“We thought that nothing could stop us. We were scoring goals for fun. We did concede some silly goals, but always managed to score one more goal than opponents. We didn’t have injuries or suspensions. It was looking really good until Man United came to St James Park in March.
“Eric scored. It was a killer. It was such a tight game and we knew that whoever scored one goal would probably get all three points. It was such a frustration to play so well for an entire season and win no trophies at all. That was my biggest frustration, that we couldn’t give a trophy to those wonderful fans who’ve been supporting their team for years. I’ve met so many over the years and I never lost in my mind how important those fans were. I respected that. I felt it very strongly at Newcastle. It’s a very working class city. Tough life. Tough weather. Tough people. I wanted so much to win a trophy for them.
“I remember Keegan’s frustration and him saying ‘I’d love it’. That was the first time I saw Kevin getting out of his mind. We were in the dressing room and we could hear him shouting outside doing the live interview with Sky. He was very loud. He came in the dressing room and banged the door. We’d not seen him like that. He was usually calm, composed, cool and very down to earth.
“He was a very nice man. But he probably realised at the time that he made some mistakes in managing his team. In the second half he could have dropped someone, maybe put on a defender or a midfielder to hold our lead. Maybe there was a weakness in terms of strategy and when you realise that you need to get all these frustrations out of yourself.”