News

On this day: First hurdle overcome en route to FA Cup final

Albion beat Newcastle United in an FA Cup third round replay 40 years ago today.

By Nick Szczepanik • 12 January 2023

By The Argus
Graham Pearce looks to go past his marker in front of a packed out Goldstone, which ended in a 0-0 draw.

Exactly 40 years ago today, Albion grabbed a victory that is seldom mentioned among the club’s greatest moments, but defeat would have ended the 1983 run to the FA Cup final at the very first hurdle.  

Jimmy Melia’s Seagulls survived huge pressure, two disallowed goals, and any number of penalty appeals to beat Newcastle United 1-0 at St James' Park in a third round replay. The only goal came, completely against the run of play, from Peter Ward, who was on loan back to the club from Nottingham Forest. 

Although the Magpies were then in the second division, they had made some significant signings. Travelling south with a squad for the first game that included the attacking talents of Kevin Keegan and his old Liverpool teammate Terry McDermott as well as Imre Varadi, Ireland midfielder Mick Martin and the young Chris Waddle, they would have fancied their chances against a side struggling at the foot of the top division.

The match was no classic. On a Goldstone surface that cut up badly, Andy Ritchie put Albion ahead after 56 minutes with a mis-hit shot, but McDermott equalised after 77 after Keegan’s clever dummy, and it was all off to the Northeast for the Wednesday replay.

For the replay, 32,687 packed into St James' Park – in those days a more ramshackle ground than today’s, but just as big on atmosphere and volume – and they were even more certain of victory, especially with the suspended Steve Foster missing from the heart of the Albion defence.  

Despite an attacking-looking front three of Peter Ward, Michael Robinson and Andy Ritchie, Melia’s men made little impact and were soon under mounting pressure. But with Tony Grealish and Jimmy Case drawing on all their experience to marshal the team and Giles Stille running his lungs out, Albion held out until the break.  

The pattern continued in the second half, with Gary Stevens and Steve Gatting repelling waves of attacks. But on 62 minutes, in a rare breakaway, substitute Neil Smillie’s cross from the right was half-cleared by defender John Anderson to the one man Newcastle probably did not want. Although a lesser marksman might have got the ball trapped under his feet, two swift touches were all Ward needed before firing low past goalkeeper Kevin Carr with his left foot.   

Cue a cavalry charge from the Geordies. Neil Macdonald fastened onto a clearance from a free-kick and smashed the ball against the underside of the crossbar, Martin nodding the rebound too high, and Graham Moseley saved when Varadi was clean through. 

Then the controversy began. First Varadi slotted the ball past the keeper and just inside the far post but Barnsley referee Trelford Mills ruled that he had controlled the ball with his arm when taking Martin’s high cross. Then Keegan found space to head over Moseley and in but Mills’ whistle can clearly be heard before the ball enters the net, and the official’s theatrical demonstration showed that he had spotted a push on Michael Robinson as the ball was nodded back following a corner-kick. By then, St James’ Park was in a frenzy, and there were later penalty appeals that were probably heard in Denmark.

By The Argus
Michael Robinson.

Tyneside was in uproar during the immediate aftermath, and the game is still not forgotten in those parts, as The Argus’ Albion man Brian Owen learned when he was covering the 5-1 victory at Middlesbrough. In the Riverside press room before the game, Northeast-based freelance football writer Ian Murtagh asked him whether much had been made in Sussex of the 40th anniversary of the Cup win, and before long they were talking about that night in Newcastle.  

So we got in touch with Murtagh, a self-confessed Newcastle fan who had been at the game, and he admitted that his view of events had altered somewhat - thanks to YouTube. 

“It was the first Keegan season and when they got the replay, Bob Wilson said on Football Focus ‘I fancy Newcastle to win the Cup this year’", he said. “When you get a draw away from home, people think you’ve done the hard bit and not many saw them losing that game.

“I can’t remember anything about the Brighton goal at all, but I can remember the two disallowed goals at the Gallowgate End. I can still picture Trelford Mills with his silver beard, and at the time it was seen as one of the most shocking of refereeing displays, and two of the most controversial decisions. But I think history has been unkind to him.

By The Argus
Tony Grealish in action against Newcastle at the Goldstone.

“About 30 years later, I was looking at YouTube and noticed that they had highlights of that game. It always went down in folklore that Trelford Mills got it horribly wrong. But if you look at both the disallowed Newcastle goals, he was right.

“The other important thing is that Mills became a hate figure for Newcastle fans, but they should count him as quite the opposite, because Kevin Keegan grabbed him in the protests and was very, very fortunate not to be sent off. You always think of Keegan as an ambassador for the game and almost a saintly figure but he was really wound up for that match.”

Mills, who carried on whistling until 1990, was a huge part of the sporting scene in Barnsley and captained the town’s cricket team as well as well as becoming a popular social secretary of his local referees’ association. But when he died in 2019, the Barnsley Chronicle still headlined his obituary: ‘The Bravest Man on Tyneside’.

So, thanks to the courage of a Yorkshireman who stood firm when it might have been easy to be influenced by 30,000 passionate Geordies, and a heroic defensive performance, Albion lived to fight another day. And another, and another … but those are different stories.