Newcastle United Retro Football Shirts

Newcastle United FC were founded in 1892 after East End FC decided to give their club a new image. The name change wasn’t legalised until 1895 although the club were entered into the Football League divison two in 1893. The club’s first couple of seasons were fairly uninspiring but they eventually gained promotion to the first division in 1897 with a 2nd place finish. Although initially the team didn’t make much of an impact, they had a fantastic spell at the top of the game between 1904 and 1911 where they won three league titles and one FA Cup in 1910 where they beat Barnsley 2-0 in a replay. The club also reached the final on four other occasions during this period.

The 1920’s saw Newcastle continue pretty much where they had left off. Although they didn’t make much of an impression in the first couple of years they were still a big team to be reckoned with. However, in 1924, the club won their second FA Cup trophy with a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa. This failed to reignite their league form until 1927 when the team won their final division one title to date with Hughie Gallacher’s goals being the main source of inspiration. However, it proved a one off as several average mid table finishes followed. The club’s last main success of this era came in 1932 with Newcastle’s 3rd FA Cup victory with a 2-1 victory over Arsenal. Unfortunately, in 1934 the team were relegated and remained in division two right up until the Second War World broke out in 1939.

The post war period saw a mini revival in the fortunes of the club. Former all time top goalscorer Jackie Milburn inspired the club to promotion back to the first division in 1948 which led to consistent league campaigns in the 2-3 years afterwards. However, it was the FA Cup that Newcastle United excelled in as back to back trophies were won in 1951 and 1952 with victories over Blackpool and Arsenal respectively. Two poor seasons followed but the club won their 6th FA Cup in 1955 with a 3-1 victory over Manchester City which saw Jackie Milburn score what at the time was the quickest goal in an FA Cup final ever. This was to be the last of Newcastle’s major successes as the team sufferred relegation to division two in 1961.

The club eventually made it back to division one in 1965 yet failed to make any impact on the division or cup competitions in the years that followed. However, the team did achieve an unexpected success in 1969 by winning the Inter Cities Fairs Cup. Even so, the team had no impact in the league at all but achieved a couple of decent runs in the domestic cup competitions with runner up spots in the FA Cup of 1974 and the League Cup of 1976. However, the club’s poor league form finally caught up with them in 1978 as they were relegated to division two. Some fairly average league campaigns followed before a 3rd place finish in 1984 saw them back amongst the country’s elite. Newcastle achieved little success in the 1980’s and were relegated once again to division two and remained there as the Premier League got underway in 1992.

As the club were in the second tier of English football, they were now in the newly formed division one in 1992. Led by Kevin Keegan, the team romped to the league championship and gained promotion to the Premier League. Life in the Premiership under Keegan was an eventful one for Newcastle United supporters as the club became a significant force. However, despite holding leads at the top of the table in the 94/94 and 95/96 campaign, the team faltered in the second half of both seasons and ended up not winning the title. Keegan suddenly resigned despite the team being well placed half way through the 1996/97 season. Kenny Daglish and Ruud Gullit followed as managers but were unable to bring the same level of success to the club. A brief renaissance was found under Sir Bobby Robson in 1999 as he led the team to two top four finishes which brought an exciting Champions League and UEFA Cup campaign. However, Robson was sacked in 2004, a move that is looked back on as a big mistake from a Newcastle supporter’s viewpoint. Since then, the club has slowly declined and were unsurprisingly relegated at the end of the 2008/09 campaign after a terrible reign from chairman Mike Ashley left the club in disarray.