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The 1996-97 season saw English professional football club Newcastle United participate in the Premier League for the fourth consecutive season since their promotion from the Football League First Division in 1993. After the disappointment of finishing runner-up to Manchester United in the previous campaign despite having at one stage held a 12-point lead over their rivals, the club responded by signing Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers in July 1996. Shearer would go on to become the leading goalscorer in Newcastle United history but his career began inauspiciously – his debut came against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in the 1996 FA Charity Shield in a game that the Magpies lost 4-0. Newcastle recovered quickly from that defeat and started the league camapign strongly, winning seven of their opening eight games. A 5-0 victory over Manchester United on 20 October 1996 at St James' Park seemed to confirm that a strong title challenge would again be mounted but a subsequent poor run of form, including a run of seven games without a win, saw the title challenge falter and ultimately culminated in the resignation of manager Kevin Keegan on 7 January 1997. Keegan's replacement, Kenny Dalglish, was appointed on 14 January 1997 and was in charge as United lost 4-3 at Anfield for the second successive year. However, a late season surge in form, including a crucial win at Highbury on 3 May 1997 and a 5-0 rout of Nottingham Forest on the final day of the season, saw the club overtake Liverpool and Arsenal to finish runner-up again to Manchester United and qualify for the Champions League. Performance in the cup competitions was mixed. The team were knocked out of the League Cup in the fourth round by local rivals Middlesbrough, who went on to reach the final. Ian Woan scored twice in the last fifteen minutes of a fourth round FA Cup tie at St James' Park to knock the home side out of the competition, whilst in the 1996–97 UEFA Cup, Newcastle performed better and reached the quarter-finals but were ultimately beaten 4-0 on aggregate by French side AS Monaco. ==Background== In the previous season, Newcastle United and Manchester United contested for the title in a season described by ''Total Football'' magazine as "an absolute classic" and which was in 2012 one of six nominees for an award for best Premier League season ever. On 1 January 1996, Manchester United were beaten 4-1 by Tottenham Hotspur and when Newcastle beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 at home on 20 January 1996 they established what most presumed to be an insurmountable 12-point lead over their title rivals.〔〔 However, the Manchester club began embarked upon what sports writer Ian Cusack described as "a seemingly endless streak of 1-0 wins", including a critical game at St James' Park on 4 March which saw Peter Schmeichel defy the hosts with several excellent saves before Eric Cantona scored a decisive break-away goal. Indeed, after a 2-1 win at Middlesbrough largely inspired by debutant Faustino Asprilla, Newcastle lost five of their next eight, including last-gasp defeats at Anfield, in a match later voted the greatest game of the first decade of the Premier League, and at Ewood Park thanks to a pair of goals from Geordie substitute Graham Fenton who scored on 86 and 90 minutes. These factors meant that Keegan's side were caught by Alex Ferguson's side who ultimately went on to win the title by four points and then beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final to complete a domestic double. Newcastle's collapse was later described by Graham Lister of ''Goal.com'' as having "entered football folklore as the Premier League's ultimate Devon Loch moment". Although midfielder Rob Lee later claimed that the failure to capture the title was due to falling player confidence and Ian Cusack believed that Cantona was the difference, stating "Newcastle United had, player for player, the best team in the Premiership, but didn’t have the best player.",〔 the general consensus was that Newcastle had lost because of Keegan's attacking philosophy.〔 Mark Lawrenson summed up the prevailing consensus when he said: "I really think they should have won the league in the 1995-96 season...Kevin could have done it if he'd altered the system very, very slightly. But he didn't want to betray his principles...I think Kevin wanted it free-flowing in all departments and that doesn't necessarily happen." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1996–97 Newcastle United F.C. season」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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