And yet, against the odds and with four minutes to go, we have a lifeline - a rare-as-hen's-teeth David Batty goal, against his former club, has us edging towards a vital three points.

Enter Fenton. Introduced from the Blackburn bench just 15 minutes earlier, he first sneaks in to force home an equaliser - and then, as if that wasn't bad enough, grabs an even more devastatingly soul-destroying last-minute winner. It's a knockout blow from which our title bid never recovers.

Why, you may ask, am I dredging up painful memories? Well, there is a point, and that point is that Graham Fenton was a Geordie.

What's rather less well remembered about that fateful night is that another Geordie had a significant part in both goals: Alan Shearer. (Perhaps his move to Tyneside three months later was partly motivated by guilt?) That would be the same Alan Shearer we once took on trial as a 15-year-old, only to try him out in between the sticks...

Little wonder, then, that the Independent's match report the following morning began: "<em>It was as good an argument as any for Sir John Hall's planned youth development centre on Tyneside.</em>"

Which brings me to the real subject in hand, arguably the most significant development of a second successive quiet month at St James's Park: the appointment of Richard Money as our new Academy director.

The Academy is the "<em>youth development centre</em>" Hall envisaged all right, set up with the intention of catching local talents like Shearer, Michael Carrick and Steve Stone before they're poached by outsiders - but it can hardly be said to have borne much fruit. With Peter Ramage having already left this summer to find his level at QPR and Shola Ameobi edging ever closer to the exit door (even though the identity of his next employers remains uncertain), currently the only homegrown player in the side is Steven Taylor, and there's a chance even he might possibly leave if a new contract isn't thrashed out soon.

Continues....

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