I set off early one Saturday morning, with my sister Nicky, who had never been to Newcastle. We decided to drive as planes and trains were deemed exceedingly expensive and the National Express exceedingly long! The journey north went well, and with a quick brunch stop for the world's most overpriced yet basic and luke warm breakfast ever, we arrived in Newcastle 5 1/2 hours later. We checked in to our very basic hotel near the city centre before heading into the town centre for some sight seeing and lunch. For those of you who have never been to Newcastle, it truly is a beautiful place. My sister was surprised by how different she thought it was. Newcastle has a rich heritage and boosts some amazing streets and historical monuments. Greys Monument and the surrounding avenues and streets are architectural gold. Heading down towards the river provides snippets of ancient buildings and keeps. The river cutting through the city is something to marvel at with it's many bridges ranging from the colossal Tyne bridge to the more modern millennium bridge. And I know I have not seen all that Newcastle and it's surrounding area has to offer and I will be back and will hop on to one of their sight seeing buses.
Anyway, I have digressed, again and must get back to the purpose of this post - St James' park. or now renamed as the Sports Direct Arena!! So we went to watch them play their pre-season friendly against the Portuguese club Braga, in which the final score was 1-1. We really should have won 2-0, however 1-1 stood due to a dodgy penalty decision and a disallowed goal! Anyway, it was lovely to be in the stadium, in the Leazes stand, watching Pardew run out a number of players.
So it was the next morning that we headed back to the stadium and joined a small group of others in the reception area of the main stand. What I soon realised was that there was only a few of us in the group that actually supported Newcastle and many were holidaying from all over the country and were visiting the stadium for fun. I was really hoping that our guide would be an older man, someone who knew the club and was passionate about it. Thankfully this was to be and we had a fantastic tour guide who added great humour to the tour as well as being a fountain of information about the club. We started off heading to the top of the stadium, the Leazes stand in the family section. It was here that we climbed to the very top of the stadium and the view was quite literally breathtaking, those steps were hard work! Now it is a little known fact that St James' park is the tallest stadium in Britain and from its highest seats you can see out to the North Sea. The can never build up the stadium the other side due to planning permissions and I for one am glad, the view is amazing. From here we headed down the corporate and executive suites and sections. We even were able to look inside the suite Mike Ashley bought for his parents. It was amazing and they even had padded seats overlooking the pitch! Oh the lives of the rich and famous. Alan Shearer has his own suite and and box. I had two favourite parts to this area. Firstly, the Number 9 hall of fame which showed photos of the great players of the decades that had worn a number 9 shirt. This including Jackie Milburn, Gallacher, Les Ferdinand and the last one on the wall, Alan Shearer. There has been no over number 9's since him worthy of earning a place, and I doubt there will be for a while! My next favourite part was a painting of Newcastle's greatest games since the 1980s. This included and 3-2 win over Barcelona, a 5-1 thumping of Sunderland and most recently a 4-4 draw with Arsenal. I remember this game so vividly. I had been listening to it on the radio, like many of the games, and by half time we were 4-0 down. It really looked hopeless and fans were even leaving. However I don't know what was said at half time but in the second half Newcastle performed the greatest ever come back to draw level 4-4. It was literally the most exciting game I have ever listened to and we almost won on the final minutes of the game. This is why it makes the list of greatest games ever.
From here we went to the bottom floor and the players entrance. We headed first into the away changing rooms. Now at this point it is important for you to know that our guide had told us to sit anywhere, so we did. Once inside he proceeded to talk about how this room used to be the home changing room until Alan Shearer's testimonial match where they then moved to a much bigger and better room. It was at this point that he turned and pointed to where I was sitting, had chosen to sit, and said "And right where this young lady is sitting is Alan Shearer's peg". Of all the pegs to sit under I had chosen my hero and idol Alan Shearer's! Spooky! I was sitting in the same place Shearer sat for many years- to say I was excited is an understatement.
From here we headed into the home changing room which far out shines the away one, purposefully. No away changing room is meant to be welcoming, it's meant to be as uncomfortable and unfriendly as possible unless your Chelsea under Mourinho! The home room was great and it was lovely to have photos with the current teams shirts.
Then from here we headed out along the tunnel pitch side in the dug out. As you emerge from the tunnel the view is out of this world. The stadium looked magnificent. I would imagine as a player running out on to pitch, the feeling must be exhilarating particularly when the stadium is full of passionate, cheering Geordies. And all I wanted to do was run out on to the pitch. To stand in the centre circle and be in the middle of this epic stadium. Here is where the problem lay. Our guide, seriously repeated several times that under no circumstances must anyone stand on the pitch. My heart fell. I wanted so much to but my respect for the club, the hallowed turf and amazing work of the groundsman meant I adhered to his request, well kind of. I did manage to stick my big toe on to the grass and hover my foot over it. That is as close as I will ever get to standing on the pitch at St James' Park and I am very happy with that. Just being pitch side and in the dug out was enough for me, the whole tour itself. I learnt loads about Newcastle's heritage, how it began as two teams the West end and the East end, and how for years they played in red before switching to the legendary black and white stripes. I felt a stronger bond with my team grow and despite our recent decline I am proud to support a club with such history and passion. Yes we may have no silverware but we have won the hearts of millions in Newcastle and all over the world which makes us one of the biggest clubs in the UK. I will continue to follow and support and cheer and cry, probably the latter the most, as that is what we do as football supporters. I will always hope and dream that one day we will win a cup and relive the glory days of our early history, well it's good to have a dream!
I must extend my thanks to my sister Nicky for coming with me and to Jo Payne (@MrsPTeach) for buying me the tour tickets for a birthday present. To everyone else thank you for reading and I hope I may have inspired you to find out more about the club you support and perhaps go on a tour yourself. Enjoy! :-)
Please also enjoy my video of my trip to Newcastle.
