Newcastle United heroes and villains starring David Kelly, Dennis Wise, Kevin Keegan, Obafemi Martins…

Here at The Mag we invited a number of regular/irregular contributors to give us their Newcastle United heroes and villains.

Our thanks to Dave Marshall for taking up the challenge.

Dave has looked back at his Newcastle United heroes and villains across the various decades when he has been supporting NUFC.

The 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s.

Over to Dave for his Newcastle United heroes and villains down the years.

This brought back a lot of memories – left off dozens of names that were worthy contenders for each of these.

In the end, I had to go with gut over logic sometimes.

1990s
Hero
Kevin Keegan

Cult Hero:
David Kelly: the goals that kept us up in 1992.

Villain:
Ruud Gullit: dropped Shearer for the derby – then lost

Lesser Villain:
Douglas Hall: 1998 tabloid sting, comments about the fans, setting the tone for how owners treat fans.

2000s
Co-Heroes
Sir Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer: I cannot choose between them.

Cult hero
Obafemi Martins: the somersaults, the pace, the occasional genius.

Villain
Michael Owen.

Lesser villain
Dennis Wise: the quiet structural damage.

2010s
Hero
Rafa Benítez: restored the club’s self-respect.

Cult hero
Aleksandar Mitrović.

Villain
Fat Tub of Ashley.

Lesser villain
Alan Pardew.

2020s
Hero
Amanda Staveley: without her, there’s no Eddie, Bruno, etc. and the cup drought no doubt persists.

Cult hero
Allan Saint-Maximin or Jonjo Shelvey.

Villain
Alexander Isak: the club have yet to recover.

Lesser villain
Dan Ashworth: built it, then left for Manchester United.