat. This clearly is not without its relevance to West Bromwich Albion ...
Kinnear's contract was never supposed to be for the long term - it was said that he was only there until Ashley managed to sell the club. But before that happened Kinnear was forced to step down for health reasons; Newcastle were now in real danger of relegation, and Alan Shearer became the latest native son to be greeted as the new Messiah.
Shearer's arrival made no difference to the results however, and Newcastle were duly relegated along with Albion and Middlesbrough. Michael Owen led the inevitable exodus of players, and many predicted that they would struggle in the Championship, possibly even "doing a Leeds".
The fixtures computer brought the Magpies to The Hawthorns on the opening day of the 2009-10 season, and the honours were shared - largely thanks to Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul, a half-time substitute for Steve Harper. Since then, Newcastle have proved the doubters to be well wide of the mark. They won their next five games, and although they won only two of the next seven, they then won seven on the trot. Coming up to the League game with Albion, they have drawn three of their last four League games and are now undefeated in the last eleven (not counting two against Plymouth in the Cup).
Head to HeadThe first time Albion played Newcastle in the Football League was on 3rd December 1898, following their promotion to the First Division after five seasons in the Second. Before the biggest crowd to watch Albion that season - 16,200 at St. James's Park - Newcastle won 3-0; the return match at Stoney Lane was on April 1st, and Albion won 2-0 before a crowd of 2,304.
Over the next five seasons, taking us up to our second relegation in 1904, Albion won only one of their eight games against Newcastle. After promotion in 1911 things improved somewhat, and over the next six seasons they failed to beat us - Albion winning four games at The Hawthorns and two at St. James's, the other six being drawn. Over the next six years honours were even, with five wins each and two draws.
This brings us up to 1927, when Newcastle won their fourth League championship and Albion were relegated for the third time.
Both Albion and Newcastle spent the years around the Second World War in the Second Division. The first time we played each other at that level was in 1938/9; in that and the following two seasons, each team won three games - with one away win each.
Albion had many memorable games with Newcastle in the 1950s, and as often as not the star of the show was Ray Barlow. To this day, ageing Geordies still talk in reverential tones of Albion’s tall, elegant left half.
In September 1953, Albion won 7-3 at St. James’ Park. It was the ninth game of the season and Albion were unbeaten, although Newcastle had held them to a 2-2 draw at The Hawthorns a week earlier. Johnny Nicholls scored three of Albion’s goals, Ronnie Allen two, Frank Griffin and Reg Ryan one each. Nicholls described this as “my best game for the Albion – and I bet it was Ray Barlow’s and Ronnie Allen’s as well”. This was the season that Albion nearly did the double - winning the Cup but finishing second to Wolves in the League.
On 5th September 1960, Albion beat Newcastle 6-0 at The Hawthorns. Alec Jackson scored three; Bobby Robson, Derek Kevan and Davey Burnside scored the other three. This was Albion's sixth game of the season; we'd lost the previous five.
On the final day of the 1966/7 season Albion beat Newcastle 6-1 at The Hawthorns. This time Tony Brown scored three; Ken Foggo, Graham Williams and Clive Clark scored one each.
Albion did the double over Newcastle in the 1968/9 season, but since then we have won only three of 29 League games against them. The last of the three victories was at The Hawthorns in 1984-5; the score was 2-1, Steve Hunt and Garry Thompson scoring for Albion. The last time we won a League game at St. James's Park was in September 1977: Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Bryan Robson scored for Albion, without reply. (If there's any Albion fan reading this near you, who's old enough to remember, the sound you can hear is purring.)
Surprisingly, we have only played Newcastle three times in the FA Cup:
| 1937/8 | Round 3 | Albion | 1 | Newcastle | 0 | W. G. Richardson | W | |
| 1953/4 | Round 5 | Albion | 3 | Newcastle | 2 | Allen 3 | W | |
| 1973/4 | Round 5 | Albion | 0 | Newcastle | 3 | L |
All three games have been played at The Hawthorns. In 1954 Ronnie Allen scored all three of Albion’s goals, and declared this “easily the best match I ever played in” (thus denying Johnny Nicholls’ assertion – see above). In the 1974 final, Kevin Keegan scored two of Liverpool’s goals.
In 1938, Albion lost 2-3 to York City in the fourth round; in 1954, we beat Preston in the final; and in 1974, Newcastle lost 0-3 to Liverpool in the final.
We have played them twice in the League Cup. Both games were at St. James’ Park, both were in the third round, and both were won by Albion by the odd goal:
| 1989-90 | Round 3 | Newcastle | 0 | Albion | 1 | Whyte | W | |
| 2003-4 | Round 3 | Newcastle | 1 | Albion | 2 | Ameobi (o.g.), Hughes | W |
The latter game went into extra time, the score after 90 minutes being 1-1.
In 1989-90, Albion lost to Derby County in the fourth round; in 2003-4, we beat Manchester United in the fourth found but lost to Arsenal in the fifth (quarter-final).
In the 1972 Texaco Cup, Newcastle beat Albion 4-3 on aggregate in the second round. Albion won the first leg 2-1 at The Hawthorns, with two goals from Tony Brown - one a penalty - but lost the second 1-3 at St. James’ Park (Asa Hartford scored for Albion).
Newcastle also provided the opposition for Daryl Burgess’ testimonial match in 2001.