The future of Newcastle United Football Club is pretty exciting, though the fan base will have a fair bit of anxiety ahead of the new season. Following the high of winning the Championship and securing promotion to the Premier League, a fairly quiet summer to date in the transfer market has led to some moans and groans. With Rafa Benitez at the helm though, there is still optimism about the future, but what do you know about the past?
As most of you are aware, Newcastle United F.C was created back in 1892 after Newcastle West end and Newcastle East End were merged. The very next season, Newcastle got promoted to the Second Division of the Football League. During that particular season, the team played excellently, and finished fourth on the table, with just seven defeats in a total of twenty-eight league games.
The club won its first Football League Championship in the 1904-05 season. In the same year, we managed to reach the FA Cup Finals, however, we lost to Aston Villa with a score of 2-1. During that match, Newcastle had a record attendance of over 101,000, and this largest crowd record has not been equalled up to now. The Toon also played the FA Cup Final in 1906, and this time they were beaten by Everton with a score of 1-0.
The First Division championship was won in the 06/07 and 08/09 season by Newcastle United. And we finally won the FA Cup Final in 1910, after winning against Barnsley. In 1925, Newcastle signed Hughie Gallacher, and this was the time that they began challenging for the championship. He had an immediate impact on the team and led us to win the First Division League the next year after he scored thirty-six goals in 38 league games. He was the club’s top scorer for three years in a row until 1930.
The team was relegated to the Second Division in 1943 after we finished in the 21st place. For our first season in this division, they finished 6th. It was in 1947 that they gained promotion once again to the First Division, where Jackie Milburn was the hero of the season. In 1951, Newcastle United enjoyed a good run for the FA Cup where we won against Blackpool in the final, with a score of 2-0, both scored by Milburn. We were again in the headlines in 1952 and 1955 for winning the FA Cup.
Many of the club top players left the club after their last FA Cup victory. The situation only worsened when top player Vic Keeble suffered a back injury and had to be out for a long time. Newcastle became the First Division champions in the 92-93 season, under the management of Kevin Keegan. This also secured a place for us into the qualification for the UEFA Cup the next season, where we played in the Premier League. Although being quite successful, we were relegated twice, in 2009 and 2016 respectively.
Newcastle’s results have been something of a lottery in years gone by, but under the management of Rafa we should be competitive in 2017/18.
