If you want to achieve black and white immortality in the eyes of the Geordie public ... score against Mackems in their own back yard. The Magpies had incredibly won all TEN of their games at the start of the 1992/93 season under Kevin Keegan.
Kevin Brock’s deflected effort had beaten Tim Carter in front of the Fulwell End but Geordie Gordon Armstrong wheeled away in delight after netting the equaliser.
The Mackems sang proudly “Where’s your record gone” around Roker, but Liam O’Brien put a full-stop to the story.
With 14 minutes to go, Liam O’Brien whipped the ball from a freekick and curled it over the wall past Carter who was left rooted to the spot.
Liam O’Brien: “I can’t believe it was 20 years ago or the fact that the Geordies are still singing my name! I have a lot of friends in the area and they tell me about the song.
“It’s a brilliant feeling to be honest.
“And 20 years on we’re still talking about it. But everybody wants to win against their main rivals.
“That day in 1992 was special for us, we’d won 10 games and wanted to keep up the 100% record. To score the winner was special and it was a really good time for the supporters.
“It was the start of the good times.
“We’d avoided relegation a few months earlier and we had a really good squad.
“We were flowing with confidence and the rapport of the lads was excellent.
“The camaraderie within the squad helped us gain promotion.
“It’s going to be a tough game.
“Martin O’Neill is a good manager and creates hard to beat teams.
“They will be well organised.
“But Alan Pardew and the lads on the backroom have also done a good job in the last year or so.
“And I hope they can get the win.”
O’Brien is currently enjoying great times as a coach with Scottish Premier League side Hibernian, working alongside Pat Fenlon.