Newcastle KB United are a defunct Australian association football (soccer) club. They participated in the National Soccer League

National Soccer League

The National Soccer League is the former national association football competition in Australasia, overseen by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977, until its demise in 2004...

 from 1978 until early in the 1984 season.

History

The first Newcastle based team to play in a national league, Newcastle KB United was formed in 1977, but didn't play until 1978 one year after the inception of the Philips Soccer League (NSL).

Newcastle KB United was sponsored by Tooths Breweries

Tooth and Co.

Tooth and Co. was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on Broadway in Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery...

 (hence the KB tag) and took the NSL by storm by setting new crowd attendance records on a regular basis. They drew some famous names to play guest matches with them with Bobby Charlton

Bobby Charlton

Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton CBE is an English former professional football player, a member of the England team who won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or for European Footballer of the Year in 1966...

 playing a game for the club in 1978, Paul Reaney

Paul Reaney

Paul Reaney was a long-serving full back with the Leeds United team of the 1960s and 1970s.Reaney wore the No.2 shirt for Leeds and in a team renowned for its hard approach to the game, he more than held his own....

 joining in 1980 and Craig Johnston

Craig Johnston

Craig Johnston is a former football player who was one of the first Australians to make a major impact in the English game. He is remembered for his time spent with Liverpool throughout the 1980s...

 played once in 1978 and again in 1982.

While they often struggled to compete at the very top of the league Newcastle were regular mid table finishers and their only honour was in 1984 when they travelled to Melbourne Knights

Melbourne Knights

Melbourne Knights Football Club is a football club representing Melbourne, Australia in the Victorian Premier League . The club is one of the most successful football clubs in Australia, being a two-time championship and four-time premiership winner in the now defunct National Soccer League...

 and won the national league cup 1-0, playing as the newly formed Newcastle Rosebud United. The goal was scored by Derek Todd.

KB United's NSL licence was taken over by Adamstown Rosebuds in 1984 after the collapse of Newcastle KB United. Rosebuds renamed themselves Newcastle Rosebud United while they played in the NSL.

Colours and badge

Newcastle KB United played in traditional Newcastle colours of emerald, white and cinnamon but later changed to match the KB brand to their strip and played in predominantly yellow with a red and black trim.

Stadium

Newcastle International Sports Centre now known as Ausgrid Stadium was the home ground of Newcastle KB United. It had a western stand and a circular playing area surrounded by a hill.

Supporters

Newcastle KB United set many crowd records during their time in the NSL holding the record for the largest crowd to a domestic game in this country until the formation of the A-league. This record was 18,367 against Sydney Olympic in April 1979, a year when their average home crowd exceeded 10,000.

The local vocal support was known as "The Rowdies" and they created a great atmosphere from deep in the heart of the Western grandstand in what was known affectionately as 'The Red Section'.

Year	Position	Cup	Ave Home Crowd
1978	11 (14)	3	8500
1979	6 (14)	3	10200
1980	6 (14)	9	6400
1981	10 (16)	29	5300
1982	12 (16)	9	4400
1983	5 (16)	5	2900
1984~	8 (12)	1	1700
1985~	12 (12)	3	1500
1986~	6 (12)	9	1800

~ NSL divided into 2 conferences with Newcastle in the Northern Conference.

Notable former players

Arno Bertogna

Arno Bertogna

Arno Bertogna is an Australian former association football player.-Club career:Bertogna began his senior career with Azzurri in the WA State League, winning the league and cup in his first year....

 Ken Boden

Ken Boden

Ken Boden is an Australian former footballer, who played at both professional and international levels as a midfielder.-Club career:...

 Mick Channon

Mick Channon

Michael Roger "Mick" Channon is a sportsman who enjoyed a career as a striker with Southampton and England in the 1970s and later became a hugely successful racehorse trainer.-Southampton:...

 Bobby Charlton

Bobby Charlton

Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton CBE is an English former professional football player, a member of the England team who won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or for European Footballer of the Year in 1966...

 Colin Curran

Colin Curran

Colin John Curran is a former football defender. He was a member of the Australian 1974 World Cup squad in West Germany and represented Australia 34 times between 1970 and 1979.-See also:...

 (Bunny) Phil Dando Roy Drinkwater Clint Gosling

Clint Gosling

Clint Gosling is a former association football goalkeeper who represented New Zealand at international level.His Midgets & Junior soccer started at Lynndale AFC now Lynnavon...

 Graham Heys Lars Jacobsen

Lars Jacobsen

Lars Christian Jacobsen, , and raised in Odense on Funen, is a Danish footballer. He currently plays for F.C. Copenhagen.-Odense Boldklub:Jacobsen started his career with local top-flight team Odense Boldklub...

 Craig Johnston

Craig Johnston

Craig Johnston is a former football player who was one of the first Australians to make a major impact in the English game. He is remembered for his time spent with Liverpool throughout the 1980s...

 David Lowe

David Lowe

David Lowe is a British composer, focusing primarily on music for television and radio, including all the current themes for BBC News. His first television composition was the 1983 title music for BBC Midlands Today, followed in 1988 by BBC Wales Today and he went back to BBC Birmingham and...

 David Jones Malcolm McClelland Paul Reaney

Paul Reaney

Paul Reaney was a long-serving full back with the Leeds United team of the 1960s and 1970s.Reaney wore the No.2 shirt for Leeds and in a team renowned for its hard approach to the game, he more than held his own....

 Joe Senkalski

External links

• Highlights on youtube from 1979
• Youtube with Craig Johnston from 1980