It isn’t often that your star striker scores a hat-trick, you score six goals away from home but STILL end up on the losing side, but that’s exactly what happened to Newcastle United fans back in 1991.
The venue was Prenton Park and Newcastle’s opponents were Tranmere Rovers in the old Zenith Data Systems Cup.
On a freezing night on the Wirral, BskyB, before the Premier League days and blanket coverage kicked off, opted to broadcast the fixture and they ended up with a cracking game for the neutral.
Newcastle had been ahead in the game but went from 5-3 down to 6-5 up before being pegged back in the last minute of extra time before going out on penalties.
Quinn (3), Gavin Peacock, (2), and Lee Clark scored for Newcastle while John Aldridge (3), Neil McNab, Jim Steel and Dave Martindale netted for Rovers.
Playing with a diamond formation during the Ossie Ardiles era, United looked great going forward but were woeful at the back.
Ardiles was then sacked in January of that season with Kevin Keegan replacing him and just steering the Magpies to Second Division safety.
Newcastle have been on Sky many times since, but this game is still talked about by older fans.
