Great story and confirms what a lot of people realise about the great man. Couple of things to highlight: 1) 'Colin Calderwood, a trusted lieutenant, saw the writing on the wall and left in October to take over at Hibernian' – I didn't realise he had previous of jumping ship and 2) Imagine being replaced in your job by PARDEW
But in adversity, United kept winning and there was no opportunity for Newcastle to sack him. They won at West Ham and Arsenal and defeated Sunderland 5-1. Whispers that the board had been unhappy at Hughton celebrating on the pitch afterwards seemed harsh.
Interesting how Harper said Newcastle always turned up in the big games. That's still true with Hughton's teams, and will be true tomorrow night - win, draw or lose.