Goalkeeper
Newcastle United 1997-2009; 457 appearances
It is so long ago that most Newcastle fans have forgotten but, once upon a time, Shay Given's acrobatics propelled the red-and-white Mackems from Sunderland to the 1996 First Division title and promotion to the Premier League.
He was on loan at Blackburn at the time, where Kenny Dalglish had signed him as a youngster and, luckily for Newcastle, one of Scotsman's first pieces of business on being appointed manager at St. James' was to pay his old club £1.5m for the 21-year-old stopper.
No other Newcastle player has played in more European games for the club and when Newcastle's inner-turmoil finally took its mortal toll on Given's time at the club, he was just 34 games short of breaking the club appearance record, held by fellow keeper, Jamie Lawrence.
Defender
Newcastle United 1962-1974; 356 appearances, 8 goals
Bobby Moncur signed for Newcastle when he was just 15 and would make his debut less than three years later against Luton in the old Second Division.
Six years later he scored three times over the two legs of the Fairs Cup Final, as he captained the side to European glory - a remarkable feat of goal-scoring prolificacy given that he would only score five other goals in his other 355 appearances for the club.
Like so much that has left Newcastle fans weeping into their Newcy Brown over the last few seasons, the club's lack of commitment to its younger players (cf. Titus Bramble and James Milner) has been particularly damaging. A fact laid bare by the realisation that a modern Bobby Moncur - who initially struggled to win a regular place in the side - would already have been shipped on by now. But, back in the 1960s he would go to become one of club's greatest ever captains.
Defender
Newcastle United 1945-1953; 247 appearances, 12 goals
Joe Harvey - who would later go on to manage the club to European glory - began his career in the inside-forward position but his intelligence and sheer-blooded commitment found him far better suited to the more defensive half-back position.
If Alan Shearer had all these players at his disposal for Sunday's must-win game at Villa Park, he would surely have been tempted to line up with a back three, containing Booby Moncur at its heart and Harvey and Frank Clark flanking either side of him.
After captaining the side to back-to-back FA Cup victories in 1951 and 1952, Harvey's final game for the club was against Aston Villa in 1953 and how Newcastle fans would love for Newcaslte to replicate the score-line of that day this weekend - a 1-0 win to Harvey's Toon Army.
Defender
Newcastle United 1962-1975; 464 appearances, 2 goals
Frank Clark, unlike so many of Newcastle's recent players, was born down the road in Consett and, while such a birthplace would ordinarily predetermine red-and-white blood in his veins, Clark's unflappability at left-back made him a Newcastle legend.
In this Dream Team he takes up a place on the left of a three-man defence but the fact that he spent the whole of his Newcastle career developing a telepathic understanding with his Dream Team defensive partner Bobby Moncur, should help keep things tight at the back.
Clark's Newcastle career is strangely book-ended; the club spotted him playing non-league football for Crook Town but after leaving Newcastle he would confirm the platinum talent in his legs by going on to League and European success at Nottingham Forest.
Left-wing
Newcastle United 1980-1985; 191 appearances, 52 goals
Another local-born star - a far cry from the current set-up - who joined the club as a teenager, Chris Waddle cost Newcastle just £1,000 (or one per cent of Michael Owen's weekly wage). Even better for those of a black-and-white persuasion, Waddle had already been turned down by Sunderland after a trial and was making ends meet by working in a local sausage factory.
He would turn out to be one of the club's greatest bargains, forming an irresistible combination with two other magicians, Kevin Keegan and Peter Beardsley. His goals from midfield and his arrogant assurance on the ball provided the launch pad for the top-flight success that now seems an ethereal memory.
Before Spurs came in to pay 590 times his original transfer fee and take him down South, Waddle's performances had taken his side up to the First Division and seen him make his England debut and there's no doubt Alan Shearer would love to call on his creativity this Sunday.
Midfield
Newcastle United 1984-1988; 107 appearances, 25 goals
Once upon a time, those in the know at St. James' Park consistently demonstrated the sort of judgement so keenly lacking in today's administration and the results of one of their exercises in good judgement resulted in the untapping of Paul Gascoigne's potential.
Ipswich, Middlesbrough and Southampton were all guilty of turning down Gazza before his beloved Newcastle offered him a YTS contract. He made his debut under Jack Charlton before he had even signed professional terms and just weeks after captaining the youth side to FA Cup success.
In 1985 Newcastle's development was set back at least a decade as they sold Chris Waddle, by then the heartbeat of the team. The move sent out all the wrong signals to the talent already at the club and, the summer after winning young player of the year, Spurs pipped Manchester United to the young superstar's signature.
Midfield
Newcastle United 1982-1984; 85 appearances, 49 goals
Kevin Keegan, now crowned King Kev of Tyneside, played at St. James' Park for only two seasons but what a couple of seasons they were. If available for this Sunday's encounter, there would be no midfield mediocrity, no lack of energy and no absence of effervescence.
Luckily for Newcastle, Keegan feel out with Southampton manager Lawrie McMenemy and headed to the North-East for one last challenge - to drag Newcastle out of the Second Division.
Keegan did so much more than drag the club to their seemingly elusive top-flight goal. His style of football and infectious enthusiasm turned the team into winners and, more importantly for the St. James' Park crowd, turned them into entertainers.
Keegan's pictured here being embraced by fans after scoring on his debut.
Right-wing
Newcastle United 1983-1987 and 1993-1997; 324 appearances, 119 goals
Newcastle made the mistake of rejecting a young locally-produced impish footballer called Peter Beardsley, but some things are just meant to be. After the initial rejection, Beardsley ended up back at St. James' Park via the transatlantic combination of Carlisle and Vancouver.
Beardsley was good enough to play anywhere along the front six but in this Dream team he lines up on the wing to make room for the abundance of pure goalscorers and the overflow of midfield creativity.
Whoever played alongside Beardsley - Kevin Keegan, Gary Linekar, Andrew Cole - they all scored goals for fun. He served them up with chances, not just on plates, but on dishes fit for kings.
In his first spell at the club, he helped maintain Newcastle's reputation for adventurous football - and also their place in the top-flight - while in his second spell he helped turn Newcastle into every football fan's second team. Oh, how those times have changed.
Forward
Newcastle United 1925-1930; 174 appearances, 143 goals
With his stunted height, lightweight frame, dazzlingly dextrous ball skills and fierce shooting off either foot, Hughie Gallacher was a 1920s footballing antecedent to Lionel Messi - and oh, how Newcastle to do with his guile and eye for goal on Sunday.
No player in the history of the club has a more prolific scoring record, one that once drew comparison with his great contemporary and Dream Team rival, Everton's William Dean.
In fact, Gallacher made his debut against Dean's Everton in the sort of game that until recently was synonymous with Newcastle - a thrilling 3-3 draw in which Dean grabbed a hat-trick and the debutant wasn't far behind with two for Newcastle. At just 23, Gallacher captained the club to the 1927 League Championship but as is so often with the club, they lost their hottest talent when he moved to Chelsea in 1930.
Forward
Newcastle United 1943-1957; 397 appearances, 200 goals
A true No9 in every sense of its traditional English meaning, Jackie Milburn grew up down the mines and brought pit-taught stoic qualities to his football. Marking Milburn was a nightmare, despite his reputation as a modest, shy man off the pitch, on it he was a terror.
Like Alan Shearer, who treaded in his footsteps, Milburn's goals were never quite enough to lead Newcastle to the league title but, in Milburn's case, they were enough to secure three FA Cup trophies in five seasons in the early '50s.
Together Shearer and Milburn would terrorise defences and if only the Newcastle manager could conjure up the spirit of Milburn to sprinkle over his players this Sunday, Newcastle might, juts might, have a chance.
Forward
Newcastle United 1996-2006; 405 appearances, 206 goals
Undoubtedly the least skilful player of this Dream Team front six but also without doubt the most committed to the Toon Army cause. This weekend, Alan Shearer almost unwittingly finds himself in charge of his boyhood club for what is the biggest game in the club's history.
After scoring goals for fun and winning the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle, now managed by Shearer's schoolboy hero, Kevin Keegan, gazumped Manchester United to sign the bulldozing striker for a mammoth £15m in 1996.
The league proved all-too elusive for Newcastle, although Shearer's goals took them close on a number of occasions but he did lead them to two FA Cup finals - the closest the club had come to major silverware since 1969. Newcastle fans could not care less about silverware right now, with Shearer now at the helm, their only wish is for three points this Sunday.
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