Despite a good start to his time at Newcastle after spending eight years at Bolton, things just never seemed to get off the ground after the honeymoon period ended. With a decent total of 17 points from the opening nine matches, poor form soon followed with four defeats and two draws before the next win came about.
Notably, Big Sam could only muster up half a season at the club - the shortest spell as a manager at Newcastle since Colin Suggett who took charge for the first half of the 1988/89 relegation season. After a disappointing third round exit in the League Cup, league form was not healthy and a lack-luster FA Cup third round performance away at Championship Stoke saw Allardyce walk saw Kevin Keegan return to the club he loves a week later.
Date: 15th May 2007 to 9th January 2008 (239 days)
Records
League: Played: 21, Won: 7, Drawn: 5, Lost: 9, Goals for: 27, Goals against: 33, Goal difference: -6, Pts: 26. Win ratio: 33%
Home (league): Played: 11, Won: 5, Drawn: 3, Lost: 3, Goals for: 16, Goals against: 17, Goal difference: -1, Pts: 18. Win ratio: 45%
Away (league): Played: 10, Won: 2, Drawn: 2, Lost: 6, Goals for: 11, Goals against: 16, Goal difference: -5, Pts: 8. Win ratio: 20%
Domestic Cup: Played: 3, Won: 1, Drawn: 1, Lost: 1, Goals for: 2, Goals against: 2, Goal difference: 0. Win ratio: 33%
Home (all competitions): Played: 12, Won: 6, Drawn: 3, Lost: 3, Goals for: 18, Goals against: 17, Goal difference: +1. Win ratio: 50%
Away (all competitions): Played: 12, Won: 2, Drawn: 3 Lost: 7, Goals for: 11, Goals against: 18, Goal difference: -7. Win ratio: 17%
Total: Played: 24, Won: 8, Drawn: 6, Lost: 10, Goals for: 29, Goals against: 35, Goal difference: -6. Win ratio: 33%
Season by Season
2007/2008
Premier League: (Played: 21, Won: 7, Drawn: 5, Lost: 9, Goals for: 27, Goals against: 33, Goal difference: -6, Pts: 26. Win ratio: 33%)
League Cup: 3rd Round (v Arsenal)
FA Cup: Awaiting 3rd Round replay (v Stoke) at time of departure
Landmark Matches
First match
Bolton 1 Newcastle United 3 (Charles N'Zogbia 11, Obafemi Martins 21, 27) – (11/08/2007)
It must have felt very strange for the new manager. He had just spent eight years at Bolton where he achieved great things in getting them promoted to the Premier League, stabilized them at that level, gave the Trotters European football and yet resigned partly because the chairman refused to financially fund Big Sam's ambitiously realistic target of Champions League qualification. I know what you are thinking, he resigns because the chairman fails to back him for the Champions League and he then works for Mike Ashley. It was however, Freddy Shepherd that appointed Allardyce two days after the end of the 2006/07 season.
Onto the match itself and Big Sam became the fourth consecutive Newcastle manager to win their first game in charge and was helped by a double from Obafemi Martins, whose first goal in this game was the club's 800th Premier League goal.
Biggest win
Newcastle United 3 (Obafemi Martins 44, Claudio Cacapa 49, James Milner 72) Tottenham Hotspur 1 – (22/10/2007)
A two-goal winning margin was the best Allardyce had achieved on this front from his eight wins while in charge. This home match against Spurs was the last of four wins by a two-goal winning margin during his time. Claudio Cacapa scored his one and only goal for the club however, in the next home game against Portsmouth, the Brazilian international (you did not read that wrongly; he did indeed play for Brazil) was substituted after 18 minutes after disastrous (to put it politely) defending which helped put Portsmouth 3-0 up after 11 minutes.
Last win
Fulham 0 Newcastle United 1 (Joey Barton pen 90) – (15/12/2007)
Joey Barton scored his first Newcastle goal with a dramatic last minute winning penalty. This was the second consecutive win which came after a run of poor form. It felt like the stalling was over and we would begin to recover and steadily move up the table. However this did not prove to be the case as more disappointing results soon followed and Allardyce had long gone by the time we achieved our next league win which came in March and in the reverse fixture against Fulham. Three weeks after the win at Fulham, Allardyce parted company with the club.
Further landmark matches
Biggest defeat: Newcastle United 0 - 3 Liverpool – 24/11/2007
Last match: Stoke 0 – 0 Newcastle United – 06/01/2008