On Pav:
Writing in his new book Srnicek has given his most detailed account yet of the iconic game. He said: “It may have been christened the greatest Premier League match of all time, but for me it was the worst moment and memory of my entire career. I wouldn’t care, I used to love going to Anfield.
My first game for the reserves was at Liverpool and I performed magnificently.
“I always seemed to have a good game when I visited the red side of Merseyside so I was really looking forward to the contest.”
The ex-Toon star then explained a twist in the story. He said: “Kevin was going around the dressing room prior to the kick off, having the odd word of encouragement with some of the players.
Admittedly, we’d had a mixed bag of results before this fixture but we were still confident of winning. Then, just before we went out onto the pitch, Keegan turned to me and said ‘Pav, why can’t you be more like Schmeichel, and win a game for us?
I was astounded! Those words killed me! I was deflated! After he said that, I couldn’t play.
I felt as if I’d just been smashed on the head. Anything I’d been feeling prior to that comment: adrenaline, excitement and anticipation, all of the emotions you generally experience before you run onto the pitch prior to a match, had evaporated!
“I had nothing! No strength; no confidence; no will; nothing. Keegan might as well have said ‘You’re s***! I have no faith in you’.
“I was thinking, I can’t go and play now. I needed to tell him but then I thought I have to go and play.
My head was all over the place. I couldn’t concentrate on the game. I resented Kevin at that point.
“This was one of the biggest games of the season. And he’d more or less told me I was a second rate goalkeeper.
“I had never been given any words of encouragement in all of my time at the club.
“I thought what have you ever done for me? Every time he knocked me on the floor, one way or another, I had to pick myself up, dust myself down and get on with it.”
In a crazy game at Anfield, Newcastle were twice ahead at 2-1 and 3-2 before Stan Collymore’s influence won the game for Reds.
An equaliser on 68 minutes tied the game up at 3-3 and even a point wouldn’t have been a bad result.
However, as John Barnes and Ian Rush started to exchange passes Collymore lashed home to squeeze the ball between Srnieck’s near post and his body.
Pav reflected: “Were any of the goals my fault? Maybe one of them was down to me; perhaps one of the Collymore goals.
“I just tried to spread myself the best I could but I wasn’t mentally right during the game.
The last words Kevin said to me just kept going around and around in my head all the way through the game.
“Losing the match, conceding the goals and in essence throwing away the title, they weren’t the worst things for me. It was Keegan’s words prior to going out to play; they were a hammer blow.
“I have never watched a replay or any highlights of that game because it is too painful a memory. I can still hear Kevin saying those hurtful words now. It makes me sad.
“I don’t know whether the score would’ve been any different and the course of history would’ve been changed but I would’ve been up for the game more.
“I have never discussed this with anyone before. It’s been a burden I’ve carried around with me ever since that fateful night.”
Hate to say it but I agree completely.