When Micky Quinn arrived at Newcastle in the summer of 1989, he was joining a club that had just been relegated and whose supporters were furious with the people running it. Not long after signing, Quinn went for a walk through the city with his girlfriend and came across around 1,500 Newcastle supporters protesting against the board. Among the banners was one questioning the £680,000 they had just spent on their new striker. “Who the f*** is Micky Quinn?” Quinn had scored goals throughout his career, but Newcastle was different. When Jim Smith asked him which shirt he wanted, Quinn chose the number nine. It was the shirt associated with Jackie Milburn and Malcolm Macdonald, but nobody had scored 20 league goals wearing it for Newcastle in 25 years. A few weeks later, he walked out at St James’ Park wearing it for the first time. Newcastle were playing Leeds on the opening day of the season. Leeds had Gordon Strachan, Vinnie Jones, David Batty and Mel Sterland in a side expected to challenge for promotion. Quinn had spent the weeks since seeing that banner waiting to show Newcastle supporters exactly who they had signed. “When the whistle went, I was like a pit bull terrier straining at the leash.” Eighteen minutes into his debut, Newcastle were awarded a penalty. Quinn immediately went for the ball. “It was a cocky thing to do in my first game.” “But I was desperate to score a goal.” He put it away. Leeds responded with two goals and Newcastle went into half-time 2-1 behind. Early in the second half, Mark McGhee flicked on a corner and Quinn headed in his second. Not long afterwards, John Gallacher found him again. Quinn completed his hat-trick. He ran towards the supporters behind the goal with the banner he had seen a few weeks earlier still very much in his mind. “That’s who f****** Micky Quinn is!” Gallacher added another to make it 4-2. Quinn still was not finished. Kevin Dillon played him through and Quinn smashed in his fourth of the afternoon. His Newcastle debut had ended with four goals in a 5-2 win. Jim Smith was waiting for him afterwards. “You are a f****** bargain, Mr Quinn.” “Now go and get us promoted.” Quinn went into the players’ lounge and started celebrating with his dad. From there, they met up with his uncles and carried on drinking. Newcastle supporters kept sending drinks across to him. By the time Quinn eventually returned to the Holiday Inn where he was living, it was around two in the morning. He desperately needed the toilet. The problem was that the toilets were two floors below and, of the three lifts, only one was working. Next to the lift was a large plant pot. Eventually, he decided he was not waiting any longer. “I started p*****g into it.” Halfway through, Quinn realised the hotel manager was standing behind him. A few hours earlier, the same behaviour probably would have caused Newcastle’s new signing a serious problem. But the hotel manager had seen what Quinn had done at St James’ Park. “If you score another four goals next week, bonny lad, you can have a s*** in that pot!” Quinn had been a Newcastle player for a matter of weeks. He had gone from supporters asking who he was to scoring four goals on his debut and being given permission to use the hotel furniture as a toilet. “It could only happen in Newcastle.” “I’d be arrested anywhere else!”