2002–03 Newcastle United F.C. season

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2002–03 Newcastle United F.C. season

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Newcastle United
2002–03 season
Chairman England Freddy Shepherd
Manager England Bobby Robson
Stadium St James' Park
Premier League 3rd
FA Cup Third round
League Cup Third round
UEFA Champions League Second group stage
Top goalscorer League:
Alan Shearer (17)
All:
Alan Shearer (25)
Highest home attendance 52,181
(vs. Sunderland)
Lowest home attendance 34,067
(vs. Zeljeznicar)
Average home attendance 51,923
Home colours
Away colours

During the 2002-03 English football season, Newcastle United F.C. participated in the FA Premier League (known as the FA Barclaycard Premiership for sponsorship reasons). Newcastle had mounted a surprise title challenge the previous season following four seasons in midtable, and mounted a similar challenge in the 2002-03 season. The season was also Newcastle's second ever in the Champions League.

Contents

Season summary

After a slow start, the club began putting together the wins and, by the end of March, were in a three-way title race with Manchester United and Arsenal. Consecutive defeats to a resurgent Everton and a 6-2 home thrashing by Sir Alex Ferguson's side killed off Newcastle's title hopes, but Sir Bobby Robson and his team was able to brush off the challenge from Chelsea to finish 3rd in the Premier League, entering the qualification rounds for the Champions League in the 2003/2004 season.[1]

The 2002-2003 season was a particularly colourful one for Newcastle on the European stage. In the first group stage, Newcastle lost their first three matches in a row, then, in an astonishing reversal, shocked Italian giants Juventus 1-0 at St James' Park.[2] They then controversially beat Dynamo Kiev 2-1 in Newcastle [3] before winning the crucial last match, away to Feyenoord, 3-2 in injury time, with striker Craig Bellamy scoring the injury time winner. With[Dynamo Kiev losing at home to Juventus, Newcastle progressed to the second round,[4], in a group with Inter Milan, Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen.

Bellamy was sent off for lashing out at Inter defender Marco Materazzi in an off-the-ball incident during the opening minutes of the match. Bellamy was punished further by a three-match ban.[5] Compounding the disaster for Newcastle was the suspension of influential captain Alan Shearer for a similar incident, although the punishment was just a two-match ban.[6] Newcastle went on to lose 1-4 at home.[7]

Shearer returned in the fourth game in the 4-team group, scoring all three goals in a 3-1 demolition of Bayer Leverkusen at home.[8] Despite a superb performance against Internazionale in the famous San Siro, only to draw 2-2, Newcastle lost at home 2-0 to Barcelona and dropped out of the Champions League.[9]

Image gallery

Team kit

The team kit for the 2002-03 season was produced by Adidas and the main shirt sponsor was ntl:.

Club transfers

In

Date Pos. Name From Fee
20 June 2002 MF Portugal Hugo Viana Portugal Sporting CP £8,500,000[10]
12 July 2002 DF England Titus Bramble England Ipswich Town £5,000,000[11]
13 February 2003 DF England Jonathan Woodgate England Leeds United £9,000,000[12]
25 March 2003 MF England Darren Ambrose England Ipswich Town £1,000,000[13]
  • Total spending: decrease £23.5m

Out

Date Pos. Name From Fee
April 2002 GK England Jonny Brain Unattached Free
April 2002 DF England David Cowan Scotland Motherwell Free
April 2002 DF Scotland Ryan McGuffie Scotland Gretna Free
April 2002 MF England Mark Boyd England Port Vale Free
April 2002 FW Scotland Colin McMenamin Scotland Livingston Free
May 2002 DF France Sylvain Distin England Manchester City Loan end
July 2002 DF England James Coppinger England Exeter City Released
February 2002 MF England Stuart Green England Hull City £150,000
January 2003 MF England Tommy English Scotland Livingston Released
January 2003 MF England Neale McDermott England Fulham Free
January 2003 MF Argentina Christian Bassedas Argentina Newell's Old Boys Released
March 2003 GK Netherlands John Karelse Netherlands AGOVV Apeldoorn Free
March 2003 MF Republic of Ireland Joe Kendrick Germany 1860 Munich Free
January 2003 MF England Damon Robson Unattached Free
  • Total spending: increase £0.15m

Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 Republic of Ireland GK Shay Given
3 England DF Robbie Elliott
4 Peru MF Nolberto Solano
5 Republic of Ireland DF Andy O'Brien
6 Chile MF Clarence Acuña
7 England MF Jermaine Jenas
8 England MF Kieron Dyer
9 England FW Alan Shearer (c)
10 Wales FW Craig Bellamy
11 Wales MF Gary Speed (vc)
12 England DF Andy Griffin
13 England GK Steve Harper
14 England DF Wayne Quinn
15 Spain DF Marcelino
16 England FW Carl Cort
17 Argentina MF Christian Bassedas
17 England MF Darren Ambrose
18 Northern Ireland DF Aaron Hughes
19 England DF Titus Bramble
No. Position Player
20 Democratic Republic of the Congo FW Lomana LuaLua
21 Paraguay MF Diego Gavilán
22 England DF Jamie McClen
23 England FW Shola Ameobi
24 England GK Tony Caig
25 Scotland MF Brian Kerr
27 England DF Jonathan Woodgate
28 England FW Michael Chopra
29 Netherlands GK John Karelse
30 Scotland DF Steven Caldwell
31 England MF Stuart Green
32 France MF Laurent Robert
33 England GK Adam Collin
34 Greece DF Nikos Dabizas
35 France DF Olivier Bernard
36 Scotland DF Gary Caldwell
37 Democratic Republic of the Congo FW Calvin Zola
45 Portugal MF Hugo Viana

Starting 11

(These are the most used starting players in the most used formation throughout the complete season)
No. Pos. Name Starts
1 GK Republic of Ireland Shay Given 51
12 DF England Andy Griffin 35
18 DF Northern Ireland Aaron Hughes 47
5 DF Republic of Ireland Andy O'Brien 38
35 DF France Olivier Bernard 34
4 MF Peru Nolberto Solano 40
7 MF England Jermaine Jenas 32
8 MF England Kieron Dyer 45
32 MF France Laurent Robert 35
9 FW England Alan Shearer 48
10 FW Wales Craig Bellamy 34

Matches

Pre-season

Premier League

Champions League

FA Cup

League Cup

References

  1. ^ http://www.premierleague.com/page/Statistics
  2. ^ Ingle, Sean (23 October 2002). "Newcastle 1 - 0 Juventus". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2002/oct/23/minutebyminute.sport1. 
  3. ^ Rookwood, Dan (29 October 2002). "Newcastle United 2 - 1 Dynamo Kiev". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2002/oct/29/minutebyminute.sport. 
  4. ^ "Newcastle go through". BBC News. 13 November 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/champions_league/2447885.stm. 
  5. ^ Johnson, William (19 December 2002). "Bellamy is given second three-match suspension". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/3039980/Bellamy-is-given-second-three-match-suspension.html. 
  6. ^ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/article-2252321-shearer-faces-uefa-charge.do
  7. ^ "Newcastle swept aside". BBC News. 27 November 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/champions_league/2514501.stm. 
  8. ^ Glendenning, Barry (26 February 2003). "Newcastle United 3 - 1 Bayer Leverkusen". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2003/feb/26/minutebyminute.sport1. 
  9. ^ Glendenning, Barry (19 March 2003). "Newcastle 0 - 2 Barcelona". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2003/mar/19/minutebyminute.sport1. 
  10. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/2056009.stm
  11. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/2063941.stm
  12. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/2712545.stm
  13. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/2882977.stm

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