As part of a new series here on Magpie Ultras I’m going to be exploring the Newcastle United sides of days gone by and we’re starting with the 2004/05 season, which for me was the second season I was actually alive for!

So, what occurred in 04/05 well let’s begin with the summer transfer window.

In terms of incomings, we spent £9,750,000 on six players. These were James Milner (Leeds, £5,000,00), Patrick Kluivert (Barcelona, free transfer), Nicky Butt (Manchester Reds, £2,500,000), Charles N’Zogbia (Le Havre, £250,000), Stephen Carr (Tottenham Hotspur, £2,000,000) and Ronny Johnsen (Aston Villa, free transfer).

Whereas in terms of departures the club made £15,900,000 in the summer window from the sales of nine players. Andy Griffin (Portsmouth); Calvin Zola (Tranmere Rovers); Steven Caldwell (S**derland); Brian Kerr (Motherwell) and Bradley Orr (Bristol City) all left on free transfers. Lomana Lualua (Portsmouth, £1,750,000), Gary Speed (£750,000, Bolton Wanderers), Jonathan Woodgate (£13,400,000) all left for cash sums and Hugo Viana (Sporting) left on a season long loan.

The beginning of the season was tough. A poor pre season losing to Thailand, Ipswich, Sporting and Celtic and beating Kitchee SC (on penalties) and Rangers didn’t serve up much promise for the fans.

The season began with a respectable 2-2 draw with fellow North Eastern side Middlesbrough with Craig Bellamy and Alan Shearer getting the goals. But a 1-0 defeat to Spurs was followed up by a disappointing 2-2 draw with newly promoted Norwich (Bellamy and Hughes) spelled trouble and when that was followed up by a 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa, a game where Kluivert scored his first of six goals in black n white, Sir Bobby Robson was let go in favour of Blackburn manager Graeme Souness.

And Souness began in excellent fashion, not losing in his first six games in charge! His first a victory against his former club 3-0 with goals from Shearer, O’Brien and an own goal. His second a victory on the South coast against Southampton with another own goal and Stephen Carr’s first goal for Newcastle. A 3-1 victory over West Brom followed that with Kluivert scoring his first and only home goal, Milner got his first goal in this one and of course Alan Shearer scored too. The next result was Souness’ first draw, 2-2 with Birmingham (Jenas and Butt scored). And another draw followed with Charlton (1-1, Bellamy). Both those draws were away fixtures, and back on home turf Souness’ side got back to winning ways in spectacular fashion with a 4-3 victory over Manchester City. Laurent Robert, Robbie Elliot, Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy grabbed the goals that day. But the good form couldn’t last.

Three defeats in the next three was disappointing with those being a 2-1 defeat to Bolton (Ambrose), a 4-1 defeat at St James’ Park against Fulham (Bellamy) and a 3-1 defeat against Manchester Reds (again at SJP, Shearer got the goal). Another win followed that run of defeats with a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace with Kluivert and Bellamy grabbing one each before a draw with Everton (1-1, Bellamy) rounded out November.

December was not a good month for Newcastle with no victories. A 4-0 loss to Chelsea was followed up with a 1-1 draw to Portsmouth (Bowyer) and then a 3-1 loss to Liverpool (Kluivert, Bramble scored an own goal and Bowyer was sent off). A disappointing 2-2 draw with Blackburn with Dyer and Robert grabbing goals to earn us our last point of 2004 as we followed that up with a 1-0 loss to Arsenal in our final game of the year.

2005 started well. A 2-1 victory over Birmingham (Ameobi, Bowyer) was followed up with a 0-0 draw with West Brom before a 2-1 victory to complete the double over Southampton (Shearer and Bramble). Arsenal completed the double of 1-0 victories over us before two 1-1 draws in a row with Manchester City and Charlton (Shearer v City and Dyer v Charlton) began February.

Before we go on, the January transfer window also occurred in this period. We signed three players totalling £10,000,000 and two players left, one permanent for £400,000 and one on loan. Signings were all defenders with Babayaro from Chelsea on a free, Boumsong from Rangers for £8,000,000 and Faye from Portsmouth for £2,000,000. Out went Bernard for £400,000 to Southampton and Bellamy on loan to Celtic after he told teammates he was going to fake an injury and Souness found out. 

Two victories in a row followed with a 2-1 victory over Bolton (Bowyer and Dyer) was followed up by a very impressive 1-0 victory over Liverpool courtesy of a Laurent Robert goal. A 1-1 draw with Portsmouth was followed up by four losses in a row.

First was a thoroughly disappointing 3-0 victory against Villa, where Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer were sent off for fighting and Steven Taylor was sent off for handball, followed up by another 1-0 loss to Spurs. A 2-1 defeat to Norwich was the worst of the bunch with Kluivert grabbing a consolation goal in the 89^th minute. Manchester Reds then beat us 2-1 at Old Trashford with Ambrose scoring for us.

April ended with two 0-0 draws at home against Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace before a 3-1 victory over Fulham with Ambrose, Kluivert and Ameobi grabbing the goals. A 2-0 loss to Everton was our final away result of the season before a 1-1 draw with Chelsea, where future Newcastle man Geremi scored an own goal, ended the season.

14^th place was where we finished which was thoroughly thoroughly underwhelming for a side with European aspirations. But what about the cups?

Well the League Cup was by far the worst, with victory in round 3 over Norwich 2-1 with goals from Jermaine Jenas and Shola Ameobi before a 2-0 defeat in extra time to eventual winners Chelsea.

The FA Cup we faired better, beating Yeading (non-league, tier 7) 2-0 courtesy of Bowyer and Ameobi. Coventry were dispatched 3-1 at home with Shearer, Ameobi and Babayaro scoring. A very impressive 1-0 victory over Chelsea stopped the Blues winning the domestic treble (Kluivert with his first home goal in the cups). And a quarter final win over Tottenham (Kluivert) set up a Cardiff trip to face Manchester Reds. A 4-1 loss to the Reds caused us to crash out at the semi-finals stage.

Now onto the UEFA cup. We first beat Bnei Sakhnin 7-1 on aggregate, Kluivert got four goals across the two legs and Shearer got the other three. Then came the five team group stage where we were drawn with Sochaux, Sporting, Panionios and Dinamo Tbilisi. We went unbeaten, beating Panionios 1-0 (Shearer), Tbilisi 2-0 (Shearer and Bellamy), Sochaux 4-0 (Bowyer, Ameobi, Bellamy, Robert) and drew with Sporting 1-1 (Bellamy). We drew Heerenveen in the round of 32 with a 2-1 victory coming in Netherlands (Shearer and Bowyer (who was also sent off)) before another 2-1 victory in England with Shearer scoring after Heerenveen scored an own goal. Olympiacos were next up in the round of 16 and four goals and two red cards later we’d won 3-1 (Shearer, Robert, Kluivert) with both red cards being for the Greek side. A 4-0 win back at St James’ (Dyer, Shearer (2) and Bowyer) set up a tie with our fellow group D opponents Sporting CP. A 1-0 win at St James (Shearer) was followed by a very disappointing 4-1 defeat in Portugal with Dyer getting our goal. And so we crashed out in the Quarter finals of Europe.

So all in all a harrowing season for Graeme Souness and co with no trophies and a 14^th place finish. Below is a review of each players season and every result.

NO.	POSITION	NAME	APPS	GOALS
1	GK	SHAY GIVEN	52	0
2	DF	STEPHEN CARR	39	1
3	DF	ROBBIE ELLIOTT	22	1
4	MF	NICKY BUTT	26	1
5	DF	ANDY O’BRIEN	38	2
6	DF	JEAN-ALAIN BOUMSONG	18	0
7	MF	JERMAINE JENAS	48	2
8	MF	KIERON DYER	34	6
9	FW	ALAN SHEARER	42	19
10	FW	CRAIG BELLAMY	29	10
11	FW	PATRICK KLUIVERT	37	13
12	GK	STEVE HARPER	7	0
14	MF	CHARLES N’ZOGBIA	19	0
15	MF	AMDY FAYE	17	0
16	MF	JAMES MILNER	39	1
17	MF	DARREN AMBROSE	18	3
18	DF	AARON HUGHES	36	1
19	DF	TITUS BRAMBLE	32	1
22	MF	JAMIE MCCLEN	0	0
23	FW	SHOLA AMEOBI	45	7
24	GK	TONY CRAIG	0	0
25	DF	RONNY JOHNSEN	5	0
27	DF	STEVEN TAYLOR	22	0
28	FW	MICHAEL CHOPRA	1	0
29	MF	LEE BOWYER	39	7
32	MF	LAURENT ROBERT	47	5
33	DF	CELESTINE BABAYARO	13	1
35	DF	OLIVIER BERNARD	29	0
39	MF	MARTIN BRITTAIN	0	0
40	FW	LEWIS GUY	1	0
42	DF	PETER RAMAGE	5	0

DATE	HOME TEAM	SCORE	AWAY TEAM	COMPETITION
14/07/04	THAILAND	1-1 (4-2p)	NEWCASTLE	FRIENDLY
18/07/04	KITCHEE SC	1-1 (6-7p)	NEWCASTLE	FRIENDLY
28/07/04	IPSWICH TOWN	2-1	NEWCASTLE	FRIENDLY
31/07/04	NEWCASTLE	4-2	RANGERS	FRIENDLY
01/08/04	NEWCASTLE	0-1	SPORTING CP	FRIENDLY
04/08/04	CELTIC	2-1	NEWCASTLE	FRIENDLY
14/08/04	MIDDLESBROUGH	2-2	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
21/08/04	NEWCASTLE	0-1	TOTTENHAM	PREMIER LEAGUE
25/08/04	NEWCASTLE	2-2	NORWICH	PREMIER LEAGUE
28/08/04	ASTON VILLA	4-2	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
11/09/04	NEWCASTLE	3-0	BLACKBURN	PREMIER LEAGUE
16/09/04	NEWCASTLE	2-0	BNEI SAKHNIN	UEFA CUP
19/09/04	SOUTHAMPTON	1-2	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
25/09/04	NEWCASTLE	3-1	WEST BROM	PREMIER LEAGUE
30/09/04	BNEI SAKHNIN	1-5	NEWCASTLE	UEFA CUP
03/10/04	BIRMINGHAM	2-2	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
17/10/04	CHARLTON	1-1	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
21/10/04	PANIONIOS	0-1	NEWCASTLE	UEFA CUP
24/10/04	NEWCASTLE	4-3	MAN CITY	PREMIER LEAGUE
27/10/04	NEWCASTLE	2-1	NORWICH	LEAGUE CUP
31/10/04	BOLTON	2-1	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
04/11/04	NEWCASTLE	2-0	DINAMO TBILISI	UEFA CUP
07/11/04	NEWCASTLE	1-4	FULHAM	PREMIER LEAGUE
10/11/04	NEWCASTLE	0-2	CHELSEA	LEAGUE CUP
14/11/04	NEWCASTLE	1-3	MAN UNITED	PREMIER LEAGUE
20/11/04	CRYSTAL PALACE	0-2	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
25/11/04	SOCHAUX	0-4	NEWCASTLE	UEFA CUP
28/11/04	NEWCASTLE	1-1	EVERTON	PREMIER LEAGUE
04/12/04	CHELSEA	4-0	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
11/12/04	NEWCASTLE	1-1	PORTSMOUTH	PREMIER LEAGUE
16/12/04	NEWCASTLE	1-1	SPORTING	UEFA CUP
19/12/04	LIVERPOOL	3-1	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
26/12/04	BLACKBURN	2-2	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
29/12/04	NEWCASTLE	0-1	ARSENAL	PREMIER LEAGUE
01/01/05	NEWCASTLE	2-1	BIRMINGHAM	PREMIER LEAGUE
03/01/05	WEST BROM	0-0	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
09/01/05	YEADING	0-2	NEWCASTLE	FA CUP
15/01/05	NEWCASTLE	2-1	SOUTHAMPTON	PREMIER LEAGUE
23/01/05	ARSENAL	1-0	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
29/01/05	NEWCASTLE	3-1	COVENTRY	FA CUP
02/02/05	MAN CITY	1-1	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
05/02/05	NEWCASTLE	1-1	CHARLTON	PREMIER LEAGUE
17/02/05	HEERENVEEN	1-2	NEWCASTLE	UEFA CUP
20/02/05	NEWCASTLE	1-0	CHELSEA	FA CUP
24/02/05	NEWCASTLE	2-1	HEERENVEEN	UEFA CUP
27/02/05	NEWCASTLE	2-1	BOLTON	PREMIER LEAGUE
05/03/05	NEWCASTLE	1-0	LIVERPOOL	PREMIER LEAGUE
10/03/05	OLYMPIACOS	1-3	NEWCASTLE	UEFA CUP
13/03/05	NEWCASTLE	1-0	TOTTENHAM	FA CUP
16/03/05	NEWCASTLE	4-0	OLYMPIACOS	UEFA CUP
19/03/05	PORTSMOUTH	1-1	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
02/04/05	NEWCASTLE	0-3	ASTON VILLA	PREMIER LEAGUE
07/04/05	NEWCASTLE	1-0	SPORTING	UEFA CUP
10/04/05	TOTTENHAM	1-0	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
14/04/05	SPORTING	4-1	NEWCASTLE	UEFA CUP
17/04/05	NEWCASTLE	1-4	MAN UTD	FA CUP
20/04/05	NORWICH	2-1	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
24/04/05	MAN UTD	2-1	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
27/04/05	NEWCASTLE	0-0	MIDDLESBROUGH	PREMIER LEAGUE
30/04/05	NEWCASTLE	0-0	CRYSTAL PALACE	PREMIER LEAGUE
04/05/05	FULHAM	1-3	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
07/05/05	EVERTON	2-0	NEWCASTLE	PREMIER LEAGUE
15/05/05	NEWCASTLE	1-1	CHELSEA	PREMIER LEAGUE

Season Ranking: 4/10

#NUFC #Newcastle #NUFCfans

Joe | Magpie Ultras