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Newcastle United are finally ready to invest in a long-term solution to the club’s pressing need for a goalkeeper.

As far back as 2024 Newcastle have wanted competition for Nick Pope, who remains Eddie Howe’s No 1 and is in contention for a World Cup place with England.

But two failed moves for James Trafford – who is tentatively back on the club’s radar after indicating displeasure with his situation at Manchester City – have left them with a lot of work to do.

Newcastle like Pope, who is a part of the influential leadership group, and the point in December where his place in the team was under scrutiny after a high-profile error in Marseille feels like a long time ago.

But he is 33 and the Magpies are acutely aware they need to plan for the future.

No firm decisions have been made but Aaron Ramsdale, a summer Plan B who cost the club a sizeable £4m loan fee and is on hefty wages, does not feel like that.

He has proved a perfectly capable understudy when called on – and Tuesday’s Champions League win over Qarabag was his 15th of the season – but Newcastle have other irons in the fire.

Trafford’s admission that his return to the Etihad was not what was he expected has set tongues wagging and prompted talk of a third pursuit of the England U21 international, who had all but agreed to move to St James’ Park last summer.

It feels almost certain he will move on from City at the end of the season but Newcastle sources regard the situation as “complicated”.

For that deal to happen an agreement on price and wages would have to be found and the player would have to recommit to Newcastle. None of that feels certain.

The i Paper understands that Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen, who has been linked with Chelsea and Bayern Munich in recent days, is one alternative under consideration, while it will not have escaped anyone’s notice that Robin Roefs and Senne Lammens have excelled since joining Sunderland and Manchester United from the Netherlands and Belgium respectively.

Newcastle certainly want to cast the net wider when it comes to recruitment and bringing in a young keeper is a priority.

Could the solution be a player they already own?

£20m signing Odysseas Vlachodimos has excelled on loan at Sevilla this season and the Spanish side have indicated an interest in turning the deal into a permanent one, but sources have described that as “virtually impossible”.

Newcastle essentially did Sevilla a massive favour by agreeing favourable terms for the Greece international to leave on loan last summer.

It is understood they are paying just 20 per cent of his wages for the duration of the season.

Finding the money to cover his personal terms and whatever fee Newcastle might want feels unrealistic.

Does that mean a return is possible? Don’t hold your breath.

Vlachodimos told The i Paper in December that he would be happy to return but he is not in the club’s thinking as a long-term solution.

While well-thought of inside the club and in regular contact with goalkeeper coaches and loans manager Shola Ameobi, who watched him keep a clean sheet at Getafe on Sunday, efforts are more likely to focus on capitalising on his stellar loan spell in Spain and finding a good price for him in the summer.

For his part, there is puzzlement at his lack of opportunities after being given a sales pitch where he would compete with Pope.

But it was a PSR-driven move brokered when Newcastle were panicking and expected Martin Dubravka to leave.

The goal this year is to make sure their next big investment in the goalkeeper department is for keeps.

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Jealousy of footballers is nothing new. They are living out the childhood dreams of millions, while being paid more than world leaders and chief executives of the biggest companies in the world.

Time spent with Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens elicits a very different kind of envy.

“I try to show the world that I’m just a normal guy,” Lammens tells The i Paper.

“I want to show these children here that everyone can make it. There’s nothing wrong with it, but sometimes there are people who have a different mindset and lifestyle to me.

“But that also makes it feel, for the children, that it’s more difficult to get there. I don’t only want to be looked at as a football player, but also a normal person with his own beliefs.”

Interacting with children at Partington Central Academy Primary School, ahead of World Book Day, Lammens looked as at home taking part in a surprise Q&A and sports hall curling as he does in one of the most pressurised positions in world football.

Aged 23, having only ever plied his trade in Belgium – a footballing backwater compared to the scrutiny he is under now – the hugely impressive keeper has become an instant hit among a United fanbase desperate for some stability after several of Lammens’ calamitous predecessors.

Catching crosses has been met by roars from the Old Trafford terraces similar to winning goals in derbies or European semi-finals.

‘I still have to prove myself every week’

In six months, Lammens has been compared to the club’s two greatest-ever goalkeepers – Peter Schmeichel and Edwin van der Sar – just from not making mistakes.

Enviable composure that instantly comes across when explaining how it has gone so well thus far, even when perching his six-foot-four build on classroom chairs designed for much smaller frames.

“I take pride in being an all-round [keeper], not really having any flaws,” he continues.

“Not really forcing errors trying to chase the game. I spoke a lot with [United keeper] Tom Heaton, who’s helping me. He says goalkeeping is about not giving things away and keeping your team in the game.

“Here you don’t always have the biggest things to do, it’s about staying focused and not giving anything to the opponent, not easy things at least.

“If you want to have a long career, especially in these kinds of clubs, you must be dependable. That’s also something a goalkeeper has to have. Not always the box office stuff or the things people look at first. If you know a little bit about goalkeeping, that’s probably sometimes even as important for your team-mates to trust in you.

“I couldn’t really imagine it going any better than it has so far. But I don’t really want to look back. It’s been great but I still have to prove myself every week. Of course the quality is better, you have to trust in yourself. There’s a reason I’m here, that I made the move.”

The driving factor behind his move

United fans very nearly didn’t have Lammens to take them to their current safe place. Ruben Amorim pushed for the club to sign enigmatic Emiliano Martinez from Aston Villa last summer, someone who understood the demands of the Premier League.

The decision went right down to the wire, but senior figures in the United hierarchy opted for someone with potential, one who they believed had the temperament – something predecessor Andre Onana struggled with – to handle the pressures that come with being United No 1.

Goalkeeper scout Tony Coton, who was not consulted over Onana, played a pivotal role in Ineos’s continuation of its impressive recent transfer market record, after billions wasted through its previous scattergun approach.

“I’d had contact with United for a while,” Lammens says.

“I think Tony Coton was probably one of the biggest influences. I had a good relationship with him from the beginning, so he was always honest with me. I mean everything he said has come true! So he can also have some credit.

“There wasn’t really a clear path [to being No 1] for me. I just had to trust myself. I needed a little bit of time to get used to it and adapt, especially to this league. I knew the chance was going to be there, if it was in the league or in the cups. The way it went was probably – I got my chance, I took it and since then I haven’t really looked back.”

Embracing the physicality of the Premier League

Other than being taken aback by how articulate, in his second language, and self-confident, without showing a hint of arrogance, Lammens is, what is most impressive about the young keeper’s first six months in Manchester is how he has prevailed in the most challenging circumstances.

It has been another tumultuous few months at Old Trafford in the aftermath of Amorim’s acrimonious departure. On the pitch the Premier League has shifted from tiki-taka to set-piece mayhem, with six-yard boxes crowded like never before. There have been calls for greater protection for goalkeepers – the sanctity of the game is at stake.

Like with his quieter and humble lifestyle, where he prefers to read books – his favourite title being Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist – than stumble out of nightclubs, Lammens instead relishes the challenge.

“Physically, it is a bit of war in the 16 [penalty area],” Lammens adds.

“It’s also one of my strengths, I like the challenge. Naturally, I’ve always been a bit bigger, it’s also a positive thing for me the way the Premier League is.

“That’s why United were interested in me because they knew how it was going to be. Fitness-wise is one thing, but also in training, just visualising the things and all those bodies next to you trying to navigate.

“I enjoy getting out of my comfort zone a little bit and dealing with those situations because even though there were a lot of bodies next to me, I still came for crosses. That gives me a good feeling.”

Manchester United Foundation is hosting a children’s book appeal throughout March, encouraging fans to donate new and pre-loved books to children in need

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A series of not unfortunate but entirely miscalculated events have left West Bromwich Albion searching for a fifth permanent manager within 14 months.

Considering the Baggies have been under their current ownership for almost two years, this is no coincidence. Forced to make the most crucial of decisions when Carlos Corberan left for Valencia, it has been misstep after misstep ever since from Bilkul Football WBA.

You toss a coin these days in the EFL when new suits walk in and the side it lands on will either lift you closer to the promised labd or, as in West Brom’s case, drag you further away than you have been for years.

There seems to be little in between, and even though hindsight is easy few saw the mid-season appointment of a 34-year-old former futsal player going well.

Forty-four days in charge tells you exactly how it went for Eric Ramsay, so too that club president and sporting director Andrew Nestor left earlier this month.

Nestor’s departure alluded to trouble behind the scenes and Ramsay’s dismissal underlines it, the former Manchester United player development coach arriving a gamble from MLS side Minnesota United and leaving with West Brom in a greater mess – not of his making but the club’s.

The obvious question is why did West Brom land on Ramsay in the first place? But that is also futile now, and the more important ones are where do they look next, and just how costly could this nine-game winless stint be on their Championship survival prospects?

They are 21st in the table, in a dogfight with Leicester City below them and a string of fellow Premier League alumni above them. They can’t all stay up, and once the ultimate yo-yo team between the top two tiers, clearly that string snapped at the boing-boing Baggies when Shilen Patel took the reigns in February 2024.

West Brom appointed a 33-year-old in Ryan Mason last summer and after that did not go to plan, they took a bigger risk with Ramsay. Once bitten, twice shy does not apply here, and what reeks of gross incompetence has left fans fearing the worst.

Not like it was much better when former owner Guochuan Lai was loaning money from the club to pay off his own debts, but when new owners come in after passing a “fit and proper” EFL test, it is wholly dispiriting for supporters to realise they cannot back up saving the club with enough savviness to properly run one.

West Brom though are just another Championship case study for taking the stabilisers off young managers. Southampton hired a 32-year-old Will Still last May then sacked him in November, before hiring 32-year-old Tonda Eckert in his stead. Danny Rohl (Sheffield Wednesday) and Tom Cleverley (Watford) were 34 at the start of roles they have since left.

For one Eddie Howe, 31 when he first managed Bournemouth, there are at least 10 Ramsays and Masons, managers who can hardly be blamed for accepting roles they were offered but were not ready to ride solo.

What Mason and Ramsay needed, what West Brom needed – and still need – was and is experience. So where is it? Have managers like Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce been shunned by the game? Or have they shunned the game?

“I think society in general looks down upon older people, who have got wisdom and experience, in order to move forward with a totally different attitude,” West Brom supporters’ club chairman John Homer tells The i Paper.

“I honestly hope Ryan and Eric find some success in the future. Everybody makes decisions with the best intentions, and they hope it starts something different, but I think with Mason’s appointment, if you’re going to do that, get somebody there to hold his hold almost as an apprenticeship.

“What you need is somebody who knows the ropes, knows the Championship, and has experience of the plight we’re in. A mix of youthful exuberance and experience means you could feed off each other.”

In James Morrison, the 39-year-old ex-Baggies midfielder now into his third interim stint, they at least have someone who gets the club. He will though require a helping hand with such jeopardy ahead.

With 12 games to go, their status as a second-tier team hangs in the balance. That is not befitting of the club they are, they haven’t been in the third-tier since 1993, and in further signs of the times, they are surrounded by a host of clubs who also believe they should not be looking down either.

The Championship though is not forgiving, and somehow West Brom have just three months to make the right decisions after two years of getting them wrong.

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If you were going to pick a fitting stage for John Terry to moan about his lack of opportunity as a coach at Chelsea and beyond, these were some wonderful ingredients: golf course, YouTube, Jimmy Bullard. In that order.

Terry, currently an employee of Chelsea, expressed his annoyance that he was not part of the group invited to step up for the Premier League fixture against Manchester City following the departure of Enzo Maresca last month. Terry is a part-time mentor in the academy.

Which on the face of it… fine? Terry played 700 games for Chelsea and has a Uefa Pro Licence. He was Aston Villa assistant head coach for three years. Carlo Ancelotti was very impressed with Terry’s ability as a leadership coach for young players. If he is in the Chelsea system, it probably is a little weird that his role, as Terry apparently sees it, has been so limited.

Terry has not done nothing with his post-playing career, of course. There was that NFT project that lost 99 per cent of its value and had to remove the Premier League trophy from its branding after a legal intervention.

He was named as Guangzhou’s ambassador of football culture and subsequently embarked upon a “JT Captain China Tour”. It is not even true to say that he has not been a first-team manager. We all admired his work with the Baller League team 26ers.

But in general, a theme: Terry perceives himself as being misused and overlooked, a first-team manager who slipped through the net. A club legend in a bit-part role. It is just that the journey, and his opinions on it, appear to change with the wind.

To Bullard, Terry said that he loved his role at Chelsea, explained that he would also love to manage the club one day but accepted that that was unlikely without managing other clubs first. So far, so sensible.

But last August, in an interview with The Sun, Terry bemoaned his lack of chances in the game:

“I don’t really coach at the moment. I went for a couple of jobs and those days are gone for me. I’ve done everything at Chelsea. I’m not saying a job in the Premier League or the Championship – but a job at League One level. I didn’t even get a sniff. I had interviews and it was just ‘you have no experience’. When I see some people managing today, it baffles me, it really does.”

But in 2022, Terry conducted another interview in which he said that he had turned down three jobs in the previous year as well as failing to land two more that he interviewed for. He said that not managing was a personal decision because he had his role at Chelsea and it gave him time to play golf.

So it baffles him that certain people get coaching jobs but he is not actually coaching at the moment. And he never got a sniff but he turned down three jobs. And that is his call because he is very happy doing what he is doing, but he is annoyed enough about not being called up for a one-off match ahead of actual coaches. And he wants to manage Chelsea but says he does not want to manage anywhere else first. I hope you are keeping up.

Is this all not a little bleak, this roundabout of bitterness fuelled by the assumption that things would be easier because of who he was and where he feels he should be? All platformed by a cycle of not caring because “Mr Chelsea” while repeatedly telling people that he might care a bit.

Because others are getting opportunities despite inexperience: Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Scott Parker, Jack Wilshere and Tom Cleverley from Terry’s England cohort alone; there are many more at every level in England. We are living in a golden age of clubs giving inexperienced managers a chance, with varying degrees of success.

The unpleasant truth: Terry’s coaching qualifications are not worth much outside Chelsea because he would be a difficult appointment to sell to supporters. The controversies of his playing career and personal life make him one of the least popular members of his football generation with the general public, fairly or otherwise.

And that is the problem here. It is not that the game is overlooking a potential fine manager. It is that competition is rife, Terry is 45 and not coaching and has a reputation that would lead to most supporters of most clubs protesting against his appointment. Still, maybe the NFT market will rebound strongly in 2026.

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From Milan-Cortina to Swansea, from one sporting epicentre to another, it’s all the same to Snoop Dogg, it’s all about the love of the game. No, really. Well, yes and no.

The erstwhile honorary coach of the US Winter Olympic team has become the great aggregator of sports brand-building. Audience figures are flying at NBC and now at football matches, Swansea City are drawing record crowds for the visit of Preston North End. Snoop is the man.

You guessed it, they weren’t there for Paul Heckingbottom’s Lilywhite Army. Snoop, real name Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, was ordained into the Swansea church only last July, one of a group of investors seeking to profit from the billowing association of private equity and sport.

What Snoop knew of the Jacks before that could be written on a tiny corner of the towel he gifted to the fans before the game on Tuesday. The spectacle of a global rap scion circumnavigating the pitch perimeter, receiving the adulation of towel-waving fans, is among the most surreal events witnessed in this corner of West Wales.

You can be sure a good number in the audience were as ignorant of him as he was of them before he assumed minority ownership. Rap culture does not have the biggest following among the ageing Valleys diaspora or Gower residents, still less could Snoop find Swansea on a map. Yet here he was parading about the parish in Swansea City kit, Ron Manager coat and shades as if he were the son of Richard Burton.    

Cynics scream blue murder, or more accurately bullshit. Which of course it is if you are bound to a traditional understanding of authenticity. However, in case you haven’t noticed, sport has moved on. It is no longer a community project ringed by narrow boundaries but a global phenomenon connecting through myriad networks serving all manner of designs.

The digital age has shrunk the 5,000 miles that separate Pittsburgh, home of Snoop’s beloved Steelers NFL team, and Swansea Bay to zip. In the digital space we are all next-door neighbours and if you want to gain a foothold in the new world where sport and entertainment merge, you need to be a player in the attention economy.  

Few get our attention like Snoop, who mined the seem from underground rebel to mainstream artiste as successfully as any. Molly Solomon, NBC’s executive producer of the Olympics, describes him as an “ambassador of happiness”, no less. 

It is into this populist energy that Swansea City have bought. “We’re operating at a level we haven’t done probably ever before, even in the Premier League days, in terms of our commercial swing and the brands we’re speaking to,” gushed chief executive Tom Gorringe.   

Less convincing was the frothy claim made to BBC Wales. “It’s not just a gimmick, he buys into what the club means and what it means to the wider city.” Sure he does, Tom, as he will when the consortium sells its stake the moment Swansea ride the Wrexham train to greater renown on the coat tails of his celebrity.

This is essentially a deal and can only be understood as such. The frivolity of Tuesday night is precisely that, something not to be taken too seriously, even if Heckingbottom’s remarks about the smell of weed in the tunnel risked negative interpretations given the racist stereotyping of African Americans and cannabis use in the United States.

Snoop Dogg is a win for the new ownership seeking to build the Swansea brand and thus grow the fan base according to the Hollywood model introduced by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, under whose ownership Wrexham have rocketed from the National League to Premier League contention in five years. More significantly for them, a club they bought for £2m in 2021 was valued at £350m when Apollo Sports Capital bought a share at the end of last year.

That’s what I’m talking about, says Snoop, and a part of which the long suffering supporters of Swansea want a piece. Thanks to Snoop and his 100m social media devotees, the Swans have become a thing beyond Swansea, seen, recognised, talked of and written about. 

Bullshit or not, the phenomena is real. Of course, Snoop had quit his seat in the stand for the warmth of the hospitality box when Swansea hit their late equaliser. He’s not here for love but for the money to be made. The ambassador for happiness indeed.    

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ST JAMES’ PARK — Can we please call a truce in the Nick Woltemade culture war?

Look, these two things can both be right at the same time: Woltemade’s future at St James’ Park isn’t as a central midfielder but, for the time being, it might be what’s right for the team. Big Nick? Big team player, according to those on the inside at Newcastle.

That might not satisfy the attention seekers looking to turn rage into revenue on social media but in the nuanced world of a strange season at St James’ Park, it’s probably the right solution for now. Woltemade isn’t being ruined by this turn as a number eight and he’s not about to throw a strop about it.

He knows he’s being deployed in a way that is moulding this new, uncertain version of Newcastle into a more potent pressing force for now, while also attempting to utilise some of his gifts without the benefit of time on the training pitch.

It’s a difficult argument to make on a Wednesday morning after what even Eddie Howe admitted was his weakest game in his new role. “The least he’s affected the game in midfield” was the manager’s honest verdict after a 3-2 win over Qarabag that was frayed at the edges.

There were moments for Woltemade, of course. There always is with a player with his unique skillset and his wonderful roll and pass for Jacob Murphy in the first half – teeing the winger up for a chance he narrowly screwed wide – was the sort of thing that no other player on the pitch could do. But overall the game passed him by, which is why the pitchforks were out post-match.

I get that. The danger of deploying Woltemade deep is forgetting what a brilliant, instinctive finisher he is. The start of the week might have been dominated by talk of Benjamin Sesko coming good but let’s not forget that he still has three goals fewer that Woltemade, who was signed to lead the line for a team shaken to its core by the loss of talisman Alexander Isak.

Let’s also give Howe some credit here. Newcastle were in danger of heading into cracked badge territory after losing to Brentford ago but he dug deep, shifted things around and found a solution. For the time being, that means an attack configured around the energy of Anthony Gordon or the unpredictability of the still raw Will Osula.

And you know what: it seems to be working. Newcastle have won four of their last five games (the sole defeat a perhaps undeserved reverse against Manchester City) and are collecting momentum ahead of a run of decisive Premier League fixtures.

After these three – Everton and Manchester United at home before a trip to Chelsea – they have only two teams in the top half of the table left to play. One of those is Fulham, who sit 10th.

So there’s a chance here. The Champions League draw could pair them with Liam Rosenior’s inconsistent Blues and they would have more than a puncher’s chance there. Having rocked Manchester City last week, they should harbour no inferiority complex when Pep Guardiola’s side visit in the FA Cup on Saturday week. Their run-in is fairly kind.

That is now the priority for Newcastle, who need to make the Champions League an annual jaunt from a revenue as well as competitive standpoint. Unpopular opinion maybe, but perhaps the big conclusions on Woltemade should wait.

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TRURO — It is Friday night in The Old Ale House in Truro and a group of six football supporters and I, all a long way from home, talk mainly about the bad times of Gateshead FC but intersperse it with their glorious memories of Wembley to bump up the mood.

We are stood around a large table upstairs because we were asked to leave a speed dating event in a section of the pub after accidentally barging in. Lots of men with name badges quaked in their boots at the sight of the elite-level competition.

The six supporters are Josh, Lee, Paul, Sean, Steve and Stu. Lee is the youngest at 27. Most have regular jobs – bus driver, retail, train manager – although Stu and Steve are now retired.

They are connected by their love of, and dedication to, their football club. Some have not missed a Gateshead away match in years. Annual leave has repeatedly been pushed to the limit and beyond.

An exceptional trip

Even by normal standards, this is an exceptional trip; after all, it is why I am here. At 914 miles, Gateshead to Truro (and the reverse) is the longest away round journey in English league football history, made possible by Truro City’s promotion last season. They do them all, but this is the one they looked for last July.

Lee and Josh caught a train from Newcastle to London on Thursday and then took the overnight Riviera sleeper to Penzance. Sean did the same thing a day earlier to make a short holiday out of it. Stu came down from Newcastle by train on Friday. Paul drove down from Bromsgrove, Steve from Matlock. The last of them will get home on Sunday evening, approximately 100 hours after leaving.

I wanted this group to be my guide to this weekend because they represent something significant. All are members of the Gateshead FC supporters’ society – Lee is the joint-chair and Stu is on the board. The society is an official supporters’ trust, has a 20 per cent share in the club’s ownership and is represented at board level.

It makes a difference, not through slogan or intent but definitive action and because its club regularly needs it. Members pay a minimum of £10 a month and help out with wages, supporting travel or food for the players, paying for equipment. At this level, you see where the money goes.

That creates a familial atmosphere that you need during the bad times. At the end of every away match, the players shake hands with the supporters who routinely travel. This may only be a division away from the Football League, but the lack of separation between the layers of the club could not be more different.

The patience test

If there was any season to test your patience, it is this one.

Gateshead finished eighth in the National League last season, but in May a proposed takeover fell through, the club announced that they would struggle to fund another year, the chairman resigned and the club were banned from registering new players until July.

Until days before the Truro trip, Gateshead had lost 15 straight matches and most of this group were at every one of them. The Heed are bottom of the fifth tier.

There is something about your football club being routinely terrible on the pitch that can be liberating, so long as you take care not to allow anger and frustration to run wild.

The society and its members know only too well how hard life is for their club day to day, month to month, season to season. They share that burden and that is why the players and staff are so close to them.

A badge of honour

Following Gateshead home and away becomes a badge of honour. At Halifax Town the previous Tuesday, one of the shorter away trips, there were only 27 in the away end.

The group predict a deluge of daytrippers for Truro and do their best not to sound snide about that. Everyone is welcome, of course; it is just that this club needs more of them on the days when idiots like me roll into town.

Speaking to each of the group over beers, they tell me that the football is secondary anyway. It is about seeing each other, reinforcing a communal love that is expressed through that most British of languages: relentlessly taking the piss out of each other.

I ask about the bad times and there are enough to last all night: being voted out of the Football League in 1960 – “Even Newcastle went against us”; the dismal ownership of Dr Ranjan Varghese and his de facto kingmaker Joseph Cala, who should never have been allowed through the door; demotion to the sixth tier in 2019 due to financial irregularities; banned from the National League play-offs in 2024 due to insecurities over the agreement to remain a tenant of their stadium, owned by Gateshead Council.

But the worst of all, they agree? Covid. They travelled the country, supported their team and looked out for each other on what they hoped was an eternal loop and then it was ripped away for 18 months. They raise a glass to those who they lost then and since. Only a fortnight ago, David Robson passed away and he will be deeply missed.

The full Cornish experience

It is now 2pm on Saturday afternoon and home and away supporters mix in the Threemilestones Social Club near the Truro City Stadium. This would usually be reserved for home fans, but the length of the journey has extended an invitation.

There are still more than three hours until kick-off. Supporters in the Premier League and EFL know only too well that games can be routinely moved for live TV coverage, but this is a particularly egregious example. Gateshead manager Rob Elliot bemoans that his team will journey back by coach and arrive back in the north east at 6am on Sunday morning.

For supporters, it means an extra night away but most are looking at the bright side – “It’s like playing in Europe,” as one of the group jokes. We take photos, ignore the rugby on the TV, I turn down the offer of a pint from half a dozen people and we all stay out of the weather. It has rained for 52 straight days here so it is nice to get the full Cornish experience.

Paul “The Beard” has threaded through beads and the away colours into his facial hair and poses for his own photos. Gateshead fan Mark and his partner Christine have arrived; Mark is another staple of this core group. They all muse about the potential for another away win. The words “great escape” are muttered, but mainly through dark humour. Nobody has much hope but who needs hope when you have your friends?

In the away end, the predictions of a bumper crowd ring true: 157 is the exact number. Sky Bet hand out a free beer voucher at the gate and the pasties are being sold on a continuous loop to soak up the ale. The members of the society start in the stand but most quickly move to an unsheltered area behind the goal where they can exist in their natural habitat, a small band of the most loyal. I meet Dan Bell and Allan Hutchison and his daughter Victoria, all of whom deserve namechecks.

Goal of the season contender

The match itself is vaguely extraordinary in the context of Gateshead’s season. They are terrible for the first 20 minutes, score with their first shot and are then terrible again until half-time, by which point Truro have equalised and continue to dominate.

At the start of the second half, Truro are on top again as the rain falls and Lee concedes that his Gateshead training jacket, lovely as it is, was an insufficient top layer for February. A couple of the group head to the small smoking area to work through the nerves, a view of one sliver of the pitch that Gateshead rarely venture into to attack.

And then, on 55 minutes, Harry Chapman produces a wonderful spin turn on the left wing and just starts running. He drives past two more Truro players, dips his shoulder to go beyond a third and then curls a shot into the bottom corner.

Lee, Sean, Paul, Steve and Stu go wild and, yes, I find myself jumping too, mainly in astonishment. I ask Lee if this is Gateshead’s goal of the season and he actively – and rightly – laughs in my face. It is.

Gateshead somehow hold on, defending crosses into their area as if this is war. They survive six added minutes and then two more, for some reason. The covered away fans dance and shout and hug each other and, in their small group in the rain, my new friends do the same. Sean has taken his shirt off and is whirring it around his head. Gateshead are not bottom of the National League anymore, for now.

My verdict

Gateshead will probably still go down; back to the sixth tier again. There are a dozen problems, not least a home stadium they don’t own and was 95 per cent empty for its last league game. It is a deeply unideal solution that would take money to sort out that Gateshead simply don’t have. The focus is on keeping the lights on.

That is a wider issue brought into focus by one club. Most non-league clubs are routinely struggling without sugar daddies that don’t exist and the north east of England is suffering most because football is only ever a mirror of society in general. This should be a sad tale. It may still be.

But I have been here for two days and the two days are magical. I have been welcomed into a group of people that are intensely, wonderfully close-knit and yet treat me like a friend for life.

If there is one hope from all of this, and if this piece is to achieve anything at all, it is to urge every single Gateshead supporter, every person in the area who cares, to join the supporters’ society because they need your help and with you they can make a difference.

This group is a tiny window into English football but they represent its best; what they do is being replicated in a hundred or more different places and in each of them life-affirming, club-changing work is being done.

As I get back into the car at 8pm for my shorter, barely-worth-mentioning five-hour drive home, I am beyond delighted. These are the experiences that mean the most in the sport that means the most too.

Gateshead got a win that makes 462 miles home feel like the shortest step because they are finally walking on air. The guys from the society get to talk about a great escape for one more week. Even better news: it is three home games in a row next.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/KnRjqtQ