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Many eyebrows were raised in March 1993, when Kevin Keegan paid a club
record fee of £1,750,000 for an inexperienced 21 year old from Bristol
City. Andy Cole, however, gave the manager exactly what he had
expected, goals, scoring his first for the club 60 minutes into his home
debut. The season ended with a Championship party at St. James Park,
Cole scoring his first hat-trick for the club, as the team scored 7
against Leicester City. He had proved he was quick, with impeccable
positional sense and an instinctive eye for goal; he scored 12 goals in
as many games as Newcastle won the title by 8 points.
The 1993/94 season
saw him paired with the mercurial Peter Beardsley, unfortunately the
partnership had to be put on hold as Beardsley broke his jaw in a
pre-season 'friendly' against Liverpool. Andy's first of the season came
at Old Trafford, equalising a Ryan Giggs free-kick, to give Newcastle
their first point in the Premier League. The first game Beardsley and
Cole played together saw Andy grab both in a 2-0 home win over West Ham
and steadily the team began picking up points. November saw Newcastle
stun Liverpool, as a hat-trick of identical goals from Cole brought a
3-0 win.
The Beardsley and Cole partnership proved irresistible and they
scored 65 goals between them that season. There was a shock in March,
however, as Newcastle thrashed Swindon 7-1 and Andy didn't score! As the
season went on records began to fall, and on April 27th 1994 his goal
against Aston Villa made him the first Newcastle player to score 40
goals in a season. Newcastle finished the season 3rd; Cole had scored 41
goals in 45 games. The 1994/95 season started in the same vein; Cole
scoring in the opening day 3-1 victory at Leicester.
The goals just
didn't stop and by October he had 14 goals in 16 games, before injury
struck. Andy was to miss a month of action due to shin splints and
during his absence Newcastle crashed out of Europe, winning only one of 5
games. Upon his return, nothing seemed to have changed as he scored in
his first game back against Ipswich. However, this goal was to be Cole's
last for the club, as he failed to score in his final 9 games before
being sensationally sold to Manchester United, in a £6 millon deal
which shocked not only Tyneside but football in general. Cole's time on
Tyneside was brief, yet he scored 68 goals in 84 appearances, leaving an
indelible mark on the club's history. (Gordon Tait)
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