Ahead of our trip to Bolton on Boxing Day, I took the opportunity to have a look at our Boxing Day record to give us an idea of how well our lads do on the day after Christmas. The fixture list has long been unkind to Newcastle, forcing us to play away from home effectively 2 out of every 3 years, 48 out of 79 Boxing Day games being on the road, and this is the case again in 2006, meaning 5 consecutive St Stephen’s Days on the road for United fans.

Our overall record on Boxing Day is not fantastic, with 27 wins from 79 games, and 35 defeats. In those games we have scored 114 goals, and conceded 120. Our away record makes even more depressing reading. Of 48 games we have won just 13 and lost 25, scoring 64 goals and conceding 74. At home, however, we have won 14 of 31 matches, and lost 10.

Breaking this down into games we have played in the top tier of the Football League and the Premier League, of 59 games we have won 21 and lost 25, scoring 88 and conceding 91. At home our record is relatively good, winning 11 of 23 games and losing 7. However, of the 36 away games we’ve played, we’ve won 10 and lost 18.

Since we made the Premier League we have played on Boxing Day 11 times, winning 2 and losing 5. 4 of those games were at St James’, resulting in a 3-0 defeat to Leeds in 1998, a 2-2 draw with Liverpool in 1999 (with Michael Owen scoring 2 for the away side), a 2-1 win over Leeds (again) in 2000, and a 3-0 win over Middlesbrough in 2001.

The other 7 were away from home, and depressingly we have failed to pick up a win yet. A goalless draw at Leeds in 1994 was followed by single goal defeats at Blackburn and Derby in 1996 and 1997 respectively. In 2002 we then lost 4-3 at this year’s opponents Bolton, which was followed by 1-1 and 2-2 draws at Leicester and Blackburn respectively, and last season a 2-0 defeat at Liverpool.

This Boxing Day our opponents are Bolton. We have faced the Trotters just once previously on Boxing Day, and that was the aforementioned 4-3 loss in 2002. Jay-Jay Okocha gave Bolton the lead after 5 minutes, Alan Shearer equalised for us 3 minutes later, only for Ricardo Gardner to restore Wanderers’ lead immediately. Michael Ricketts added 2 further goals to put the home side 4-1 up, before Shola Ameobi’s deflected shot and a second for Shearer (a thunderous free kick) made it a nervous finale.

Overall Record on Boxing Day
Played 79, Won 27, Drawn 17, Lost 35, For 114, Against 120

Away Overall Record on Boxing Day
Played 48, Won 13, Drawn 10, Lost 25, For 64, Against 74

Premier League Record on Boxing Day
Played 11, Won 2, Drawn 4, Lost 5, For 13, Against 17

Away Premier League Record on Boxing Day
Played 7, Won 0, Drawn 3, Lost 4, For 6, Against 11

Boxing Day Record against Bolton Wanderers
Played 1, Won 0, Drawn 0, Lost 1, For 0, Against 2