Living the dream!Back in the day, when all I had to worry about was hiding my hickies in a rollneck top, Jolly Ranchers were poisoning us with watermelon flavoured boiled sweets and a young Take That were barely a twinkle in the eye, a young man was trying to make his way in the hard knock world of professional football.
John Watson was an apprentice when I was a young whippersnapper following eagerly in his path at Wallsend Boys Club and trying to follow in his footsteps at the Toon school of excellence. John was generous enough to help out the younger lads and along with Lee Makel, Tommy Heron and Alan Thompson, he imparted his knowledge and experience on us and helped out with training sessions.
Some years later in the twighlight of his career and with me on my way towards my own premature retirement, our paths crossed again when he played in the same team as me at Annfield Plain in the Wearside League. Mine was but a fleeting pipedream but John Watson actually lived that dream of playing for his hometown club, albeit by his own admission, for a fleeting moment in time. But like Chesney Hawkes sang just as John was realising that dream, no matter how short a period it was, he played on that hollowed turf, in those famous stripes and ‘you can’t take that away from him’. (more…)
Waddle hattrick.As we look forward to the Newcastle United v QPR game tomorrow evening, it has made me reminisce about an unbelievable match I witnessed between the two teams 25 years ago this month.
I was a homesick student nurse living in London and in fact QPR was probably the nearest big ground to where I lived.
One of the best bits about following the Toon away from home for an exiled geordie was being surrounded by your own people. Hearing the geordie voices, the usual banter, talk of familiar places was like being wrapped in a cloak of familiarity that you didn’t want to take off. A couple of hours later it all came to an end. Watching the Toon fans get back on the coaches – knowing their next stop later that evening would be Newcastle – I would fight the urge to jump on the coach as well to go back home. Anyway on to the game …
Our manager at the time was big Jack Charlton (I know), and our first 3 wins of the season had been swiftly followed by 3 defeats when we started what was our seventh game of the season at Loftus Road on Saturday September 22nd 1984. Looking back at the attendance figures a crowd of only 14,234 were present but I remember quite a lot of mags being in the crowd. Loftus Road had recently installed their plastic pitch, remember them? (more…)
