John Carver takes charge of his first derby as Newcastle head coach tomorrow, and the boyhood Magpies fan will be hoping the experience is more successful than his first experience of the game in a coaching capacity. Speaking to Chief Sports Writer, Scott Wilson, he recalled a night that will forever be remembered as the ‘Ruud Gullit derby’

OF all the chaotic things that have happened in recent matches between Newcastle and Sunderland, all the 5-1 victories, 3-0 defeats and countless controversies bound up in those games, the 1999 meeting at a rain-drenched St James’ Park remains, for many, the defining derby moment.

It was an occasion that had everything – monsoon-like conditions, with water cascading down the steps of an uncovered Leazes End, a truly remarkable team selection, with Alan Shearer and Duncan Ferguson both controversially excluded from Newcastle’s starting line-up, and an historic result that delivered Sunderland a first derby win in more than nine years.

It was also the moment that marked the end for Ruud Gullit, with the Dutchman resigning in the week that followed his side’s calamitous 2-1 defeat to goals from Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips.

Even now, more than a decade-and-a-half on, it seems incredulous that Gullit dropped both Shearer and Ferguson, preferring instead to start with Paul Robinson as a lone striker and a midfield than featured Jamie McClen.

John Carver was part of Gullit’s coaching staff at the time, and as he prepares to take charge of his first Wear-Tyne derby as Newcastle head coach, the 50-year-old still cites the events of 1999 as the most unbelievable period of his time with the Magpies.

Supporters might have been shaking their heads when they learned of Gullit’s selection gamble, but that was nothing compared to the incredulity that was experienced within the confines of Newcastle’s training ground, which at the time was based at Durham’s cricket complex at Chester-le-Street.

“I was in the room with (assistant manager) Steve Clarke and Ruud,” said Carver. “All of a sudden, he started talking about what the team was going to be against Sunderland. I said, ‘Sorry Ruud, what did you say there?’

“He said he was going to leave out Alan and Duncan, and this was going to be the team. I said, ‘Do you know how important this game is?’ He used to call everyone ‘lovely boy’, and his exact words were, ‘Lovely boy, I have played in some massive derbies. I’ve played in them at Ajax, London derbies, and I played in the Milan derby too’.

“I said, ‘Yeah, but do you actually know what this means?’ He said, ‘I’ve already told you – I’ve played in massive derbies’. I went, ‘Yeah, but you haven’t played in one like this Ruud’.

“I turned to Steve and said, ‘He hasn’t been involved in a game like this, I’m telling you now’. And then we just walked out of the room. I then continued the conversation with Steve, because he half understood where I was coming from because of the relationship we had. But I don’t think Ruud did.

“He just seemed set on the fact that that was what he was going to do, and that was the team he was going to put on the pitch. I talked about it being a motivation for the opposition. Reidy (Peter Reid) was the (Sunderland) manager at the time, so I said, ‘This will be a motivation for Peter, when he sees that Alan Shearer and Duncan Ferguson are not on the team sheet’. But he had no concerns whatsoever.”

Gullit repeated his comments about the North-East derby paling into insignificance when posited against the games he had experienced in Milan in the press before the game, words that understandably infuriated a support base that had already begun to turn against him following Newcastle’s poor start to the season.

He must have known that dropping Shearer and Ferguson would be interpreted as an act of utterly misguided defiance, but by that stage, Carver believes he was past the point where he cared.

“I actually thought, ‘If we don’t win it, he’s gone’,” he said. “This was before it all happened, and I said to Steve, ‘Is he writing his resignation now before the game?’ Steve didn’t comment because he was quite tight to Ruud. Then we played the game...”

Newcastle actually started reasonably brightly, with Kieron Dyer scoring a 28th-minute opener, but with conditions deteriorating and patches of water starting to form on the field, Quinn equalised shortly after the hour mark.

Eleven minutes later, and Phillips fired Sunderland ahead, and while Ferguson and Shearer both came off the bench in the second half – pointedly in that order – there was to be no dramatic late comeback.

The awful weather conditions meant the fury at the final whistle was somewhat subdued, but as he trudged back into the dressing room, Gullit had already accepted that his time was up.

“I walked in afterwards, and there’s Ruud in the room writing on his pad,” said Carver. “I said to him, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘You know what I’m doing lovely boy’.

“I just shut the door and walked out, and found out what had happened the next day. I was there, and it was a dreadful night all round. It was pouring down, the stand was open and everyone had macs on. It was an awful, awful day and I don’t think anyone who was there will forget it.”