St James' Park Invasion - 40 Years To The Day!

Last updated : 09 March 2014 By Footy Mad - Editor

I was there, AND I was in the Leazes, but I didn't get onto the pitch.

And sad though it may be ... I wished I had now.

What's the point of being there, and missing out on the WORST show of fashion sense in the history of football when I could look back at the platform shoes and tank-top and say ... THERE'S ME?

A part of history!

I know many of the faces on the video clip, many still go to the match this day.
 
With Newcastle down to ten men, Forest going 3-1 up was too much for those in the Leaze End to take and 500 Geordies invaded the pitch.

After a ten-minute delay, the match resumed with Forest in disarray.

Toon hero Terry McDermott found the net with a penalty, and United won the game with a last-minute diving header.

Forest appealed the result, citing the well-orchestrated pitch invasion, and the FA ordered a re-match, and Newcastle cemented the comeback after a replay.

Referee Gordon Kew took the players off for eight minutes, but when the game was restarted reports suggested the linesman was too scared to flag Bobby Moncur’s winner offside.

“The Newcastle supporters put us out of the Cup,” says Forest manager Allan Brown.

Thirty-nine fans were charged, 23 hospitalised (two with frac­tured skulls) and 103 treated for minor injuries.

The FA ruled that the game should be replayed at Goodison Park (“I half-expected a ridiculous solution and they came up with one,” said Malcolm Macdonald) and Newcastle won 1-0, again at Goodison, after a 0-0 draw.

As a result of the trouble Newcastle were ordered to play all their 1975 Cup games away.