A mainstay in the United backline for a full decade, wholehearted defender John Anderson has remained a familiar face at St. James’ Park long after his retirement from the game in 1992.
A co-commentator with BBC Newcastle, the Irishman was in buoyant mood as he sat down to reflect on the Magpies’ 2-0 win at Barnsley last week.
"I think we’re going from strength to strength,” he begins. “Those first couple of games were a kick up the backside – a wake-up call that this was a league we were going to have to adapt to quickly.
“I think we have done that now. We’re finding a way to win even when we’re not playing brilliantly, which is what the Championship is all about. You have to be able to stay in games and dig results out, and that’s what we’ve been doing of late.
“I just think we have more quality than any of the other teams in this league. We have a big squad, but we have a number of players who are capable of winning games for us providing we match the opposition for work-rate and commitment.”
EMULATING ANDO AND CO
Perched at the top of the division at the time of writing, the current United crop will be looking to emulate the accomplishments of “Ando” and his teammates during the 1983-84 campaign, when the Magpies – under the guidance of Arthur Cox – secured promotion from the second-tier.
A free transfer, Anderson had moved to Tyneside ahead of the previous season, following his release by our visitors tonight, Preston North End.
“I enjoyed my time there,” he recalls. “It is a proper football club with proper people.
“I had gone to West Bromwich Albion as an apprentice, but I couldn’t settle in the Midlands. John Giles was the manager at the time. I had been planning to return home to Dublin, but John’s brother-in-law, Nobby Stiles, was the manager at Preston, and he asked me if I would like to come and do pre-season there.
"Off I went, and they said they’d like to sign me. They couldn’t agree a fee so it went to a tribunal, and I ended up signing a three-year contract after that.”
Preston posted a mid-table finish in the second-tier in Anderson’s first campaign at Deepdale, only for Stiles to lose his job the following year as the Lilywhites suffered a third relegation in 12 seasons. Former Manchester United boss Tommy Docherty failed to arrest their slide, before Gordon Lee – who had spent two years in the hotseat at St. James’ Park during the previous decade – took over the reins.
“Tommy Doc still thought he was at Manchester United,” Anderson explains. “He could throw money around all over the place. He left, Gordon Lee came in, and that was a complete nightmare. At the end of my third season, my contract was up and he said I could leave. And that was it – I left on a free and came to Newcastle.”
For Anderson, then 22, it marked a return to the Second Division, where the Magpies had registered a string of mid-table finishes since relegation from the top-flight in 1978.
Their cause was soon to be given a considerable boost, however, with the arrival of a diminutive frontman who would ultimately go on to write his name into United folklore…
“We were away – I can’t remember where – and Arthur hadn’t travelled, so we thought there must be something up,” Anderson says. “And then we heard the news that Kevin Keegan had signed, and it came as a complete shock to everybody. He had won everything there was to win at Liverpool, he had gone to Germany and been a hit, and all of a sudden here he was playing with us.
"There were a lot of young boys in the team – the likes of Chris Waddle, Peter Haddock and Wes Saunders – and it took a little bit of getting used to. We weren’t too sure how Kevin would take to us – he just had this aura about him. But in the end, he was just an ordinary lad. And of course, he was an unbelievable player.”
"A FABULOUS SEASON"
The following season, Newcastle secured a top-three berth with room to spare, making sure of their return to the top table. Keegan, Waddle and another youngster – Peter Beardsley – spearheaded their attacking charge, with Anderson a regular at the back, alongside the likes of Glenn Roeder and David McCreery.
“It was a fabulous season,” he recalls. “Expectations were high, and it started well. We went to Leeds on the opening day and I scored the winner. It was one of those seasons that just seemed to end too quickly. You wanted to be a part of it all the time. You wanted it to keep going. St. James’ Park only held 38,000 at the time, but with the noise they made, the fans made it a great place to be.”
United remained a First Division outfit for five years, finishing eighth in 1988 only to be relegated 12 months later. Though they came close to making an immediate return, the Magpies plummeted as a new decade began, and ended the 1991-92 campaign – Anderson’s last at the Club – only just above the relegation zone in the second-tier.
“After finishing eighth, we thought things would go from strength to strength,” Anderson laments. “But for a lot of different reasons, it didn’t work out. Willie McFaul was sacked, we were relegated, and there wasn’t a very nice atmosphere around the place.”
A POSITIVE CAMP
Fast-forward to the present day, and – although they are absent from the top-flight once more – there is a discernibly more positive vibe within the United camp.
And, ahead of the first of two clashes against the Lilywhites this week, Anderson is hopeful that Newcastle can progress to the last-eight of the EFL Cup for just the second time in a decade.
“I think the draw has been really kind to us so far,” he says. “Tonight we have another good opportunity to progress. Changes will be made by both managers, but I’d expect us to have enough to go through no matter how many Rafa Benítez chooses to make.
“From then on, it’s pot luck, and you can start dreaming to a degree. There are some big clubs left in the competition, but because of the way the draw has panned out, a couple of them are going to go out this week.
“I want us to win, but I’d like Preston to have a decent season as well. Like West Brom, I always look out for their results. I had three very enjoyable years there.”
