By Leipziger
January 17 2005

Where on Earth do I start after a day like that? I still can’t speak properly and all I can think about is going to Paris at Easter, whilst recalling the miracle we witnessed at KP yesterday. I guess I should just start at the start then.

I slept all of 3 hours on Saturday night after working until midnight, and then getting up at 6am to get the train to Newcastle. Early morning nerves had to be settled with a bottle of Brown (the first of many…) but I arrived in home just before 11am. Then it was quick bacon and eggs before Mama and I headed to KP for some pre-match drinks, only to find that the bars weren’t opening until 12! But a couple more Browns before kick-off and the vocal chords were well oiled for this, one of the most important matches in our club’s history against Newport in the European Cup.

The winners would win their first ever spot in the quarter finals (well, Newport depended on Edinburgh beating Perpignan), whilst the losers would go home thoroughly dejected. The Falcons team was read out to huge cheers, starting with "Number 15, Matt Burke!" Magic, nobody expected him to be fit but everyone was relieved he was. "Number 12, Jamie Noon!" Also a nice surprise. "Number 10, Mark Wilkinson" wasn’t so pleasing, but we’d all pledged to support all the players and we weren’t going to let them down. He also received a big cheer.

7,104 packed into KP for the game, a substantial amount from Wales, especially around me in the South Stand, and as they were in good voice we needed all Geordies to do the same. And they did, emotions ran high and every time the Dragons even threatened our line a chorus of "Falcons! Falcons!" reverberated around the terraces. Early on Tom May and Matt Burke missed drop goal attempts, but a Burke penalty edged us into the lead, though unfortunately we lost Hall Charlton to an early injury and James Grindal had to come on in his place.

Then, after a quarter of an hour, Mike McCarthy almost finished off a good attack on the right but was unable to cross, and the ball came out left to Michael Stephenson. Thinking he had scored, I started celebrating, but not hearing big noise I turned around to see play still going on. With Geordies screaming for our boys, the ball came to Welshman Colin Charvis who touched down for the opening try, which Burke converted, and at 10-0 our fears of having a weakened team were eased somewhat.

Soon after though Newport hit back with a lineout in the left hand corner, and moved the ball across the field for Gareth Wyatt to go over in the corner. My first reaction was that it was a try, but referee Alan Lewis and his assistant couldn’t be sure Grindal hadn’t put Wyatt into touch first, and asked the video referee for his opinion. To the disappointment of the majority of those present, a try was given, although it was probably the right decision. Ceri Sweeney couldn’t convert the score though.

The last points of the first half came from Burke’s boot after centre Sione Tuipulotu was sin-binned. 13-5, and the battle was half won, time for another beer to keep the voice up.

In the second half we only took nine minutes to score another try, when Mark Wilkinson and Mathew Tait combined to set up May in the right hand corner and our strong winger further increased the lead, though Burke couldn’t do his part with the conversion, and Kevin Morgan scored a converted try to keep the Dragons in contention. Although we were still six points ahead at 18-12, things were looking dangerous and the game could have gone either way. But we were winning, and the leading team is always the favourite.

And with the next score we were within touching distance of the next round. Matt Burke, our inspirational Aussie, used Jamie Noon as a decoy to squeeze through the Welsh defence and touch down, converting his own try, and we were now just 7 or 8 minutes away from being one of the best 8 sides in Europe. Rapturous cheers followed for Burke and the lads. Straight away however, hearts went back into mouths as Ian Gough went over but with Sweeney unable to convert the extra crucial two points, we now led by eight points, 25-17, and the Dragons needed two more scores. It wasn’t going to happen. Not yesterday.

With all of Newcastle praying for the final whistle, Alan Lewis decided to play very little injury time and 7,000 Geordies at Kingston Park went crazy in celebration. Newcastle were in the quarter finals of the European Cup for the first time, and although before and after everyone was wondering who we’d play in April, for those first few post-match minutes I don’t think anyone would’ve cared if we’d been playing on Mars, we were just ecstatic at getting so far.

After the game Charva, Ward and especially Burke (man of the match and player of the month) got a brilliant reception in the West Stand, as we sang "Que sera sera, we’re going to gay Paris" after Mick Hogan informed us that Stade Francais is our destination in the next round.

But that is for another day. Let us just enjoy the moment now, tired as I’m sure we all are, but unreserved thanks go to all the players who played yesterday, and Rob Andrew and his backroom team for getting a team together with the right tactics to win the game. Burke was again an inspiration, Stephenson and May towers in defence, and the forwards were letting Newport get past over their dead bodies. Mark Wilkinson also had a cracking game, in his first senior start in 11 months, at fly-half, kicking well and using the ball intelligently too, meaning Walder and Jonny Wilkinson weren’t missed as much as we feared. Special mention from me though goes to James Grindal, who came on in only the eighth minute but was a nuisance to the Dragons all game and used the ball quickly and correctly when we needed it.

I finally arrived home much the worse for wear at 6pm, and after a power nap was able to hit the pub with the lads in Newcastle, and celebrate with a few colas as I couldn’t stand the sight of another beer. As I said, I can hardly speak this morning and I dare say I’m not the only one.

To the players - thank you from all your loyal fans for a wonderful victory in the face of the adversity we’ve had this week. Enjoy your weekend off next week.

To the fans - thank you for creating the atmosphere in Kingston Park necessary to carry the players through. Let’s do it again against Wasps in February.