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Dwight, we'd love to hear more about uh your career as well. I mean, obviously starting off with the fact that you're released from Arsenal. What was that moment like for you, you know, at that young age? And how much do you feel it then shaped what you went on to achieve? Uh, I feel like it shaped everything to be honest. Uh at the time, I had a like a bit of a relief. It felt like academy was like a full-time job at a young age and I missed like playing football for fun. So it was about I was about 12 and I'd go to school and a lot of boys would talk about like their weekends or playing Saturday football together and it made me a bit jealous. So I sort of went into a fewmies uh who asked me to sign but I'd sort of had
enough a bit to be honest. So I wanted to just get away from it. So I went and signed for my local team and then just um just enjoyed my football for the next seven or eight years from that point onwards really. And then working your way up, obviously you get to Crystal Palace. There's obviously a game that you're very well known for. Uh there I was there. What a night that was. Brilliant, isn't it? What are your memories from that game? Because it's it's an iconic moment in Premier League history, isn't it?
You know, even just the image of Luis Suarez crying after the game and I mean, even the fact that Liverpool, they needed a lot of goals, didn't they? They were running back with the ball after 3-0 and then you pulled it off. I mean, yeah. Where does that rank for you in terms of what you did? Um, it ranked very highly, I think, because um, like you say, it was very iconic. I remember I was being on the bench. It was like 3-0 and I remember the Newcastle fans, Liverpool fans like you say was asking for we want seven or whatever and they was going to get out the net and I remember I think a couple of us were getting sent on and I was thinking like this is a bit unfair like why am I getting sent on to this
like uh so not that I didn't think we could do well but I just felt like we're in a position and I knew how good Liverpool were that season. I remember playing him in the away shot and that performance from Sturridge and Suarez were actually like the p pinnacle of my career. I feel like those two up front were like I've never seen anything like it before. The wavelength of both when they was like leaving things through their legs and spinning out and I'm like what's going on here? So yeah, coming on I was not worried but I was like yeah this could get worse like let's go on and just try and keep it free. And then I think Delaney scored and then just sort of started growing in confidence
from there. He knew obviously what Bolassi brought to the team and just ran the whole length of the pitch. Uh and then set one up for me and then obviously Glen Murray with his intelligence from Scott Dan typical crossfield pass. So yeah. No, it was crazy. Oh yeah. Did you kind of know what you'd achieve with that I if you know what I mean? Like did you realize how iconic it would be at the time? Definitely not. Um, for me obviously it was like absolutely buzzing and the fans was like the raw and atmosphere that night was probably one of the best that I could remember. But then going into the change rooms and stuff like I don't
know it just didn't feel or know exactly what we' done sort of thing cuz like even years later and stuff like every time even now still every time I see liveful fan they're like oh you've ruined you ruined my life or you next day at school you made me get battered I was getting like everyone was taking a mick out of me you ruined that day. So it obviously was like a special moment and I don't think you realized at the time like how big it was. Yeah, there'll be no guest appearance for you, I don't think, on Inside Liverpool. I think I've gone from non-league to this. You're on the back pages. You're being talked about by everybody. Even when you signed for Newcastle, everyone, Dwight Gale, I remember that night he did. He did that. It's such a moment. As
Ollie says, they replay Premier League history uh videos. You're in it. I know. That's probably the reason I record stay relevant in my career to be honest. That was the only reason that because that was just like you say spoken about so much and I think that was probably why I had as long as career as I did. If we move on to your time at Newcastle then your initial signing for the club they've just gone down into the championship. How did it all come about? How did that conversation start? Um I remember I was in um on holiday with my misses um and then rapper called me and I said to my misses I was like oh I was all buzzing and I obviously as soon as I found out that they was
interested it was likely to happen and I was just so excited and then obviously when I got there or I think before I told him I miss his dad who's like born in Newcastle big Jordy fan so then he was buzzing as well so then the favorite son-in-law as well. So, it was all good. And you take the number nine shirt. Was that your idea? Was it Rafa's idea? How did that happen? Um to be honest, it was like a uh Mitravich and myself wanted the number and then um Rafael was like, "You're going to have to have like a penny shoot to see who takes it sort of thing." And he did the same with Lazar and Atsu for the
number seven. But them two went and done it. But as we're about to go out, Mitri just was like don't worry, you can have it sort of thing. And he gave me the number to be fair. Oh, really? Fair. But it might have come down to penalties. Yeah. Would you back yourself? I would have lost 100%. Every penalty I took for New Cross I missed. So were you aware of how much number nine meant to Newcastle fans at that point? No, not at that point, I don't think. But no, because it is the biggest thing. Yes. Yeah. No, I know. I was very fortunate and looking back on my career that's one of the like yeah big things so obviously that season you know me as
dragged us back to the Premier League but the hattick against Norwich right I was in the lasers is when I had my season ticket and when you scored the winner I fell like six rows down like it was genuinely like one of my best Newcastle moments like when because obviously we didn't start season brilliantly and we were losing that game. Yeah, we lost it. Yeah. And then you scored that goal and then there's a video as well of the noise being heard from like miles away as well. Did you know in that moment how big that goal was? Obviously first for Newcastle as well.
Um again like I think sometimes you don't really notice like the timings of things. Um I do know that obviously afterwards like the swing it done from Norwich as well and us literally went opposite directions from that point. But I don't know, we had like a massive belief that we should have been well out the way um in the first half. We had a few chances that I missed and I think I missed a couple chances the week before Villa. So I felt a bit of added pressure I think but um obviously scoring that last minute goal was one of the highlights of my career there in terms of like the roar like you say and then Mitravich again just got me in a stroke neck and my mom was fuming said she's going to kill me.
So that was like the number nine as well. Yeah. I just love that the fourth goal because you just you take it so early. You take the shot so early almost from the edge of the box isn't it? and uh and it kind of yeah obviously it fools the keeper and uh and yeah like you say Jack that's one of the loudest I've ever heard and it was absolutely incredible that um just talk to me about Rafa Bonitz as well something I'm quite interested in when you hear quite a few of his former players they almost talk about how cold he can be at times did you ever experience that or do you understand what they're saying when they do say that?
Uh yeah I could understand it. I think he's quite someone that doesn't like to grow too emotional with players sort of thing. He likes to keep not his distance, but he wants to keep it like quite about like the job almost. Uh he loves football so much and he literally wants to talk about it all the time. So like I loved working with someone of his um status and obviously everything he's done is unbelievable. So he was a legend to all of us as players. So every time he was talking about stuff, everyone had full trust in what he did. So he was fantastic for us to be honest. Yeah. One thing I noticed during that season is you had like almost instinctively play with Jon, Matt,
Richie, and now Muhammad Diam as well. Yeah. Did you work on that in training or did it just kind of click because a lot I watched a lot of your goals back and literally is Richie, John, and Dame setting up for them. Um, see the thing was the big thing was when I went in there, uh, similar to Eddie in terms of Rafa, he wanted the striker to just running behind, running behind, running behind. Don't ever look feet. We've got a tend to do that. We've got wingers to do that. And I think if you keep doing that, it just stretches their defense. And even if you don't get it, it just opens up the pockets and makes the defenders side on. So if they do go into the pockets, they're not just straight
into them. So then from Matty and John and the army with the ability they had they'd always just be like if I ever look up I've just got Dwight running and obviously how gifted they was most of the time they did find me. Yeah. And Newcastle fans obviously loved Rafa. They recognized that he was fighting with one and a half hands behind his back because there wasn't much investment in the team but to the rest of the country was quite a defensive side and uh he was pragmatic about what he had. Did that frustrate you sometimes as a striker that you didn't get so many chances?
Uh, not really. Obviously, I was just happy to be playing football at Newcastle. Just Yeah, I was just loving it really. Um, I didn't feel that I was not getting enough chances or anything like that. Like you mentioned before, the players we had in the team were more than good enough to create chances. Uh, one game I think that we all remember as well is leads away. Not just for the goals you scored, but also were you missing a few? Yeah, I did. They look great now, by the way. Brilliant. These are new ones, but they got knocked out. So then I remember all the uh there was a lot put in the paper or something and then obviously I'm coming back and I was a
bit nervous and then I managed to score two and then the Newcastle fans were singing he's got no teeth. He scores with no teeth or something. Dwight Gley scores into a team. First time being too in attack actually was that was the exiting thing but obviously the lead's atmosphere was good as well. So them I trouble from them referee for that. So then the second one you notice I don't really celebrate and then someone chucks a lighter at me and when you're as a striker it's sort of that's the sort of atmosphere you want to play in to be fair.
Yeah. And then obviously just the moment that you win the championship, you scored the third goal against Barnsley. And the reason I remember that is I remember you doing the uh going upstairs down celebration about Sunderland. That was brilliant. And it was and it really wasn't long. It was it was almost as the team were walking back, the news comes through of Jack Grudish having scored um against Brighton and the celebrations on the pitch and it must have been so incredible because if we're being honest heading into that final day, as much as it was tight, you might not have been expecting to have been lifting that trophy at the end of the day.
No, being honest, I don't think we really expected to. Um we sort of expected Brighton to turn up and beat Villa, especially after they went in the one up. Um, obviously I was on the bench before so we sort of knew the score. Um, but it was weird because we sort of celebrated the goal and we're all celebrating and then there was like as we're walking back like you say it was a second raw and then we all start looking at each other thinking like what's happened sort of thing and then they're like oh like Villa scored. So, we're all buzzing and then we're all on the pitch afterwards cuz our game finished before and we're just waiting for like the final like thumbs up and then obviously
at that point we just all just start celebrating. Did you invite Jack Greish on any of the nights out? That's that's some of the things that we spoke about to be fair. Every time someone was doing us a favor was like right he get his number he's invited but we didn't actually end up doing anything. I think only like four of us went away together and yeah, I think it was cuz it was so last minute nothing was really planned. What was it like to go you say you were buzzing to sign for Newcastle which is brilliant but obviously you've dropped down you've dropped down from the Premier League down into the Championship and now you've gone up from the Championship back to the Premier
League to be back there. How did you feel about being back and did you find it a massive difference between the two leagues? Uh like you said before in terms of like chances and as a playing for Newcast was like a not cheat code but with like you mentioned Matt Richie the army John Joe Shelby like absolutely yeah do you know as well it's you're literally just creating chances and like you'd be like a really bad strik if you couldn't score in that sort of team to be honest. So, I was very fortunate. I was very lucky. And then obviously going into the Premier League, it becomes a lot more difficult. That's why everyone or especially myself find it a lot harder to score goals. But you'd done it. You'd done it for Palace.
Yeah. Um but you made the drop down. So did you feel almost more comfortable in the championship then? Uh yeah, I think definitely like belief wise. um you get a lot more games obviously Tuesday, Saturdays and stuff and then I don't know I just really enjoyed it and when I feel like I was someone who once they start scoring a few goals confidence just grew like you mentioned before if you don't score for a few um especially in a Premier League it could last if you don't score in three games you could especially with international breaks it could be six weeks later and you're like I ain't scored in six weeks which is only three games but it's six weeks we're in the You can play six games in
three weeks and then you might score in the seventh and you're like, "Oh, it's okay." Sort of. Obviously, we've talked about Eddie how coming to the club, but I just want to ask you about the moment you heard the news about the takeover and what was that like as a playing squad realizing, you know, especially where the club were at that time? You know, you're under Steve Bruce, really struggling in the league as well. like that moment for a squad of players where you were realizing what was happening and the excitement around everything that was going on. Uh there's a bit of like excitement, a lot of excitement, but then there's also a lot of uncertain certainty for a lot of the players sort of thing, but then
it just made everyone just up their game and say look like we've got this opportunity that if we do well um we can like do really well as a club. And there was players like Jamala Cells who was absolutely like in a situation where he was like well no one's coming in said to me I'm going to be playing and he obviously went on to do so well in that fact. So there was a lot of opportunity for people to go and prove themselves to still be valuable to the club and they did. Yeah. So and obviously you've already mentioned a little bit what did but so obviously you take what happens British leaves how comes in. What was that first like week like? What was I don't know the difference between what
had gone before and then what happened immediately. Uh just the whole excitement about the whole club sort of thing. It was like it felt like the championships like win sort of thing that it felt like we'd won something in just out of nothing sort of thing. Everyone was then there to full support like towards the end of the might a sort of thing. Everyone's were sort of talking about leaving and not coming as much. But then literally the first game back, everyone was full of excitement. The flags were like flying and it just felt like everything was back to normal sort of thing and all the players were on it and then the results like started to pick up and then just felt good. The training was wicked as well. So it was good.
They brought in so many new faces in that January. How chaotic was that? but also what was it like suddenly having someone like Kieran Trippia stepping into the dressing room with what he' just achieved or even when Bruno Garish arrived, you know, what did that do to lift the squad even further? Just like I feel like Eddie chose the right people to join the dress room. I think that's one of his strong points is he likes to know the personality and that's what he like at the time. I do think that people was looking at some of the signings and being like, is that the right person? Ra, you've just got all this money and stuff like not just not Trippia, by the way. This is like in general, it
felt like that. And even Bruner at the time, he wasn't as known as perhaps some of the other people. So, I feel like the people he chose at the time were unbelievable and they were right for the dressing room. Everyone added so much to that side of it. I think Bruno sort of tied in a lot of the foreign players and he was like not leader but he's grown into a big leadership of that part and then Chris Wood was a massive influence for a lot of the group as well and triery as well. So he seemed to make a lot of good like signings to be honest so they only added to the group like camaraderie and just went we had a few trips away together as well and it was really good. It's interesting what
you say about Chris Wood there because obviously he won't be remembered as a Newcastle great. He didn't score very he scored very few goals. Yeah, he goes to Forest and he scores a load including against us. Um what did you see him as a strike? Why did it quite work out for him? I think it did. I know he didn't perhaps maybe the season after but the season that he came in I thought he scored a few goals. He was pivotal in our in what like Eddie wanted us to do. He was really good. I thought he was one of the best buyers almost for that period.
