And the Bantams' bright start was obliterated less than a minute later when Alan Rogers' corner from the opposite side was nodded down by FrankSinclair and back-heeled home by Matt Elliott.
The Magpies sent in cross after cross from both wings, but the defensive partnership of Taggart and FrankSinclair coped well, and the void left by the towering Ferguson left Newcastle looking feeble up-front.
They were hired just two months before the election by George Hatfield, the candidate for lieutenant governor on a Republican ticket headed by the incumbent governor, Frank Merriam, but, mostly, they were hired to destroy Sinclair.