Following the sad departure of manager, Kevin Keegan in the midst of the previous century of Premier League goals, Newcastle found scoring much more difficult to come by as the team went on no longer play their trademark entertaining attacking football. In addition to this, slipping down the Premier League meant that we found competing for Europe a strenuous task let alone trying to enter ourselves for another title race.

The back end of this era however does have a happy ending with Sir Bobby Robson coming in as manager in September 1999 after Ruud Guillit left the club with a winless start to the season and in the relegation zone. Alan Shearer, of course was our main source for goals as he scored twenty-nine from this century, something that was massively helped by his five goals in Sir Bobby's first home game against Sheffield Wednesday - a joint record for the amount of goals scored by an individual in the Premier League.

Date: 8th November 1997 to 26th December 1999 (778 days)

First goal

Coventry 1 Newcastle 1 (John Barnes 31) - 08/11/97

As Coventry found themselves a goal to the good thanks to, now Homes Under the Hammer presenter, Dion Dublin's opener, it took Newcastle just short of half an hour later to find the equalising goal which came through John Barnes. The ball was switched over to the right wing to the awaiting Keith Gillespie. Gillespie then drove in a powerful low cross-come-shot into the box which the goalkeeper failed to deal with properly as he knocked out it to the feet of the predatory John Barnes who finished the golden opportunity presented to him.

Most important goal

Newcastle 2 (Alan Shearer 86) Barnsley 1 - 13/04/98

Goal 319: With mid table finishes and no wins in the Tyne/Wear derbies during this era of goals, it was difficult to decide what goal out of the hundred should be deemed as the most important goal. In the end, I chose Alan Shearer's late winner at home to Barnsley in April 1998 as that goal ended a difficult winless streak which was lasting eight games over the course of ten weeks going into the match as the Yorkshire club visited the north east. For the goal, two club legends in Alan Shearer and Rob Lee linked up. Rob Lee managed to find the space to get a floated cross in from the right hand side and Shearer was at the far post and he looped the header in. That goal, especially as it came late on in the game, must have destroyed the confidence in the Barnsley team as they ended the season in relegation and have not returned to the big time since.

Best goal

Newcastle United 1 (Temuri Ketsbaia 78) Tottenham 1 - 05/04/99

Goal 366: Some excellent strikes from this era of goals especially coming from Rob Lee and Nobby Solano but, for me, Georgian international, Temuri Ketsbaia grabs this award with his equalising goal against Spurs after Darren Anderton opened the scoring with a penalty. Ketsbaia was given the ball when he was about twenty-five yards away from goal and it seems that instinct took over his thought process at that point as he delicately flicked the ball up for himself and struck a volley into the top corner. The game then finished with one goal apiece.

Most goals in a match

Newcastle United 8 (Aaron Hughes 11, Alan Shearer 30, pen 33, 42, 81, pen 84, Kieron Dyer 46, Gary Speed 78) Sheff Wed 0 - 19/09/99

It is strange to think that, going into this game, Newcastle and Sheffield Wednesday were occupying the bottom two places in the league - what happened next was quite astonishing. Young defender, Aaron Hughes headed home to open the scoring early on after Wednesday had a goal disallowed shortly beforehand. Shearer made the most of receiving excellent service from young midfielder, Kieron Dyer as well as displaying excellent attacking instinct by getting into the right positions to give the defence a nightmare start as Shearer grabbed his hat-trick within the space of twelve minutes and before half time. The second half was a similar story with the Toon showing no sign of stopping with the scoring. It was an excellent first impression for Sir Bobby as this is, still to this day, Newcastle's record win in the Premier League. Notably, it was Shearer's fifth goal of this match that saw him become Newcastle's record goalscorer in the Premier League as he overtook Peter Beardsley's tally of 46. Since then, Shearer has been ever-present at the top of that goalscoring chart.

Favourite opponents

Coventry (John Barnes, Rob Lee, Nikos Dabizas, Alan Shearer x4, Gary Speed x2, Stephen Glass, Louis Saha, Didier Domi) - 12 goals.

Two big wins over Coventry in the 1998/99 season gave the midlands club a helping hand to this unwanted record. In both of those wins, Noel Whelan gave Coventry City the lead before Newcastle would then react with a goal-fest to secure comfortable wins.

Highest scorer

Alan Shearer (Crystal Palace, Barnsley, Southampton x3, Coventry x4, Nottm Forest x3, Aston Villa, Everton x2, Sheff Wed x6, Wimbledon, Middlesbrough x3, Leeds x2, Derby, Liverpool) - 29 goals.

Despite suffering a long term ankle injury in a pre-season friendly in summer 1997 which kept Shearer out of action for over half the forthcoming season, he still managed to accumulate the goals on his return. The then England captain went on to prove his world class ability with his excellent scoring form under Sir Bobby Robson who came to the club after Ruud Guillit left Newcastle in a difficult position. Controversially, in Guillit's final match in charge of the Toon, the Dutch manager started prolific striking pair, Shearer and Ferguson on the bench for the home Tyne/Wear derby which Sunderland went on to win. Shearer, understandably incensed by the decision, once stated in an interview that he was about to storm into Guillit's office the first thing the following morning, the only problem was that the feisty Duncan Ferguson managed to get there ahead of him.

Statistics

Right foot: 49 (down 7 from Goals 201-300)

Header: 29 (up 13)

Left foot: 22 (down 6)

Inside the box: 82 (up 2)

Outside the box: 18 (down 2)

Open play: 67 (down 4)

Penalty: 11 (up 5)

Set piece situation: 19 (unchanged)

Free kick (directly): 3 (unchanged)

Corner (directly): 0 (down 1)

At St. James' Park: 58 (down 14)

- Gallowgate End: 31 (down 2)

- Leazes End: 27 (down 12)

Away from home: 42 (up 14)

Midfielders: 44 (up 17)

Strikers: 42 (down 14)

Defenders: 11 (down 8)

Own goals: 3 (up 3)