During the 2002–03 English football season,

Newcastle United F.C. Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

participated in the FA Premier League (known as the FA Barclaycard Premiership for sponsorship reasons).

Season summary

After a slow start, the club began putting together the wins and, by the end of March, were in a three-way title race with Manchester United and Arsenal. Consecutive defeats to a resurgent Everton and a 6–2 home thrashing by Alex Ferguson's side killed off Newcastle's title hopes, but

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

and his team was able to brush off the challenge from

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

to finish 3rd in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

, entering the qualification rounds for the Champions League in the 2003–04 season.] The 2002–03 season was a particularly colourful one for Newcastle on the European stage. In the first group stage, Newcastle lost their first three matches in a row, then, in an astonishing reversal, shocked Italian giants Juventus F.C., Juventus 1–0 at St James' Park. They then controversially beat

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

2–1 in Newcastle before winning the crucial last match, away to

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

, 3–2 in injury time, with striker

Craig Bellamy Craig Douglas Bellamy (born 13 July 1979) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward and is current assistant manager at EFL Championship side Burnley. Born in Cardiff, Bellamy began his senior playing career with Norw ...

scoring the injury time winner. With Dynamo Kyiv losing at home to Juventus, Newcastle progressed to the second round, in a '

group of death A group of death in a multi-stage tournament is a group which is unusually competitive, because the number of strong competitors in the group is greater than the number of qualifying places available for the next phase of the tournament. Thus, i ...

' with

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

. Bellamy was sent off for lashing out at Inter defender

Marco Materazzi Marco Materazzi (; born 19 August 1973) is an Italian former professional footballer and manager. Early in his career, Materazzi played with various Italian teams in Serie B and Serie C, and with Everton in the Premier League. He spent two p ...

in an off-the-ball incident during the opening minutes of the match. Bellamy was punished further by a three-match ban. Compounding the disaster for Newcastle was the suspension of influential captain Alan Shearer for a similar incident, although the punishment was just a two-match ban. Newcastle went on to lose 1–4 at home. Shearer returned in the fourth game in the 4-team group, scoring all three goals in a 3–1 demolition of Bayer Leverkusen at home. Despite a superb performance against Inter in the famous

San Siro Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums i ...

, only to draw 2–2, Newcastle lost at home 2–0 to Barcelona and dropped out of the Champions League.

Final league table

Team kit

The team kit for the 2002–03 season was produced by Adidas and the main shirt sponsor was

NTL NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications L ...

Transfers

In

* Total spending: £23.5m

Out

* Total spending: £150,000

Players

First-team squad

:''Squad at end of season''

Left club during season

Reserve squad

:''The following players did not appear for the first-team this season.''

Trialists

Coaching staff

Appearances, goals and cards

:''(Starting appearances + substitute appearances)''Season Details : 2002–03 FA Barclaycard Premiership, Final standings
''toon1892.co.uk''. Retrieved 15 August 2013

Matches

Pre-season

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

Champions League

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

References

External links

FootballSquads - Newcastle United - 2002/03
{{DEFAULTSORT:2002-03 Newcastle United F.C. Season Newcastle United F.C. seasons Newcastle United