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United Out For Overdue Opening Day Win
Written by Newcastle Utd
Rafa Benitez and his team will go in search of the Magpies' first three points from the opening game of the season in four years
By Tom Easterby - Newcastle United Club Reporter
Newcastle United will learn who their first opponents of the 2016-17 Sky Bet Championship season are when the fixture list is released on Wednesday morning.
And when the campaign kicks off in early August, Rafa Benitez will begin his first full season in charge by going in search of the Magpies' first three points from the opening game of the season in four years.
United's last win on the opening day came in August 2012, when Alan Pardew's charges beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at St. James' Park, with Hatem Ben Arfa's penalty securing the points after Jermain Defoe had cancelled out Demba Ba's deadlock-breaker.
In the following two seasons, Manchester City recorded two victories over United in two successive curtain-raisers, triumphing 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium in August 2013 before Manuel Pellegrini's side ran out 2-0 winners at St. James' Park a year later.
Steve McClaren's first game in charge ended in a 2-2 home draw with Southampton as the Premier League got under way last year, and now manager Benitez and his team will be out to go one better than Chris Hughton's Magpies side managed on the first day the last time the Club began a campaign in the Championship.
The last time Newcastle were relegated to the second tier they faced another team to have lost their top flight status that summer, West Bromwich Albion, at the Hawthorns in August 2009. That match ended in a 1-1 draw, with Damien Duff earning a point for United after Shelton Martis' first half strike.
That draw was followed by a 3-0 home win over Reading which came thanks to a Shola Ameobi hat-trick, setting the tone for a season in which the Championship title was secured with a points tally of 102.
Ameobi's match-winning treble kick-started a fine early-season run of form, with United winning their next four games against Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace, Leicester City and Cardiff City, scoring five and conceding none during that period.
Some 17 years prior to that, Newcastle - then managed by Kevin Keegan - embarked on their last season outside of the top division. It began with a 3-2 win over Southend United at St. James' Park, which came courtesy of a Paul Bracewell effort, a Spencer Prior own goal and Lee Clark's 70th-minute goal.
That victory was the first of 11 consecutive wins, which included a 2-0 win over West Ham, a 5-0 thrashing of Bristol City and a 2-1 derby win over Sunderland at Roker Park, as Keegan's swashbuckling outfit surged to the summit of the Second Division and eventually earned promotion to the newly-formed Premier League as champions, wrapping up the season by steamrollering Leicester City 7-1 on Tyneside, as Andy Cole and David Kelly helped themselves to hat-tricks.
A similarly successful start to life in the Championship in just over a month's time would constitute an ideal start for former Real Madrid boss Benitez, who guided both Extremadura and Tenerife to promotion from the Spanish second tier earlier in his managerial career.