A little more than a year after Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips had done for Ruud Gullit with our first come-from-behind win away to the Mags, we were at it again with another 2-1 win at their place. The events of November 18, 2000, mean it will take some shifting as my favourite derby. It's still the one to beat, even though a few have come close.
The building work had been completed at St James' and it was our first experience of the energy-sapping slog up the stairs to the new away end. But the trip was worth it for the 3,000-odd luckily enough to be there.
Shearer, who started the previous year's game on the bench, was playing this time and although they were the first to score, he didn't get it. Gary Speed gave them the lead in the fourth minute, tapping in his own rebound after hitting the post. It was a scabby goal but thankfully didn't prove terminal, although for most of the first half you wouldn't have found many in our end who'd have fancied us for another comeback.
Midway through the second half Quinny linked with SuperKev - but not in the usual way. Our little goal machine was in an unfamiliar position out wide but provided his usual quality with a tidy left-foot cross which Don Hutchison expertly turned in from six yards out to level the scores. That'll do...
Eight minutes later, Alex Rae provided a lovely ball down the line for Micky Gray to chase. He did, then swung over a beautiful centre for Quinny to head in from 12 yards. It's one of those rare goals I don't ever need to see again, the images of it will forever be etched in my brain from the moment they happened. The celebrations left me gasping for breath for several minutes.
Sadly, less than 10 minutes later, the big man had another big moment, cutting down Rob Lee in our box for one of the most blatant penalties you'll see. Quinny's reaction was a pained one and suggested he knew he might have cost us a big win.
Little did he know but he had actually helped drop the umbrella in the cocktail. "Shearer, Shearer, Shearer" echoed around the Landfill but Tommy Sorensen dived to his left and palmed away the effort, before being mobbed by his team-mates. The silence was deafening, although they'll have heard the chants of "Shearer, Shearer, Shearer" coming from our section...
To say the closing stages of the match were comfortable would be a lie, we had to dig in. And when the final whistle eventually came the celebrations were as lively as you'd expect. Talking of long waits, there was one of these before we were let out. Most of us had been bussed in and the journey back was entertaining, to say the least, particularly the first 10 minutes or so.
It didn't end there though. The Match of the Day cameras were there, enabling the rest of the country to join red and whites in celebrating a victory for good over evil. Both managers were keen to praise Tommy for his save, rather than criticising Shearer for putting it to close to him. And then ALS marked a memorable day with a T-shirt I didn't take off for weeks. To say I got value out of it is as much of an understatement as saying I will never, ever, tire of recalling the events of that day.
