Classic match report - Newcastle 1 Wolves 4

For this week's classic match report we look back at a game that, perhaps more than any other, defined Steve Bull's wonderful Wolves career.

The date was January 1, 1990. The score? Newcastle 1 Steve Bull 4.

It was undoubtedly one of the most memorable games in Wolves' recent history, especially for those Wolves fans who flew to the game on six chartered planes.

Birmingham Airport has never seen anything like it. First thing in the morning on New Year's Day, a time when you'd expect the airport to be quiet and empty, resembled a dingy Wetherspoons on a Saturday night, with almost 1,000 taking over the place and singing and dancing down the runway, clad in fancy dress as Father Christmas, a snowman or a Mexican. Yes, Wolves fans are a special breed.

They were rewarded with a remarkable victory - Wolves' biggest away from home for a decade.

[related_posts title="More classic match reports"]

Bull scored four goals in 26 second half minutes, completing his hat-trick in just nine. And his trademark aeroplane celebration for the third was of course so very apt.

And it could all have been so different had Mark Kendall not saved Mick Quinn's first half penalty.

"People said I had dried up, but this might make them think again," Bull said after the St James' Park trip.

By 'dried up' he meant, by Bully standards, the kind of drought you'd only find in the deepest depths of the Sahara Desert - one goal in four games.

That meant he'd notched 10 in 20 so far that season, again, hardly the tally of an out-of-form striker, but Bully had set goalscoring standards higher than any striker in Wolves' history.

Graham Turner said of his star man: "When he's at his best, he'll score goals even against the best defenders.

"But he had not been playing particularly well and hadn't looked sharp.

"To score four and win at Newcastle though is not a bad start to the year."

You can say that again.

And Bull, who six months later would be at the World Cup with England, was as modest and unassuming as ever.

"I was more happy for the fans really, we did it for them," he said.

Classic Bully.

January 1, 1990

Newcastle United 1 Wolves 4

By David Instone

Chants of `Ooh, Bully, Bully' rang out at 25,000ft last night as Wolves fans revelled in the glory of one of the most famous victories in the club's history.

As if the successful air-lift of eight plane-loads of supporters wasn't momentous enough for the first day of the 1990s, along came a certain Steve Bull to add the icing to another tremendous afternoon in the long-term Molineux revival.

For the first time in his phenomenal Wolves career, Bull scored four in an away match and so blazed the way to Wolves' first win at St James's Park for more than 30 years.

As well as putting the finishing touches to an ultimately rewarding holiday programme, the three points lifted Graham Turner's side to eighth in the table and gave them more than just a passing interest in the promotion race.

The cluster of strange results in the last four days suggest that the top two places are perhaps not as secure as Leeds and Sheffield United had made us believe.

And, if Bull can retain the form that rocked, shocked and finally humiliated seventh-placed Newcastle, Wolves fans should be only too aware that anything could happen from now on.

This was only the side's third away win in the Second Division, but the high-speed all-action way in which it was achieved should send a few shudders through the other challenging clubs.

From a side who looked unconvincing at the start of both halves, Wolves slowly moved up a gear in the first and then exploded into life in the second with Bull rattling in his 12th and fastest hat-trick for the club.

[comments_cta header="Were you there that day?" text="Share your memories of this classic Wolves match" button="Log in and start commenting"]

He crashed home a near-post shot after a terrible 50th minute blunder by Bjorn Kristensen and a fine cross by Paul Cook, and, nine minutes later, had another match-ball to look forward to.

First, he waltzed round former Wolves keeper John Burridge from Keith Downing's through ball, then he headed home at the far post from Dennison's corner.

A 25-yard Kevin Brock free-kick brought Wolves down to earth in the 74th minute, but Bull had their heads in the cloudsa gain when Dennison put him clear for a replica of his second goal.

But, while Bull, Andy Mutch, Dennison and Co wreaked havoc among a Newcastle side booed mercilessly by their hostile followers, Wolves also had a hero at the other end - Mark Kendall.

If the Welsh keeper's confidence had been dented by his part in the goals Hull and Bournemouth scored at Molineux last week, it didn't show.

His seventh minute penalty save from 21-goal Mick Quinn - his second such heroics in two and a half months - prevented Newcastle surging ahead while they were buzzing and he followed up with fine stops from Liam O'Brien, Brock and Quinn again.

With Floyd Streete still well below his best, Wolves' back-four never looked happy, but they always threatened goals, with Mutch and Dennison twice denied by Burridge and John Paskin and Dennison both hitting the bar.

On and off the pitch, it was a flying start to the new decade in every sense.

NEWCASTLE: Burridge, Anderson, Stimson, Bradshaw (Gallacher, 73), Scott, Kristensen, Fereday, Brock, Quinn, McGhee, O'Brien. Sub: Sweeney.

Goal: Brock (74).

WOLVES: Kendall, Bennett, Venus, Bellamy, Downing (Jones, 85), Streete, Paskin, Cook, Bull, Mutch, Dennison (McLoughlin, 81).

Goals: Bull (50, 56, 59, 76).