Totally Extra: Liverpool 4-3 Newcastle, 30 years on
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1996 Title Race
You can tell him now if you're watching it, we're still fighting for this title, and he's got to go to Middlesbrough and get something. And I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them. Love it.
Kevin Keegan mentality
I asked Keegan, 'If Newcastle finished second this season, that'll still be an achievement, won't it?' And Keegan looked at me with daggers and said, 'Second would mean nothing to me. Absolutely nothing.'
Newcastle United 1995-96
In the first 25 games of the season, Newcastle were averaging 2.4 points a game, which is 91-point pace over a season. For the last 13 games, they got 18 points at 1.4 per game. So it was a pretty dramatic falling off.
I've been spoilt. My life has been ruined by seeing a team play football like that because that's my touchstone and so I think that every team I measure every team to them and front-footed attacking that they did.
Premier League iconic moments
I think maybe that was the last time that it actually happened where the whole country was behind Aguero scoring that goal that day because it felt like once again Manchester United were gonna get away with it.
Kevin Keegan legacy
The Newcastle that exists now, for better or for worse, doesn't exist without Keegan. He is the figure that a modern Newcastle is built on and constructed around.
I have put a poster of Kevin Keegan behind me. There is also a quote from Kevin Keegan behind me on the wall which says, 'I want people to dream about their football club. We should all be dreamers at heart.'
Premier League history
I think it kind of marked the start of the Premier League era in some respects. It just felt it began with Manchester United on the back foot, but it kind of had ebbs and flows all the way through. It needed a memorable moment at a particularly crucial point of the season.
Modern football analysis
If this game was played now, there'd be a lot of 'well actually the defending was pretty shoddy' and 'well actually it didn't really mean anything.' I just don't think a game would be allowed to reach that kind of unfiltered wider appreciation.
Liverpool vs Newcastle 1996
Rob Smyth famously wrote back this game in the context of genuinely great matches: 'Liverpool 4 Newcastle 3 is hard to take seriously. If it were a film, it would have starred Jason Statham.'
