Continuing my theme looking back at away records done the years, today we look at the 2008/09 season when unfortunately we went down, losing 1-0 to Aston Villa on the last day of the season with Damien Duff making things worse by scoring an own goal.
2008/09 - Premier League (18th - relegation)
17/08 Man United 1-1 (Martins 22) 30/08 Arsenal 0-3 20/09 West Ham 1-3 (Owen 67) 5/10 Everton 2-2 (S.Taylor 45, Duff 47) 25/10 Sunderland 1-2 (Ameobi 30) 9/11 Fulham 1-2 (Ameobi 57) 22/11 Chelsea 0-0 29/11 Middlesbrough 0-0 14/12 Portsmouth 3-0 (Owen 52, Martins 77, Guthrie 89) 26/12 Wigan 1-2 (Guthrie (pen) 88) 17/1 Blackburn 0-3 28/1 Man City 1-2 (Carroll 81) 7/2 West Brom 3-2 (Duff 2, Lovenkrands 9, S.Taylor 41) 1/3 Bolton 0-1 14/3 Hull City 1-1 (S.Taylor 38) 11/4 Stoke 1-1 (Carroll 81) 19/4 Tottenham 0-1 3/5 Liverpool 0-3 24/5 Aston Villa 0-1
P W D L F A GD Pts 19 2 6 11 16 30 -14 12
Top scorer: Steven Taylor 3
Biggest win: Portsmouth 0-3 Newcastle
At the time of writing this, Newcastle's last trip to Fratton Park ended with a somewhat surprising 3-0 win. With goals from Michael Owen with a dink over David James, Obafemi Martins tucked away what I remember as a lucky goal and Danny Guthrie towards the end bagged his first Newcastle goal with a great strike into the top corner. With the score at goalless going into half-time, Portsmouth were looking the more likely to score but Newcastle came out in the second half to turn out a performance of the highest quality to give the travelling fans their first away win of the season, something to cheer about for the 346-mile trip home.
Biggest defeat: Liverpool 3 - 0 Newcastle
A trip to Anfield for Newcastle is not usually a game that Newcastle fans go into with expectation of a victory given that, even at the time of writing this, Newcastle haven't won in the Premier League away at Liverpool since 16th April 1994. This match proved to be no exception. With Newcastle heading to Anfield desperate for a win in an attempt to boost their hopes of survival, it was always going to be difficult especially when Rafa Benitez's Liverpool side had only lost twice in the league throughout that season (as many times as Newcastle had away wins that season). With the odds firmly stacked against going into the game, it certainly wasn't made easier when goals from Yossi Benayoun and Dirk Kuyt gave Liverpool a 2-0 lead in the opening half hour. To round off a miserable trip to Liverpool, Joey Barton got himself sent off and on his way to the tunnel, temporary manager Alan Shearer told him he wouldn't play for Newcastle again.