NUFC Season Summaries

NUFC Season 1995/96

Manager	Kevin Keegan
Lge Pos	D1 - 2nd
FA Cup	3rd
Lge Cup	5th
Euro
Attendance	36,503
Top Scorer	Ferdinand [29]

Everbody knows the story. When United beat Middlesbrough on February 10th they were 9 points clear of 2nd placed Man United and they had 13 games left (one more than The Red Devils). Up until then the record was 19/3/3; but from that point onwards the record was 5/3/5. In the same period a Cantona and Schmeichel inspired Man United gradually ate away the lead and eventually took the Championship.

During the summer the club invested heavily with Warren Barton, Les Ferdinand, David Ginola and Shaka Hislop arriving at a combined cost of almost £15 million.

Once again The Toon set off at a blistering pace, winning 11 out of their first 13 Premiership matches scoring 30 goals in the process. Hardly surprising when they boasted an attack of Lee, Beardsley, Ferdinand, Ginola and Gillespie.

Staying largely clear of injuries they maintained the pace and their only defeats before Christmas were at Southampton (0-1), Chelsea (0-1) and Man United (0-2).

Five consecutive victories were recorded at the start of 1996 and a confident Keegan (who always believed in strengthening the team when it was doing well) splashed out again on Tino Asprilla and David Batty.

Then all of a sudden the wheels came off with a disastrous run of four defeats in six games culminating in the infamous but classic 4-3 defeat at Liverpool. The other defeats were away at West Ham and Arsenal (both 0-2) and crucially at home to Man U (0-1). The Magpies had battered the Mancunians but a mixture of bad luck, bad finishing and Peter Schmeichel kept them out. The Lancastrians now led by 3 points although they had played a game more.

United bounced back to win won 4 out of the next 5 with Blackburn inflicting the only defeat when they scored twice in the last couple of minutes to win 2-1. The last game of the run at Leeds was where KK gave his famous "love it" speech.

Man U had 79 points with 1 game left; United had 76 points with 2 games left but were 6 goals worse off in terms of goal difference. It was going to be difficult but there was still hope.

United's game in hand was away against Nottingham Forest but a 76th minute equaliser by Ian Woan denied them the necessary victory. The only way the title could be won now was if Newcastle beat Spurs at St James' and Man U lost at Middlesbrough. The Traffordonians won and Newcastle could only manage a draw.

Many theories have been put forward for United's late collapse: defensive weakness, tactical naivety, loss of bottle, the disruption to the team caused by the introduction of Asprilla. But when you look at the defeats they had: in 6 out of 8 we didn't score. This was not a season of high scoring defeats as it has often been misrepresented. A distraught Keegan offered to resign.

The League Cup brought a controversial defeat at Highbury in the Quarter Finals whilst Chelsea knocked us out of the FA Cup in a penalty shoot-out.