From the period immediately following that of the Wartime League to the mid 1950’s, Newcastle United fielded one of the most entertaining teams in British football. Not only did they possess home grown talent such as Milburn, Cowell and Taylor, they also acquired big name signings the likes of George Robledo, Bobby “Dazzler” Mitchell, Harvey, Brennan and of course, the great Len Shakleton, who on his debut for The Magpies in 1946, scored no less than 6 goals in a 13-0 whipping of Newport County – the joint-highest victory in the history of The Football League. Robledo, meanwhile, is notable as being the first non-British foreign player to become the top scorer in England and the forerunner to the flood of foreign talent now dominating the English game. He moved there with his family in the early 1930’s and played for Chile at the 1950 World Cup (against England) even though he spoke no Spanish. When he was purchased by Newcastle from Barnsley, the fee included his brother Ted, as George refused to go anywhere without his sibling. And then there was Bobby Mitchell, a talented Scottish dribbler whose love of football was restricted exclusively to playing. He hated watching the game and would draw the curtains if some kids were having a kickabout in his front yard. After retiring, he ran a pub and never kicked a ball or stepped foot in St James’ Park again.

 

In 1949, Newcastle went on tour to the United States, winning all 10 of their matches, and back in Tyneside, a ticket to a Newcastle United game in this era was the hottest ticket in town, and in the year following their promotion to Division One, an average of 57,000 people attended every game at St James’ Park. When the 1950’s rolled around, a time when the FA Cup held much more pomp and prestige than it does today, Newcastle claimed the famous old trophy 3 times in a period of 5 years beginning in 1951 when they put a dent in Stanley Matthews’ ambition of winning the Cup and broke the heart of every neutral by beating Blackpool 2-0 before they made it a back-to-back by defeating Arsenal in 1952 with a downward, close range Robledo header and finally in 1955 when they came out on top against Manchester City, 3-1, with Milburn scoring just 45 seconds after kick off – the fastest goal in the FA Cup final until 1997. 10 man City but up an admirable fight after losing a player to injury in the 17th minute and Bert Trautmann did his best but the Magpies were much too strong.

 

To this day, it remains the last time Newcastle United have won the FA Cup, although they have appeared in three other finals since. In the process of winning the trophy three times, the Geordie players were presented with it by three different top dignitaries – King George V in 1951, Winston Churchill in in 1952 and the Queen in 1955. In Newcastle United’s 125 year history, the 1950’s remains the last truly glorious decade for the famous club. 

​

Star player: Jackie Milburn dob 11 May 1924, pob Ashington, England nickname: Wor Jackie

​

A relative of Bobby and Jack Charlton, Milburn got himself noticed by Newcastle head honchos by going ahead and scoring six goals in a single half of a trial match as a 19 year old. Jackie comes from an iconic English footballing family that includes Jack Milburn of Bradford and Leeds, George Milburn of Leeds and Huddersfield, James Milburn of Leeds and Bradford and Stan Milburn of Chesterfield and Leicester. At 8 years old, Jackies parents bought him a pair of football boots as a Christmas present and from that point on, football dominated his life. As a youngster on his school sports day, Milburn won the sprint, sprint relay, long jump and high jump. His father then turned up just in time to watch him win the 440 yard race after which the exhausted Jackie collapsed to the ground. His father mistook this as showboating, took him home and beat him, however he later promised to pay Jackie a penny for every goal he scored for his school football team. Jackie didn’t like the idea of becoming a coal miner like his dad, so he earnt 8 shillings a week stacking shelves and filling sugar bags after leaving school at 14. He eventually responded to an advert in the newspaper in which Newcastle United were calling for trialists, turning up to the trial with a pair of borrowed football boots and his lunch – two pies. His team trailed 3-0 at half time and Milburn was told to “buck his ideas up” if he wanted to play for United. He duly scored 6 goals in the second half and earned his team a 9-3 win. Newcastle offered to sign Milburn on the spot, but he was under instructions to show the contract to his father for approval first. Afraid of Milburn being poached by other clubs, Newcastle’s manager Stan Seymour turned up unannounced to Milburns house in Ashington and begged his father to let him sign. The deal included 30 shillings a week, sixpence a game for lunch money and the bus fares to and from the ground, plus a £10 signing on fee paid on the spot. The next day, Milburn attended his first training session, immediately impressing his new teammates. His debut came against Bradford City in a Northern First Championship match (The Football League was suspended at the time due to WWII). At the same time, Milburn undertook an apprenticeship at a colliery, part of the deal for his father to let him play, and on some occasions he would do a double shift there to free himself up for a game the next day. He scored 38 goals in War League matches, which do not officially count in his Newcastle tally. Wearing Newcastle’s famous number 9 shirt for the first time in 1947, Jackie scored his first two official goals against Millwall when competitive play resumed. When he was switched to centre forward in 1947, Milburn scored a hat-trick against Bury despite getting no sleep the night before due to being nervous about playing a new position. He finished as top scorer that season. His outstanding form earned him his first cap for England the following season and he went on to play for them in the 1950 World Cup. He sent Newcastle into panic mode by putting in a transfer request due to his wife’s failing health, but this was soon retracted. Milburn scored a stack of goals on the road to the 1951 FA Cup final, and three in the final itself. The first was disallowed, but the third was one of the great FA Cup final goals, an unstoppable long range thunderbolt into the top corner. The goal was so good, that Blackpool’s Stan Mortensen held up the play just to run over and congradulate Milburn, telling him “That was the greatest goal I have ever seen and it deserves to win the cup.” Milburn missed much of the start of the 1952/53 season through injury but Newcastle played well without him, so he requested to play for the reserves in order to not disturb the winning side. He returned to the main team to score a hatrick in the FA Cup quarter final against Portsmouth in what was called one of the best centre forward performances of all time. He helped the Toon to their second FA Cup final in two years, which they also won. By 1952, his career began to get hampered by injuries and after collecting a third FA Cup medal in 1955 he joined Irish club Linfield as player-manager in 1957 where we earned a further 9 trophies and became the first non-Irishman to be the top scorer in Ireland. He then retired and briefly managed Ipswich Town before becoming a sports journalist. Milburn was given a testimonial match in 1967 in which a bevy of stars played including his cousins and World Cup winners the Charlton brothers along with Hungarian superstar Ferenc Puskas. In 1987, the new West Stand at St James Park was named The Milburn Stand in his honour. Three statues of Milburn have been fashioned, one of which is on the main street of his home town Ashington and another at the front of St James Park. A steam locomotive that hauled coal from the colliery where he worked has also been named after him, and in 2006 he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. He is considered to be Newcastle United’s greatest ever player. Jackie Milburn passed in away in 1988 leaving behind 3 children and six grand children.