Ground number 87
Date of First Visit: 15th August 1988
Federation Park, Dunston
Dunston Federation Brewery 1 (Davison)
Newcastle United XI 3 (Coxall, Craig, Bogey (pen)
Friendly fixture for ground opening
Attendance: 1,000 (estimated)
"COME ALONG AND SEE THE STARS OF NEWCASTLE UNITED!"
Az the drunken magpie flies Federation Park (Now UTS Stadium) and St. James’ Park are 1.6 miles apart across the Tyne! (Googled it!)
Yet in terms of size and support its aboot a million miles and 10 league divisions apart!
This woz the official openin' of 'The Fed’s new groond and news of ‘The Toon's visit had been the talk of Dunston for days!
A poster woz pinned to the waall of the now sadly demolished ‘Cross Keys’ boozer near Dunston Staiths advertisin the match and it read: OFFICIAL OPENING OF GROUND BY WILLIE McFAUL—COME ALONG AND SEE THE STARS OF NEWCASTLE UNITED (McFaul woz the manager!)
The 'stars', az it torned oot, wornt even playin'!
Instead NUFC had sent a bunch of mainly resorve and junior player, while some of the stars (Andy Thorn, Dave Beasant etc) were just spectators like the rest of us!
I'm writin this in April 2026, nearly 38 years after this game woz played and sadly just a few months after Willie (Iam) McFaul had passed away!
The Dunston groond back then, woz simply a fenced off field with hard standin aroond it with nee cover or seats of any description! (See top photo)
There were nee floodlights eethaa and a smaall cabin behind the goal doubled up az the clubhoose at the time!
Dunston were in The Northern Combination and NUFC were in the old Forst Division (now the Premyaa Leegue)
A large crowd had turned up to see the ‘stars in stripes’ but like aa say it woz anything but!
It didn’t take the Toon XI lang to take them lead when Coxall scored in the 2nd minute! It stayed that way til bang on half time when Craig doubled the lead, with the home side strugglin to contain their ‘big brother’ from across the river!
HT 2-0
The second period woz the same and the NUFC XI increased the goal gap in the 54th minute when a Dunston defender gave away a penalty!
Up stepped Ian Bogey to shoot into the back of the net for a 3-0 lead!
(The Bogeyman did have a handful of 1st team appearances, but played mostly in the resorves)
‘The Fed’ then got a consolation goal through Davison, to add a bit of respectability to the scoreline!
There were nee more goals, so it ended 3-1 to the ‘No Stars in Stripes’ at the final whistle!
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