The almost forgotten Newcastle United goal hero who puts Joelinton and Co to shame

According to the dictionary 'taking coals to Newcastle' is to do something frivolous and unnecessary.

Well, taking goals is a totally different matter. Absolutely crucial under present dire circumstances.

True, whoever is tasked with the responsibility this summer will be buying into a silver thread of swashbuckling romance that runs through a historic club.

The No 9 legend has seen the baton passed from Hughie Gallacher through Jackie Milburn and Len White, Wyn Davies and SuperMac, to Les Ferdinand and the best of the lot Alan Shearer, which is an awesome hall of fame.

Yet he need fear not. In reality United's supposed summer saviour will have very little to beat.

Because his initial target will be to do better than the player bought a year ago for a club record £40m to ravage the Premier League.

Joelinton took part in every league game United played but incredibly scored only two goals.

Surely that's not too big a target to overtake for any new signing, probably costing half of Joelinton's fee or less, and so instantly claim some sort of acceptance.

It's like stepping over a molehill not attempting to climb Everest.

I personally would expect, nay demand, an awful lot more but quite frankly that is where United are right now. To think we were glad to get rid of Joselu when yer Average Joe walked through the door. He has made Solomon Rondon look as prolific as Sergio Aguero!

How we get ground down at NUFC to accept low expectations.

A meagre haul of two league strikes . . . what did REAL goalscorers achieve in our colours?

Well, they topped Joelinton's season long total in a single match for a start.

Jackie Milburn scored no fewer than nine hat-tricks for Newcastle as well as one for England, Hughie Gallacher notched four goals in a game on three separate occasions and five for Scotland vs Northern Ireland while a Mag, Mick Quinn bagged four goals on his debut against Leeds United, Alan Shearer made it five in Bobby Robson's first home game, and SuperMac scored five for England in a European qualifier during his stay here.

Even Len Shackleton, the Clown Prince Of Football who was primarily a creator, claimed a staggering six goals on his United debut.

However the man with the highest number of single-match top totals ever is almost forgotten despite being one of the finest goalscoring centre-forwards in United history. Buried in the mists of time, he rarely gets even a mention amongst United's No 9 legends.

Albert Stubbins had an amazing journey and an even more amazing record.

Geordie-born but raised as a boy in the American cities of New York and Detroit way back during the early twenties Stubbins became a great scorer of great goals, a Smiling Assassin who ran like the wind and possessed a thunderous shot in his size 11 boots, but through an awful twist of fate saw his Newcastle career ripped asunder by the Second World War.

Seven of his 10 years spent at SJP were destroyed by Hitler's hostilities - a huge swathe of what is a short career as a footballer - yet Stubbins ran up a staggering total of 231 goals in 188 war-time games.

Joelinton's season total of two? Five times Albert scored five goals in a single match and while we know that the war league and cup tournaments were not of the normal standard, teams still possessed top stars back home on leave.

However when peace was restored to the world Stubbins was 27 years of age and it was now or never. United were in the Second Division and he wanted to play in the First.

It boiled down to a Merseyside shoot out - Liverpool or Everton and true to a life as colourful as a kaleidoscope he gambled and opted for the Reds.

One evening in the late summer of 1946 while sitting in Newcastle's News Theatre, Stubbins found himself summoned to St James' Park by a message flashed up on the cinema screen.

When he arrived he was confronted by representatives from both Liverpool and Everton. He tossed a coin, talked to Liverpool chairman Billy McConnell first, and agreed to sign for a club record £12,500.

That season - the first of League soccer after the war and one with echoes of today being prolonged until mid-June by dreadful winter weather - Stubbins inevitably top scored in helping to secure the championship for Liverpool. He was to go on and play for them in the 1950 FA Cup final.

Such was his impact on Merseyside that the genial Geordie was incorporated in a montage on the sleeve of the Beatles legendary 1967 album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Albert is sandwiched between George Bernard Shaw and Albert Einstein peering over the shoulder of Marlene Dietrich.

How did that come about? Paul McCartney's family revered Stubbins and that made his inclusion a must.

I knew Albert very well. He was a lovely, gentle man and, like Wor Jackie, was almost embarrassed by his fame and ability. While his stature might be lost to younger United fans because he played mainly in the war years it can be gauged by the fact that both Milburn and Bobby Robson - two of the greatest Geordies ever - named Stubbins as their hero during their formative years.

Sure, the weight of history is huge and will eventually confront any new United signing this summer (if he stays around long enough) but to start with he will have a gentle ride to acceptance built upon Joelinton's first-season league total of goals.

Hardly an awesome task short term but a heck of one if he wants to join the elite club of No 9 Legends.