They don’t say good day to Liam O’Brien on Tyneside.
‘No, they only sing my track!’ says the person himself. That’s what scoring a objective towards Sunderland does for you in Newcastle. O’Brien scored twice in Put on-Tyne derbies, however the winner at Roker Park in 1992 is his legacy objective.
He shares his terrace immortality with namesake and fellow Irishman Andy O’Brien, who scored a late equaliser on the Stadium of Mild 9 years later. They’ve by no means met or spoken, however will eternally be united in verse.
’Liam O’Brien, Andy O’Brien, any, any, any O’Brien, who put the ball within the Mackems’ internet? O’Brien! O’Brien!’
Speaking to Liam O’Brien this week from his native Eire, the place he’s now a taxi driver, felt like a well timed reminder for these in black and white as to the enormity of the fixture they are going to play on this weekend, a significance Eddie Howe’s facet failed to understand in December when overwhelmed 1-0 on Wearside.
However even O’Brien himself didn’t actually admire the magnitude 34 years in the past. On the night of his successful objective, a 25-yard free-kick clipped over the wall and into Geordie folklore, he took his father out in Newcastle. Of their firm have been two brothers, season-ticket holders with whom he stays buddies.
Liam O’Brien performed for Newcastle between 1988 and 1994, but it surely’s for one second specifically that he’s finest remembered by Toon devoted
O’Brien celebrates after curling in his free-kick on derby day in October 1992, sealing a 2-1 win at Roker Park
‘They stated to me, “You don’t realise what you’ve carried out, do you?”,’ recollects O’Brien, 61. ‘I stated, “Yeah, I’ve scored the winner towards Sunderland”. They stated, “No, you’ll by no means be forgotten right here, you simply don’t understand it but”.’
When O’Brien took to a Tyneside stage final yr for a reunion with previous team-mates – he was 45 minutes late as a result of his flight was diverted to Stansted and he acquired a bus north – the viewers sang his track on repeat. The identical factor occurred three years in the past throughout one other reunion. They are going to do it once more when he subsequent returns. It follows him in every single place.
‘I’ll be in Spain on vacation and we’ll stumble upon followers, and there it’s,’ he says. ‘Once I was assistant supervisor at Hibernian I took just a few Irish buddies out in Edinburgh and we went right into a pub the place there was a bunch of lads from Newcastle. They didn’t cease! I will be at dwelling on any given Saturday and, at half previous three, my buddies will ship me a video from inside St James’. The funniest one these days was a video from Azerbaijan!’
Do you ever get uninterested in listening to it?
‘No!’
And what of the objective, a 77th-minute winner for 2-1? Afterwards, supervisor Kevin Keegan likened the execution to that of Zico.
‘We’d gained the primary 10 video games of the season, so we have been stuffed with confidence,’ he begins. ‘We have been taking part in properly, I used to be taking part in properly. With free-kicks, even after I was teaching, I all the time advised the gamers, “It’s about feeling”. if you’re in a very good place.
‘So it comes up in a central place and right away I stated, “From right here, I can rating”. Nicely John Beresford was there. And you realize John, he fancied it. He desires to get entangled in the whole lot!
‘As I’m setting the ball, he says, “I’ll take this”. I stated to him, “No, you gained’t be”. He stated, “The place you gonna put it then?”. I advised him, “Proper the place the goalkeeper is standing now. He’ll transfer”. That’s precisely what occurred. I caught it properly, the keeper, Tim Carter, took a bit of step to his left and the ball flew into the precise nook.
The midfielder had scored a objective towards Sunderland a yr earlier than his well-known free-kick, which salvaged a 1-1 draw. ‘I all the time say, the primary one was higher,’ he says
O’Brien’s namesake Andy additionally scored within the Put on-Tyne derby, and the pair are nonetheless serenaded on the Newcastle terraces
‘It was in entrance of the Geordies and I ran straight to the part the place my father and brother have been, he was solely 11 on the time. My mate was a police officer in Sunderland and he had taken them to the sport behind a police van. After scoring for a second yr working there, it was possibly me who wanted the police van to get again once more!’
There’s a {photograph} of the objective taken from the TV gantry at Roker Park. There have to be shut to five,000 individuals within the body, gamers and supporters of each groups. Solely one in all them, O’Brien, has his fingers within the air. The ball has not even crossed the road.
‘It’s an unimaginable image,’ he says. ‘I’ve acquired one of the best view and I simply understand it’s entering into.’
His objective a yr earlier was maybe much more eye-catching, a chip from the very same patch of grass in open play. It salvaged a 1-1 draw.
‘I all the time say, the primary one was higher. I didn’t have time to consider it. The ball broke to me. I noticed Tony Norman off his line and, I used to be taking part in properly, so that you strive these kinds of issues. I chipped him and it sailed in.
‘I’ll always remember, the subsequent season, we have been leaving the lodge to get the coach to the sport and this man says to me, “Identical once more as final yr, Liam”. And that’s what occurred. That’s all the time caught with me.’
And so has the track. The gamers of at present would do properly to do not forget that, on this derby, one contact can echo for a lifetime.
Cross Grasp is out now — Liam O’Brien’s story of life beneath Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, the Keegan revolution at Newcastle and the well-known derby objective Magpies followers nonetheless sing about. Obtainable right here: www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/pass-master
