Great idea for a thread, I'll go for 01-02 as it was the season I fell back in love with football. I was 13, having been following us since 94/95, and starting to really understand football.
During the summer of 2001 we spent some big bucks on Laurent Robert and, bizarrely to me, Craig Bellamy. I used to hang around with a Liverpool fan who ripped the piss relentlessly that we'd spunked £6m on a guy who scored about 6 goals for Coventry. Bellamy got his first goal for us from about half a yard in the Inter-toto cup which did little to stem the Bellamy based abuse. Some of the inter-toto games were on five, I seem to remember Nobby scoring a decent goal against 1860 Munich, we got through a fair few matches and Troyes stood between us and the Waffa cup proper, and after a 0-0 draw in France I for one assumed that would be that. Before the second leg though we had the first ever Premiership plus match away at Chelsea, which I didn't have the dosh to pay for so I listened to it on Metro, which would become a superstition that season. So on the first Sunday of the season I listened to Mick Lowes explain that Shay had let a tame Zenden shot through his legs in the opening 10 minutes and assumed that would be that given our record at Stamford Bridge. However, we got our first signs that this wouldn't be a regular season and Clarence Acuna came on and equalised. Random memory thrown in here but Rob Lee's testimonial happened in the summer and we got beat 1-0 off Bilbao. A mate who attended said all there was to report was that Laurent Robert had a mighty shot on him, which turned out to be very true as Acuna found out.
We then went on to batter the mackems in a 1-1 draw at St James' in a Sunday TV game, Bellamy got our goal and Nobby missed a great chance at the end. Shearer came on, returning from injury. Some pop concert was on which fucked the travel up I seem to recall. The Troyes disaster happened, but getting from 1-4 to 4-4 was another sign that this was a team streets ahead of the previous 3 seasons. Elliott was accredited with the equalised even though it was Aaron Hughes, maybe the other way around, but nevermind. We then played Man Utd at home and won 4-3 in an incredible game, Shearer getting the winner although it was given to Wes Brown as an OG. The Premiership had replaced MOTD and they showed the main game last, and the show was on at 7pm to begin with but this was later changed. Again I listened to this game with the company of Metro Radio, highlight of which was my mate celebrating Robert's free kick as a 3rd goal even though it was the half time replay. Idiot.
After the internationals we stuck 4 past Boro at the Riverside although each team got a pen for fouls by their respective keepers, Schwarzer was red carded allowing Shearer to equalise whereas Given was only booked due to the covering defenders, and then saved Greening's shit pen. We went on to win easily, but Mick Lowes left Metro Radio unannounced around this time. I'd been lsitening to his commentary since I'd started following the lads so it was strange. Fortunately Justin Lockwood was a brilliant replacement and provided some excellent lines to go with our progress. Our league cup campaign got underway with a needlessly drawn out 4-1 extra time win over Brentford, the Bees led for a while until Shola equalised, Bellamy came on and got an extra time hat trick. "He's still shit" was the afforementioned mates opinion. We also lost 3-0 at West Ham on Sky, Glenn Roeder was linked with Warren Barton but dismissed it saying Di Canio had torn him a new arsehole so he wouldn't bother. The cheek/accuracy. Otherwise the month had 2 dull as fuck 1-0 wins, one over Leicester midweek (re-arranged from Troyes tie) and one over Bolton in the pissing rain, Shearer scored his pen whilst Ravenelli had his saved by Shay. We won 1-0 at Barnsley too in the cup, that man Bellamy again. Come to think of it, we won 1-0 at Ipswich thanks to Nobby in December I think...return of the entertainers indeed.
However we went on to lose at home to Liverpool much to my annoyance as gobby Liverpool fan was obviously pleased, but the clocks went back about this time which meant I didn't have to see him again until March. Other notable things in October were a 4-0 thrashing of Bolton when Jussi was sent off for handling outside the box, Bo Hansen went in goal. Silly Bo. We then randomly got beat 2-0 off Spurs with a tactical blunder which saw us switch to 3-5-2, it didn't happen again. This was particularly annoying as my history teacher was Spurs fan and he rubbed it in big time. Fortunately we beat Everton, Gazza played I think but the goal I remember was their keeper, Gerrard I think, ran into their centre half and Bellamy had a tap in. Acuna also scored, don't remember the other scorer.
November included what was a perfect weekend for me (at the time). On the Saturday we went to Manchester to see WWF/E live () and I listened to us hammer Villa to go top of the pile, Shearer's wonder goal and Bellamy megging Schmeichel. I then saw the wrestling, came home and scored for my Sunday league team, pointless personal anecdote aside we were mint and I was loving life. Of course this is Newcastle so we lost at Fulham, think Shearer missed a pen in the dying moments but we'd lost by that point anyway.
I'll continue this another time as it's late and I want to do December justice!
