Season 1978/79 - Road to Ruin
Summary
Bill McGarry's first full season in charge and the club were back in Division 2. Many supporters reacted by not turning up and United attendances hit new lows; others launched legal challenges against the club.
It was one of the worst seasons of recent times with the side rarely looking like promotion material. The quality of the football was poor - described in one press report as "football without a genuine smile on it's face - and goals were in short supply.
Indifferent throughout the season we finished 8th, our lowest position since 1963-64. The main problem was the away form with only 4 wins and 16 goals in 21 games.
The Season
United made a poor start with the much changed personnel trying to mould themselves into a team whilst stuggling to adapt to the rigours of the lower division. After five games we were in 20th and out of the League Cup and McGarry was soon calling for increased effort.
United moved up to 6th after an eight match unbeaten run and looked as though we had turned the corner, but a lack of goals and a dismal away record saw us slipping down the table again.
The signings of Mick Martin and Alan Shoulder provided a short-term boost and a three match winning streak took them back up to 6th by mid December. The "P" word started to be mentioned, albeit quitely.
Unfortunately the pitches froze-up and the injuries piled up and a disastrous spell of seven defeats in eight games followed. The nadir being a humiliating 1-4 reverse at SJP against the Makems. By mid March we had dropped to 16th.
Thankfully six wins in the last thirteen matches enabled us to pull clear of relegation trouble.
The League was won by Liverpool who finished eight points ahead of reigning champions Forest. WBA were third. Chelsea were relegated after finishing bottom.
We made our usual humiliating exit from the League Cup when we were beaten by Turnip Taylor's Third Division Watford who had only won promotion from the Fourth in the previous season. Nottingham Forest beat Southampton in the Final. Brian Clough also led Forest to the European Championship that year.
In the FA Cup we struggled past Fourth Division Torquay before losing to Wolves after a replay.Arsenal beat Man Utd 3-2 in the final .
Paradoxically the best result of the season was a 3-1 home defeat to Brighton as the result virtually wiped out Sunderland's chances of promotion.
The Players
It was a game of musical chairs with 8 new players arriving and an unlucky(?) thirteen players departing.
Nearly all his signings were First Division players and the record transfer fee was broken to sign Peter Withe from Nottingham Forest. However, the most successful signing was arguably that of Alan Shoulder from Northern League Blyth Spartans.
Recurrent injury problems for a number of players certainly dispupted United's season with a number of inexperienced youngsters having to be thrown in at the deep end, a number of whom drowned.
The Management
The Board of Directors were the target of a High Court Petition raised by the Newcastle Supporters Association who claimed they were abusing their position and power to the detriment of the club.
Bill McGarry was in his first full season in charge and he certainly worked hard in the transfer market to try and shape a new side. Unfortunately he was hindered by a lack of funds in a increasingly inflationary transfer market
He loss the services of first team coach Peter Morris who went to manage Mansfield; Mcgarry would later point to this as a decisive point in his Tyneside career as he was not replaced
The Fans
A first home crowd of 27,167 was encouraging especially as the game was played midweek, but the desperation of the club's position was to be starkly reflected at the turnstiles.
The average home attendance in the League was the lowest figure since the War and the last game of the season attracted the lowest crowd of the century.
Hoolaganism was still rife with problems in the matches agaist Millwall in particular.