In Tyneside, Liam O’Brien is greeted in a rather unique way.
“No one says hello; instead, they sing my song!” O’Brien exclaims. This is the kind of lasting fame that comes from scoring against Sunderland when you’re in Newcastle. O’Brien found the net twice during Wear-Tyne derbies, but it was his decisive goal at Roker Park in 1992 that cemented his legendary status.
Sharing this revered status is Andy O’Brien, an Irishman like Liam, who scored a dramatic equaliser at the Stadium of Light nine years later. Although the two O’Briens have never met or conversed, they are forever linked by the chants of fans.
Speaking with Liam O’Brien from Ireland, where he now works as a taxi driver, serves as a poignant reminder of the upcoming fixture’s importance. It’s a sentiment that Eddie Howe’s squad failed to fully appreciate last December when they suffered a 1-0 defeat on Wearside.
O’Brien himself didn’t grasp the full significance of his achievement 34 years ago. The night he scored that memorable 25-yard free-kick, which gracefully arched over the wall and into Newcastle’s history, he took his father out in the city. They were joined by two brothers, dedicated season-ticket holders who remain his friends to this day.
Liam O’Brien played for Newcastle between 1988 and 1994, but it’s for one moment in particular that he is best remembered by Toon faithful
O’Brien celebrates after curling in his free-kick on derby day in October 1992, sealing a 2-1 win at Roker Park
“They told me, ‘You don’t understand what you’ve done, do you?'” O’Brien, now 61, recalls. “I replied, ‘Yes, I scored the winner against Sunderland.’ They insisted, ‘No, you’ll be remembered here forever; you just don’t know it yet.'”
When O’Brien took to a Tyneside stage last year for a reunion with old team-mates – he was 45 minutes late because his flight was diverted to Stansted and he got a bus north – the audience sang his song on repeat. The same thing happened three years ago during another reunion. They will do it again when he next returns. It follows him everywhere.
‘I’ll be in Spain on holiday and we’ll bump into fans, and there it is,’ he says. ‘When I was assistant manager at Hibernian I took a few Irish friends out in Edinburgh and we went into a pub where there was a group of lads from Newcastle. They didn’t stop! I can be at home on any given Saturday and, at half past three, my friends will send me a video from inside St James’. The funniest one lately was a video from Azerbaijan!’
Do you ever get tired of hearing it?
‘No!’
And what of the goal, a 77th-minute winner for 2-1? Afterwards, manager Kevin Keegan likened the execution to that of Zico.
‘We’d won the first 10 games of the season, so we were full of confidence,’ he begins. ‘We were playing well, I was playing well. With free-kicks, even when I was coaching, I always told the players, “It’s about feeling”. You know when you’re in a good place.
‘So it comes up in a central position and straight away I said, “From here, I can score”. Well John Beresford was there. And you know John, he fancied it. He wants to get involved in everything!
‘As I’m setting the ball, he says, “I’ll take this”. I said to him, “No, you won’t be”. He said, “Where you gonna put it then?”. I told him, “Right where the goalkeeper is standing now. He’ll move”. That’s exactly what happened. I caught it well, the keeper, Tim Carter, took a little step to his left and the ball flew into the right corner.
The midfielder had scored a goal against Sunderland a year before his famous free-kick, which salvaged a 1-1 draw. ‘I always say, the first one was better,’ he says
O’Brien’s namesake Andy also scored in the Wear-Tyne derby, and the pair are still serenaded on the Newcastle terraces
‘It was in front of the Geordies and I ran straight to the section where my father and brother were, he was only 11 at the time. My mate was a police officer in Sunderland and he had taken them to the game in the back of a police van. After scoring for a second year running there, it was maybe me who needed the police van to get back again!’
There is a photograph of the goal taken from the TV gantry at Roker Park. There must be close to 5,000 people in the frame, players and supporters of both teams. Only one of them, O’Brien, has his hands in the air. The ball has not even crossed the line.
‘It’s an incredible picture,’ he says. ‘I’ve got the best view and I just know it’s going in.’
His goal a year earlier was perhaps even more eye-catching, a chip from the exact same patch of grass in open play. It salvaged a 1-1 draw.
‘I always say, the first one was better. I didn’t have time to think about it. The ball broke to me. I saw Tony Norman off his line and, I was playing well, so you try those sorts of things. I chipped him and it sailed in.
‘I’ll never forget, the next season, we were leaving the hotel to get the coach to the game and this guy says to me, “Same again as last year, Liam”. And that’s what happened. That’s always stuck with me.’
And so has the song. The players of today would do well to remember that, in this derby, one touch can echo for a lifetime.
Pass Master is out now — Liam O’Brien’s story of life under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, the Keegan revolution at Newcastle and the famous derby goal Magpies fans still sing about. Available here: www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/pass-master
