Back In Time - Newcastle United - The Entertainers Are Back!!! (1996/97 CM2)

[Klippybo]

1ST AUGUST 1996

I am a 14y/o boy just 2 weeks away from my 15th birthday (which means at time of writing my 38th birthday is tomorrow - happy birthday to me.... lol) and having seen Newcastle throw away a 12pt lead to finish 2nd in the table I went into the summer of Euro 96 dreading parents evening and hoping that Scotland qualify from the group stages - both were a sore point I seem to remember.

But rejoice!!!! Newcastle then broke the world transfer record to sign Alan Shearer for £15m from Blackburn Rovers and I headed into the season full of expectation and joy and this is where we are at.

--

Having had issues with my laptop I decided to throw caution to the wind and go to my games simulator and fire up CM2 and go for it. Will I outdo Kevin Keegan and win a trophy? Will Alan Shearer go on to be the clubs record goalscorer like he did in real life? Will Darren Huckerby make the grade at Newcastle? Who knows.

Now obviously I wont be able to post screenshots but I will find some other way to post. This save is intriguing in so many ways. Is the 3 foreigners rule still in play? Is the bosman ruling in effect (don't think so)? How the **** does this game work again? When is the transfer deadline? Its been over 20 years since I have played this game and apart from Viktor Leonenko I cant remember any of my go to players in the game.

--

One thing about this squad picture - why only one goalkeeper????

Back Row (players) - Gillespie, Crawford, Beresford, Srnicek, Huckerby, Elliott, Holland
Middle Row - Clark, Asprilla, Albert, Watson, Barton, Howey, Peacock, Kitson
Front Row (players) - Batty, Shearer, Ginola, Beardsley, Ferdinand, Lee


NEWCASTLE UNITED SQUAD

NAME	AGE	POS	NAT	VALUE	COMMENT
Alan SHEARER	25	ST	ENG	£15.25M	World record signing
Les FERDINAND	29	ST	ENG	£7.5M	Sir Les!!!!
Philippe ALBERT	28	CB	BEL	£4.9M	My favourite ever Newcastle CB and scorer of my favourite ever goal
David GINOLA	29	AML	FRA	£4.8M	20 for flair, creativity, intelligence set pieces and technique
Keith GILLESPIE	24	AMR	N.I	£3.4M	Speedy winger who likes a bet
Lee CLARK	23	MLC	ENG	£3.1M	Decent player who came through the ranks - not bought that t-shirt yet
Chris HOLLAND	20	AMR	ENG	£3.1M	WTF??? Signed from Preston, played 3 games and looks amazing. Pretty sure he had acid thrown in his face IRL
Steve HOWEY	24	SW/DC	ENG	£3.1M	Injured (shock) but a good defender who came through the ranks
Shaka HISLOP	27	GK	ENG	£2.7M	English?? I would accept USA but he is from Trinidad!
Warren BARTON	27	DR	ENG	£2.6M	Decent RB
Faustino ASPRILLA	26	FC	COL	£2.3M	Apparently hasn't been capped by Colombia. Thrilled to have him
Paul KITSON	25	FC	ENG	£1.8M	Not good enough
Robert LEE	30	MC	ENG	£1.5M	Age is catching up with him but Shearer's best mate is a fine player
David BATTY	27	DMC	ENG	£1.3M	Not the greatest of attributes tbh for such a good player
Steve WATSON	22	D/MRC	ENG	£1.2M	Mister versatile and one of many players who came through the ranks
Robbie ELLIOTT	22	DL	ENG	£975,000	Another who came through the ranks and looks very good
John BERESFORD	29	DL	ENG	£750,000	Experienced LB who is decent enough
Pavel SRNICEK	28	GK	CZE	£725,000	Pavel is a Geordie!!! RIP Pav - the game wasn't kind to you here
Darren PEACOCK	28	DC	ENG	£650,000	Hmm. Getting into the dross here
Paul BRAYSON	18	FL	ENG	£500,000	Forward left? Decent prospect
David EATOCK	19	ST	ENG	£350,000	Who? I want to find out! 17 shooting, 20 flair, 16 pace, 17 dribbling, 18 off the ball
Paul ARNISON	18	MR	ENG	£300,000	A very good looking RM. Did nothing for us in real life
Darren HUCKERBY	20	ST	ENG	£275,000	Quick - 19 heading and 6 shooting lol
Peter BEARDSLEY	35	FC	ENG	£275,000	Legend. 20 for creativity, determination, flair and intelligence
Stuart ELLIOTT	18	SW/DRLC	ENG	£250,000	Who? Rubbish
Steve HARPER	26	GK	ENG	£220,000	Still to make his debut lol. Decent enough
Chris WOODCOCK	17	MC	ENG	£180,000	Young and rubbish. Cant remember him
Peter KEEN	19	GK	ENG	£110,000	Decent looking young keeper
Jimmy CRAWFORD	23	MC	IRE	£100,000	23? Surely should have been a teenager. Very good looking player

So I have 29 players out of my limit of 30. Shearer is my biggest earner at £24,500 a week while Woodcock is at the bottom at £425 a week.

--

AROUND THE WORLD

Top 5 valued players are Batistuta (Fiorentina £16.25m), Alan Shearer, Ronaldo (Barcelona £13m), Davar Suker (Real Madrid £12.25m) and Paolo Maldini (AC Milan £12m).

I start the game ranked 130 out of 209 managers, above Chris Kamara of Bradford. The top 10 managers are.....

Ruud Gullit (Chelsea)
Jack Charlton (Unemployed)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alex Ferguson (Man Utd)
Glenn Hoddle (England)
Terry Venables (Unemployed)
Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)
Roy Evans (Liverpool)
Bobby Robson (Barcelona)
Kevin Keegan (Unemployed)
George Graham (Leeds)
​

 

[Klippybo]

AUGUST

FA Charity Shield
​​v
Manchester United 1 (Giggs 41)
Newcastle United 2 (Ginola 63, Clark 89)

Man Utd - Schmeichel*, G.Neville (Scholes), Irwin, Johnsen, Pallister, Keane, Poborsky, Cruyff (Beckham), Cole (P.Neville), Cantona, Giggs

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott (Beresford), Albert, Peacock (Watson), Clark, Holland (Gillespie), Lee, Shearer, Ferdinand, Ginola

In real life Newcastle lost this match 4-0 but we managed to defeat Man Utd here thanks to a fine 2nd half performance. Lee Clark scored a goal in the dying embers of the match for us to collect the trophy.

--

v
Newcastle United 3 (Ferdinand 36, 57, Ginola 63)
Middlesbrough 0

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert, Peacock (Watson), Clark (Asprilla), Holland, Lee, Shearer (Gillespie), Ferdinand*, Ginola

Middlesbrough - Walsh, ***, Branco, Pearson, Whyte, Barmby, Juninho, Emerson, Fjortoft, Ravanelli, Moore

A comprehensive opening day victory as we beat Middlesbrough 3-0. Les Ferdinand was the star of the show with his 2 goals. Alan Shearer came off injured and is out for a week.

--

v
Sunderland 2 (Agnew 11, Aiston 69)
Newcastle United 2 (Ferdinand 12, 81)
Mackems - Coton, Kubicki (Mullin), Ord, Ball, Novotny, Agnew, Hall, Rae, Bridges, Aiston, Gray

Geordies - Hislop, Barton, Elliott (Beresford), Albert, Peacock (Watson), Clark, Holland, Lee, Asprilla (Beardsley), Ferdinand*, Ginola

I am disappointed here as looking at Sunderland's starting XI we really should have won this match. We peppered their goal throughout but defensive mistakes cost us in the end.

--

v
Newcastle United 4 (Holland 9, Shearer 34, 43, Ferdinand 38)
Blackburn Rovers 2 (Sutton 19, Sherwood 56)

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert, Peacock, Clark, Holland, Lee (Watson), Shearer*, Ferdinand, Ginola

Blackburn - Flowers, Kenna, Le Saux, Sutton, Hendry, Sherwood, McKinlay, Bohinen, Fenton, Gallacher, Wilcox

Very nice. Alan Shearer returned to his old club and scored twice to help us win the game with his first goals for us. Unfortunately he missed a last minute penalty to deny him his hat-trick.

The funny moment of the game came when the midget Kevin Gallacher elbowed the giant Shaka Hislop and only got booked. Trying to picture that scenario made me giggle.

--

SUMMARY

We have started off pretty well all told as we are 2nd in the table and collected the Charity Shield to boot when we defeated Man Utd 2-1. The only disappointment was the 2-2 draw against Sunderland which gave them their only point so far.

In the cups we will play Brentford in the league cup (over 2 legs no less!) and SC Farense in the UEFA Cup. We are back in the days where only the champions qualify for the Champions League after all.

I sold Darren Huckerby to Trabzonspor for £250,000 and made my first signing in the shape of Lee Ashcroft from WBA for £975,000. I needed a LW to be backup to Ginola and he fitted the bill with 19 for aggression, dribbling, flair and shooting. With stats like that it makes me wonder how he never made it big!!

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
LES FERDINAND

​​
--

FA CARLING PREMIERSHIP

POS	TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Liverpool	3	3	0	0	9	1	+8	9
2	NEWCASTLE UNITED	3	2	1	0	9	4	+5	7
3	Leicester City	3	2	1	0	8	4	+4	7
4	Arsenal	3	2	1	0	7	3	+4	7
5	Chelsea	3	2	0	1	7	5	+2	6
6	Aston Villa	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	6
7	Coventry City	3	2	0	1	4	4	0	6
8	Derby County	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5
9	Leeds United	3	1	2	0	7	6	+1	5
10	Manchester United	3	1	1	1	5	3	+2	4
11	Nottingham Forest	3	1	1	1	7	6	+1	4
12	Sheffield Wednesday	3	1	0	2	5	6	-1	3
13	Tottenham Hotspur	3	1	0	2	5	7	-2	3
14	Wimbledon	3	1	0	2	6	9	-3	3
15	West Ham United	3	1	0	2	3	6	-3	3
16	Middlesbrough	3	1	0	2	2	6	-4	3
17	Sunderland	3	0	1	2	4	6	-2	1
18	Blackburn Rovers	3	0	1	2	5	10	-5	1
19	Southampton	3	0	1	2	1	7	-6	1
20	Everton	3	0	0	3	3	8	-5	0

Managers of the Month

Premiership - Roy Evans (Liverpool)
Division 1 - Chris Kamara (Brentford)
Division 2 - Joe Jordan (Bristol City)
Division 3 - Kerry Dixon (Doncaster Rovers)
​

 

[Klippybo]

SEPTEMBER

v
Derby County 2 (Laursen 28, Stimac 68)
Newcastle United 2 (Shearer 31, Ferdinand 36)

Derby - Taylor, Laursen, Dailly (Rowett), Parker, Stimac, Van Der Laan, Carsley (Yates), Asanovic, Sturridge (Willems), Ward, Simpson

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert, Peacock (Howey), Clark (Watson), Holland (Gillespie), Lee, Shearer*, Ferdinand, Ashcroft

Disappointing to drop 2pts here but in truth we were lucky to escape with a draw as Derby battered us in the 2nd half. The board said it was a poor result afterwards.

--

v
Newcastle United 2 (Holland 47, Shearer 80)
Chelsea 0

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert, Howey, Clark, Holland, Lee (Batty), Shearer*, Ferdinand (Asprilla), Ginola

Chelsea - Kharine, Gullit, Phelan, Duberry, Lee (Clarke), Leboeuf, Morris (Spencer), Wise, Hughes, Vialli, Peacock

The weird thing about managing in this time is that you come up against Chelsea and think "oh ****" and then you realise in 1996 they had David Lee, Michael Duberry and Terry Phelan lol.

--

UEFA Cup 1st Round 1st Leg
v
Newcastle United 2 (Beardsley 25, Clark 49)
SC Farense 1 (Barton og2)

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Beresford, Albert, Howey, Clark, Holland, Lee (Crawford), Asprilla (Eatock), Beardsley*, Ashcroft

We battered Farense here and should have been out of sight but as it was Warren Barton's early own goal has the game on a knife edge. I rested several players here and gave run outs to some backups. Farense had no players (greyed out made up ones) so I couldnt be arsed putting them in lol.

Pleasingly it seemed that there were no foreigner rulings for the match so I can maybe scout abroad now.

--

v
Everton 1 (Stuart 4)
Newcastle United 1 (L.Ferdinand 63)

Everton - Southall, Hottiger, Hinchcliffe, Watson, Barrett, Unsworth (Branch), Limpar, Ebbrell, Ferguson*, Stuart, Speed

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert (R.Ferdinand), Howey, Clark, Holland (Gillespie), Lee, Shearer, L.Ferdinand, Ginola

Meh. We drop down to 5th in the table with this draw. Philippe Albert went off injured so on came my recent signing - 17y/o Rio Ferdinand - to make his debut.

--

Coca-Cola Cup 2nd Round 1st Leg
​​v
Brentford 0
Newcastle United 3 (Gillespie 22, 71, Asprilla 75)

Brentford - Dearden, Statham, Anderson, Bates, Dennis (Myall), Ashby (Clapham), Hurdle, Forster, Hutchings, Davis, Taylor

Newcastle - Hislop, Watson, Beresford, R.Ferdinand, Peacock, Crawford, Gillespie*, Batty, Asprilla, Beardsley (Eatock), Ashcroft

Nice and easy as my backups did a fine job here. Keith Gillespie rattled in 2 goals and was the star man.

--

v
Newcastle United 1 (L.Ferdinand 68)
Arsenal 2 (Adams 8, Wright 34)

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton (Watson), R.Ferdinand, Howey, Clark, Holland (Gillespie), Lee, Shearer, L.Ferdinand, Ginola

Arsenal - Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Morrow, Adams, Selley, Merson, Platt, Wright*, Bergkamp, Vieira

This was extremely harsh as we battered Arsenal but could only find 1 goal. We missed chance after chance after chance but Arsenal broke away twice to keep themselves top of the table.

--

SUMMARY

September was not a kind month. Our bright start to the league campaign fell away here as despite beating Chelsea we drew with Everton and Derby and lost to Arsenal which sees us languishing in 8th place in the table.

Better news was to come in the cups as we got first leg victories over SC Farense and Brentford.

In the transfer market I sold Stuart Elliott to Hull for £220,000 and replaced him with Rio Ferdinand from West Ham for £1.3m. I think he did not bad in real life lol.

Regarding my team I aint sure if my formation is great but I will stick with it. My 2CMs are consistently under performing.

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
LES FERDINAND

--

FA CARLING PREMIERSHIP

POS	TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Arsenal	7	5	2	0	16	5	+11	17
2	Liverpool	7	5	0	2	18	7	+11	15
3	Manchester United	7	4	2	1	11	4	+7	14
4	Nottingham Forest	7	4	1	2	17	10	+7	13
5	Leicester City	7	4	1	2	13	9	+4	13
6	Tottenham Hotspur	7	4	1	2	12	8	+5	13
7	Blackburn Rovers	7	4	1	2	12	13	-1	13
8	NEWCASTLE UNITED	7	3	3	1	15	9	+6	12
9	Chelsea	7	3	2	2	12	11	+1	11
10	Aston Villa	7	3	0	4	7	6	+1	9
11	Leeds United	7	2	3	2	15	15	0	9
12	Derby County	7	2	3	2	10	10	0	9
13	Wimbledon	7	3	0	4	13	15	-2	9
14	Coventry City	7	2	2	3	8	11	-3	8
15	Everton	7	2	2	3	7	10	-3	8
16	Middlesbrough	7	2	0	5	9	15	-6	6
17	Sheffield Wednesday	7	2	0	5	6	16	-10	6
18	Sunderland	7	1	2	4	10	14	-4	5
19	Southampton	7	1	1	5	6	15	-9	4
20	West Ham United	7	1	0	6	5	19	-14	3

Managers of the Month


Premiership - Aex Ferguson (Manchester United)
Division 1 - Trevor Francis (Birmingham City)
Division 2 - Tony Pulis (Gillingham)
Division 3 - John Deehan (Wigan Athletic)

Transfers

Francesco Totti joined Inter Milan for £2.5m
Matthias Sammer left Dortmund to join Barcelona for £4.7m
Alan McLaren left Rangers to join AC Milan for £3.8m
Aston Villa signed IFK Gothenburg's Jesper Blomqvist for £2.7m
Man City sell Georgi Kinkladze to Roma for £4m
​

 

[bnpwp1979]

Wow just to see some of those names again
I used to love getting Sammer on the old CM games.

 

[bnpwp1979]

The 4 I always remember are

Taribo West
Mark Kerr
Maxim Tsigalko
Cherno Samba.[h=2][/h]

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Nicholas Alexanderson was always a useful player as he could play anywhere (so could Luis Enrique if I remember correctly - or maybe that was Championship Manager 97/98 :S ) either way I'm assuming just a typo with some players ages as Gillespie and Harper were both born in 1975 so couldn't be 34 and 26, after all they are both only 44 now, some 23 years later

 

[Klippybo]

OCTOBER

UEFA Cup 1st Round 2nd Leg
v
SC Farense 0
Newcastle United 1 (Asprilla 86)
(Agg: 1-3)

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, R.Ferdinand, Howey, Crawford, Gillespie, Batty, Asprilla*, Beardsley (Eatock), Ashcroft

This was a very nervy match as a 1-0 defeat would have knocked us out but alas we got the winner late on.

--

v
Leeds United 2 (Blunt 45, Rush 80)
Newcastle United 3 (Lee 2, Shearer 49, 68)

Leeds - Beeney, Kelly, Dorigo, Wetherall, Jobson (Wallace), Palmer, Bowyer, Blunt, Deane (Radebe), Rush, Sharpe

Newcastle - Hislop, Watson, Elliott (Beresford), Peacock, Howey, Clark, Holland (Gillespie), Lee, Shearer*, L.Ferdinand, Ginola (Asprilla)

We get back to winning ways in the league but it wasnt easy - especially with me being without 3 or 4 defenders. Rob Lee finally contributed to a match which was nice.

--

Coca-Cola Cup 1st Round 2nd Leg
​​v
Newcastle United 1 (Howey 59)
Brentford 0
(Agg: 4-0)

Newcastle - Hislop, Watson, Beresford, Peacock, Howey, Crawford, Gillespie (Arnison), Batty, Asprilla (Eatock), Beardsley*, Ashcroft

Brentford - Dearden, Statham, Anderson, Bates, Dennis, Ashby, Hurdle, Foreman (Smith), Davis, Myall, Forster

--

v
West Ham United 0
Newcastle United 3 (L.Ferdinand 18, Rieper og28, Howey 81)

West Ham - Miklosko, Potts, Dicks, Hall, Rieper, Bishop, Lampard, Williamson, Dowie, Raducioiu, Dumitrescu

Newcastle - Hislop, Watson, Elliott, Albert, Howey*, Clark (Batty), Holland, Lee, Shearer (Asprilla), L.Ferdinand, Ginola

West Ham are bottom of the league despite having some decent players - that being said they also have some rubbish in their team.

--

UEFA Cup 2nd Round 1st Leg
v
Newcastle United 1 (Watson 84)
Rotor Volgograd 0

Newcastle - Hislop, Watson, Elliott, Albert, Howey, Clark (Batty), Holland (Gillespie), Lee, Shearer, Beardsley*, Ginola
Peter Beardsley seems to be the man of the match every time he plays!

--


v
Newcastle United 3 (Holland 69, Ginola 72, Asprilla 90)
Aston Villa 2 (Milosevic 24pen, 49)

Newcastle - Hislop, Watson, Elliott, Albert, Howey, Clark (Batty), Holland, Lee, Shearer, L.Ferdinand (Asprilla), Ginola

Aston Villa - Bosnich*, Charles (Ehiogu), Wright, McGrath (Hendrie), Southgate, Curcic, Hoekstra, Draper, Johnson, Milosevic, Blomqvist

What a comeback!!!! We battered Villa throughout but somehow found ourselves 2-0 down but we scored 2 quick goals to get level and then Faustino Asprilla scored the winner in the last minute much to my joy.

--

Coca-Cola Cup 3rd Round
v
Newcastle United 9 (Beardsley 9, 23, 28, Asprilla 12, 30, 62, 76, Watson 25, Gillespie 51)
Bristol City 0

Newcastle - Hislop, Watson, Beresford, R.Ferdinand, Peacock, Crawford, Gillespie, Batty (Eatock), Asprilla*, Beardsley, Ashcroft

Bristol City - Welch, Carey, Hansen, Paterson (sent-off), Shail, Gower, Tinnion, Kuhl, Goater, Nugent, Barnard

Wow!! Its safe to say that we didnt struggle here. They had Paterson sent-off on 9min and we responded with 9 goals with Asprilla bagging 4 and Beardsley 3.

--

SUMMARY

This was a perfect month as we won every match to shoot ourselves back up the table into 3rd place. The comeback win over Aston Villa was fantastic but it was the win over Leeds that pleased me most as for some reason I am getting flashbacks thinking that they were always a nightmare team to play against lol.

In the cups we were very good. We defeated Brentford 1-0 and then thumped Bristol City 9-0 to put us into the next round of the Coca-Cola Cup and in the 1st leg of our European tie we have a goal advantage too.

Transfers wise I agreed to sign Matt Le Tissier for £4.7m and I offered him a contract but he rejected the chance to move to me. The central midfield area is an area I am looking to strengthen.

--
PLAYER OF THE MONTH
FAUSTINO ASPRILLA

​​
--

FA CARLING PREMIERSHIP

POS	TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Arsenal	10	7	3	0	24	8	+16	24
2	Liverpool	10	7	0	3	25	11	+14	21
3	NEWCASTLE UNITED	10	6	3	1	24	13	+11	21
4	Manchester United	10	5	4	1	16	7	+9	19
5	Blackburn Rovers	10	6	1	3	18	18	0	19
6	Everton	10	5	2	3	16	11	+5	17
7	Chelsea	10	5	2	3	18	16	+2	17
8	Leicester City	10	5	1	4	17	13	+4	16
9	Tottenham Hotspur	10	5	1	4	14	12	+2	16
10	Derby County	10	4	3	3	18	16	+2	15
11	Nottingham Forest	10	4	2	4	21	18	+3	14
12	Middlesbrough	10	4	1	5	15	18	-3	13
13	Wimbledon	10	4	0	6	19	25	-6	12
14	Aston Villa	10	3	2	5	14	14	0	11
15	Leeds United	10	2	5	3	21	22	-1	11
16	Sheffield Wednesday	10	3	1	6	12	19	-7	10
17	Coventry City	10	2	3	5	11	19	-8	9
18	Sunderland	10	2	2	6	16	19	-3	8
19	Southampton	10	1	1	8	7	25	-18	4
20	West Ham United	10	1	1	8	7	29	-22	4

Managers of the Month

Premiership - Kris Stuart (Newcastle United)
Division 1 - Stewart Houston (QPR)
Division 2 - Archie Gemmill (Rotherham United)
Division 3 - Tommy Taylor (Cambridge United)


​

 

[Klippybo]

Nicholas Alexanderson was always a useful player as he could play anywhere (so could Luis Enrique if I remember correctly - or maybe that was Championship Manager 97/98 :S ) either way I'm assuming just a typo with some players ages as Gillespie and Harper were both born in 1975 so couldn't be 34 and 26, after all they are both only 44 now, some 23 years later

Gillespie was a typo - Harper isn't!

I noticed that Aberdeen have Toni Kombouare at 25 yet they signed him when he was 34 lol

 

[Klippybo]

The 4 I always remember are

Taribo West
Mark Kerr
Maxim Tsigalko
Cherno Samba.

Think that was in 01/02 no? No Mark Kerrs or Cherno Sambas in this game! Couldn't find Tsigalko either.

 

[Klippybo]

NOVEMBER

v
​​Coventry City 0
Newcastle United 2 (L.Ferdinand 15, 87)

Coventry - Ogrizovic, Williams, Burrows (Gillespie), Daish, Genaux, O'Neill (Dublin), Ndlovu, McAllister, Jess, Whelan, Salako

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert, Howey, Clark, Holland, Lee, Shearer (Asprilla), L.Ferdinand*, Ginola

--

UEFA Cup 2nd Round 2nd Leg
​​v
Rotor Volgograd 2 (Volotyok 23, Pisarev 50)
Newcastle United 3 (Beardsley 46, 78, Chudin og69)
(Agg: 2-4)

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert, Howey, Clark (Watson), Holland, Lee, Shearer, Beardsley*, Ashcroft (Asprilla)

Beardsley is at it again!!! So was Lee Ashcroft but in his case it was for being rubbish.

--

v
Newcastle United 5 (Lee 13, Holland 25, Ginola 38, L.Ferdinand 74, Shearer 78pen)
Southampton 1 (Shipperley 39)

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert, Howey, Clark, Holland, Lee, Shearer*, L.Ferdinand, Ginola

Southampton - Beasant, Dodd, Potter, Lundekvam, Monkou, Maddison, Venison, Le Tissier, Watson, Shipperley, Benali

Thats 5 wins in a row now in the league and we destroyed Southampton here. It really should have been into double figures but Dave Beasant was inspired in goal for them.

--

v
Leicester City 0
Newcastle United 4 (L.Ferdinand 20pen, Shearer 25, 73, Lee 47)

Leicester - Keller, Prior, Lewis (Poole), Willis, Watts, Parker, Taylor, Lennon, Claridge, Heskey, Black

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert, Howey, Batty, Holland, Lee, Shearer*, L.Ferdinand, Ginola

The match was over as a contest when Kasey Keller brought down Holland and to give us a penalty and himself a red card. Pretty annoyed it wasnt Alan Shearer who took it but you cant pick penalty takers in this game so hey ho.

The board said this win was a good result - it takes us to the top of the league.

--

UEFA Cup 3rd Round 1st Leg
​​v
RC Lens 2 (Rio 17, Lama 63)
Newcastle United 1 (Holland 67)

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Albert (Peacock), R.Ferdinand, Batty (Watson), Holland, Lee, Asprilla (Eatock), L.Ferdinand, Ashcroft

This is a poor result but we struggled with injuries as both Batty and Albert went off injured. At least we got the away goal. Lens only "real" player is Vladimir Smicer.
--

v

Newcastle United 4 (Holland 31, L.Ferdinand 39, 40, Shearer 41)
Wimbledon 1 (Euell 52)

Newcastle - Hislop, Barton, Elliott, Peacock, R.Ferdinand, Crawford, Holland, Lee (Watson), Shearer*, L.Ferdinand, Ginola

Wimbledon - Sullivan, Frear, Thatcher, Jones, Fitzgerald, Earle, Filipescu, Goodman, Holdsworth, Euell, Leonhardsen

Thats 7 wins in a row in the league and we have scored 13 in our last 3 league games - very impressive.

--

SUMMARY

Apart from the match against Lens we were excellent this month. Our league form has been spectacular and we are 2pts clear at the top of the table although we have yet to play Man Utd, Liverpool and Spurs but having said that this is 1996 not 2019 lol.

I am wondering whether or not players stats go up or down? I seriously cant remember! I bought Rio Ferdinand hoping he would improve but maybe thats his stats for all time. I dunno. Will keep an eye on it.

By the way - how the **** did Brian Little get the manager of the month award?

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
ALAN SHEARER

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FA CARLING PREMIERSHIP

POS	TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	NEWCASTLE UNITED	14	10	3	1	39	15	+24	33
2	Arsenal	14	9	4	1	33	15	+18	31
3	Chelsea	14	8	2	4	28	20	+8	26
4	Manchester United	14	7	5	2	24	16	+8	26
5	Blackburn Rovers	14	8	1	5	23	20	+3	25
6	Everton	14	7	3	4	20	14	+6	24
7	Leeds United	14	6	5	3	32	23	+9	23
8	Liverpool	14	7	1	6	27	19	+8	22
9	Derby County	14	6	4	4	26	21	+5	22
10	Middlesbrough	14	6	3	5	27	26	+1	21
11	Leicester City	14	6	2	6	22	25	-3	20
12	Aston Villa	14	5	3	6	23	20	+3	18
13	Tottenham Hotspur	14	5	3	6	14	16	-2	18
14	Nottingham Forest	14	5	2	7	24	26	-2	17
15	Wimbledon	14	5	0	9	26	37	-11	15
16	Sunderland	14	4	2	8	26	28	-2	14
17	Sheffield Wednesday	14	4	1	9	18	29	-11	13
18	Coventry City	14	3	4	7	13	25	-12	13
19	West Ham United	14	2	2	10	17	42	-25	8
20	Southampton	14	1	2	11	8	33	-25	5

Managers of the Month

Premiership - Brian Little (Aston Villa)
Division 1 - John King (Tranmere Rovers)
Division 2 - Joe Jordan (Bristol City)
Division 3 - Kevin Hodges (Torquay United)
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[bnpwp1979]

Ahh I see, I thought I had made a mistake. I guess the amount of hours on CM & FM have merged into one long game

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Think that was in 01/02 no? No Mark Kerrs or Cherno Sambas in this game! Couldn't find Tsigalko either.

There all CM 01/02 guys < THE BEST GAME EVER!, Except Cherno. He was 00/01