The Inter mission that still makes Wyn the Leap wince 32 years on

Internazionale's vice-president is a worried man. Since the draw for the second phase of the Champions' League was made, Giacinto Facchetti has been fretting about Inter's opening-night engagement at Newcastle on Wednesday. "Our trip to Newcastle could be very difficult," he said last week.

His trepidation is hardly surprising. The legendary Azzurri captain is probably still haunted by the nightmare Inter suffered at Newcastle back in 1970, an occasion which became known on Tyneside as "The Battle of St James'."

Having struggled to contain Newcastle in the home leg of a European Fairs Cup first- round tie, Inter came to Toon intent on stopping Joe Harvey's side by fair means or foul. Facchetti was the chief culprit, earning the sobriquet "Hacchetti" for the job he performed on Wyn Davies.

"You ain't seen nothing like the mighty Wyn," the Leazes End used to chorus at the time, to the tune of Manfred Mann's celebrated No 1. And Inter had certainly seen nothing like Newcastle's totemic Welsh centre-forward, who tormented them with his aerial power in the first leg.

Davies headed the opening goal in a 1-1 draw in the San Siro and Facchetti, Italy's captain in the World Cup final against Brazil three months previously, was detailed to execute a hatchet job on him in the second leg.

The great overlapping left-back was not, however, the only villain in a team coached by Helenio Herrera, the man who perfected the stifling art of catenaccio football. As Ivor Broadis, the Newcastle forward turned Newcastle reporter, wrote in The Journal the following day: "Inter brought nothing but disgrace to the game. Pushing, punching, body-checking – you name it, Inter threw it all at Newcastle in a morass of Italian skulduggery."

They threw some of it at the Belgian referee, too. Joseph Minnoy was punched in the stomach by Lido Vieri when the Inter keeper – no relation to Christian Vieri, who will be leading the Inter forward line at St James' Park on Wednesday – conceded a free-kick for obstructing Davies. Two police officers came on to the pitch to break up the mêlée that followed and to escort Vieri from the field. Vieri was subsequently fined £660 and banned from playing for Italy for three years by the Italian football federation.

The Newcastle players held their composure admirably as the intimidation intensified. "There were two types of player on the field – the quick and the dead," the Newcastle chairman, Lord Westwood, said. "Those who were not quick were dead." Davies was brave enough to play through it all and quick enough to get away from Facchetti to head the second goal in a 2-0 win for Newcastle.

Thirty-two years on, "Wyn the leap" still winces at the memory of that bruising Oct-ober night, when he was left as black and blue as Facchetti's Inter shirt. "I was amazed at how physical they were," he said. "I can't remember the goalkeeper hitting the referee but I can remember [Roberto] Boninsegna... He was only a young lad but he was the Ronaldo of his day. I can recall Tommy Gibb walking across the half-way line and this fella just hit him one. Dear me. I'd never seen anyone being hit in the face like that. But fair dos to the lads. We didn't retaliate at all."

Davies, for one, was accustomed to taking punishment. He played through the pain of a broken cheekbone when Newcastle won the two-legged Fairs Cup final against Ujpest Dozsa in 1969. A rough-hewn giant of a centre-forward, he started his working life as a labourer in a slate quarry in his native North Wales. He arrived at Newcastle in 1966, a club- record £60,000 signing from Bolton, carrying his boots in his hands. "If you could screw studs into his head," Ivor Broadis once wrote, "he would be another George Best."

Davies is 60 now, a retired baker living in Bolton. Unlike Facchetti, who led Inter to the European Cup in 1964 and 1966 and who works as right-hand man to the Inter president, Massimo Moratti, the mighty Wyn will not be back at St James' on Wednesday night. "It's unfortunate, but I can't be there," he said. "I'm going down to Wales with my brother and his wife. It would have been nice just to shake Mr Facchetti's hand. I've certainly forgiven him. He was a wonderful player. You get a bit wiser as you get older, don't you. Me and Ron Yeats used to kick lumps out of each other. We play charity golf together now."

Davies is still Newcastle's top scorer in European competition, with 10 goals – one more than Bryan "Pop" Robson, his old striking partner, and four more than Alan Shearer. His goals took Newcastle to that unexpected Fairs Cup triumph in 1969, the last major trophy won by the club, and he has a sneaking fancy for them upsetting the odds again and reaching the final. "I might have a couple of bob on that," Davies said. "I'd love to see them in the final at Old Trafford."

First, though, comes the second phase – starting with the visit of an Inter side featuring another Vieri. "On the night, and with that crowd behind them, you never know," Davies mused. "I'm taking Newcastle to win it 2-1 – with a penalty. It would be nice for the spectators who remember us from the last time." But not so nice for Signor Facchetti, of course.