February 1, 1992. A pint costs £1.30, John Major is the Prime Minister, Manchester United haven’t won the league championship since 1967 and, across the pond, Elton John and George Michael are topping the Billboard charts with Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.
At Oxford United’s decrepit Manor Ground, that same sun has long since set. One of English football’s great institutions has been plunged into darkness and is on the brink. Inside the confines of the away dressing room, the mood is bleak. An Argentine World Cup winner is at a loss. As Newcastle United fans plod wearily back to coaches and cars for a grim 258-mile trek north, the overriding feeling isn’t anger – despite the club facing the prospect of dropping into the third tier for the first time in its history – it’s apathy.
A humiliating 5-2 defeat to Brian Horton’s U’s – the only team below the Magpies in the table – has further entrenched Ossie Ardiles’ Newcastle in the Division Two relegation zone. The previous week, they had contrived to turn a three-goal advantage over play-off chasers Charlton into a 4-3 defeat in front of a disbelieving St James’ Park.
The days of Jackie Milburn, domestic trophy triumphs and European success have never seemed so distant on Tyneside.
The club’s final encounter of the following campaign, 1992-93, takes place 463 days after this Oxfordshire woe. Yet Newcastle’s progress from that Manor Ground nadir is best measured not in days but in light years. A club that was going nowhere is suddenly parading through the city centre on an opentop bus. People are hanging off lampposts and perched on rooftops, each straining for a vantage point to watch their heroes wave
