Normally if a football team concedes eight goals or more the inquests begin immediately. The players are a disgrace, the manager needs to go, sack the board; these are a few of the responses we would usually expect to hear from disgruntled supporters. But sometimes things can escalate that are beyond the control of players or a manager. Newcastle's eight goal hammering at West Ham in April 1986 was one such example of this.
Comparing football in the 1980s to the shiny product we witness today is a fairly pointless exercise. When Eddie Howe was appointed Newcastle manager in November 2021, he arrived in the knowledge that the Saudi Arabian owners would provide an open cheque book to help the club stay in the top flight. It was a little different for Jack Charlton in the summer of 1984.
Despite being promoted to Division One at the end of the 1983/84 season, nothing was ever straight forward at Newcastle. Kevin Keegan retired, but worse was to follow when manager Arthur Cox departed after a dispute with the board. The club was also reportedly in debt to the tune of £700,000, something that surprised Charlton when he was appointed Cox's successor.
If you were a regular follower of the England rugby union team during the 1980s, then the decade was not particularly kind to you. After the 1980 Grand Slam success, it was very much a case of disappointing rugby matches almost ruining great weekends away in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin, and Paris.
Between 1981 and 1987, England won just two away matches in the championship - the last coming in Paris in 1982 - and the start of the 1988 competition did not improve matters. A narrow loss in Paris extended the poor run, and when Wales won 11-3 at Twickenham, it was evident that the new manager/coach partnership of Geoff Cooke and Roger Uttley had a big job on their hands.
Generally there are always matches that a team will look back on at the end of a title winning season as the moment they knew something special was happening. The belief-affirming victory that convinced players, fans and media alike that this team could last the duration. Think Everton at Anfield in 1984/85; Arsenal at the same ground in 2001/02; Chelsea at Blackburn in 2004/05; Leicester at the Etihad.
In February 1981, Aston Villa travelled to Goodison Park neck and neck in a title race with Bobby Robson's Ipswich Town. A month earlier hopes had been raised in the claret and blue section of the second city that the title could be coming to Villa Park for the first time in 71 years. The 2-0 victory over champions Liverpool was a vital step towards the ultimate goal, and another would come at Everton.
As the decade drew to a close, the pressure on Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson was growing, as he prepared to take his expensively assembled team to Aston Villa.
After three years in the Old Trafford hotseat, it appeared as if Alex Ferguson was no nearer to unlocking the door to success at Manchester United. In fact, as 1990 approached, speculation grew that the former Aberdeen manager was about to go the way of many of his predecessors.
Seemingly unable to get a tune out of his squad - which the press regularly pointed out had been assembled at a vast cost - performances during the winter of 1989 lurched from one disaster to another. Sliding towards the relegation zone, it was little wonder that some fans had decided that enough was enough.
There must have been a tinge of regret for left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel as New Zealand lost the recent Test match and series in Mumbai. He achieved a remarkable feat in becoming only the third man to take all ten wickets in a Test match innings. But unlike Jim Laker and Anil Kumble before him, Patel ended up on the losing side.
Just 28.1 overs after his glory, the 33-year-old must have been left with mixed emotions as he prepared to turn his arm over once more. Dismissed for just 62, there was no way back for New Zealand. Patel may have added another four wickets to his match tally. Yet he didn't even claim the man of the match award.
Patel's match figures of 14/225 are the second-best return for a New Zealand bowler in Test match cricket. Those with a passing interest in the sport will not be surprised to discover the man who stands above him on that list. The fact that these figures were achieved in an historic victory for New Zealand made the accomplishment that much sweeter.
There are no easy games in international football. Well the recent results of both England's men's and women's teams may have assigned this particular cliche to the recycling bin. As the men won 10-0 against San Marino, the debate reignited about the merits of weaker teams participating in qualification for major tournaments. Hold my energy drink, said the women's game.
The 20-0 annihilation of Latvia saw Lauren Hemp score four goals and Ellen White's hat-trick enabled the striker to establish a new scoring record for the women's national team. Whether these two results are good adverts for the game is questionable. Thrashings will always be a part of sport, but a team scoring twenty possibly should be confined to the preserve of children's football.
Immediately the mind rewinds to hammerings of the past. But putting aside the nines and tens I can recall, there is a match that instantly zooms into focus. Normally the 1984/85 Scottish Cup first round was not extensively covered by English newspapers. But one particular fixture resulted in Selkirk becoming a hotspot on the UK footballing map.
