Jack Colback’s first memory of the Wear-Tyne derby was standing on the touchline at the Stadium of Light, looking out at the pitch and being “so scared” to come on as a substitute.
Colback was 22 years old at the time and his first team experience at Sunderland was limited to a handful of games. Steve Bruce summoned him from the bench to try and help turn a game ebbing away from his team and his first thought was “just don’t do anything to f___ it up”.
“It sounds crazy because we were actually losing the game,” he tells The i Paper.
“But I’d watched the previous derby in the pub because I was on loan at Ipswich and it was the infamous 5-1 Newcastle win. I remember thinking ‘that’ll be a tough one for the lads for a few weeks’. So this game had been really built up.”
He was on for five minutes and by his own admission “didn’t impact the game at all”. But Sunderland notched a fortunate 94th-minute equaliser and Colback launched into the celebrations in the crowd like he’d scored it. “Just pure euphoria,” he recalls.
After that, the fear around the rivalry evaporated for Colback, to the extent that he became one of only 13 players in the history of the fixture to transfer directly from one club to the other. Indeed he remains the last person to make the journey, despite Rafael Benitez’s forlorn attempts to lure Jordan Pickford to Newcastle after Sunderland’s relegation in 2017.
His position was unique. Born in Newcastle, his father was a Magpies supporter and most of his family supported the club. But while he was a “follower” of Newcastle he had no hesitation joining Sunderland’s impressive academy and never felt split loyalties when the clubs played each other.
“It was do or die in those games. After that first experience I used to love the feeling of coming into St James’ Park as a Sunderland player, turning up, driving under that tunnel bit of the stadium and all their fans chanting ‘Scum, scum, scum’ at you as you come off the bus,” he remembers.
“The adrenaline you get from it is unreal.”
When he scored the third goal in a 3-0 win in 2014 – part of a run of seven straight wins for Sunderland in the fixture – he obviously didn’t expect that one day he’d be on the opposing team.
He held up three fingers for a picture in the team coach on the way back to Wearside that was meant for his cousin Andrew but the photo, taken by Jozy Altidore, made its way onto social media. It was to come back to haunt him when Newcastle, sensing an opportunity as Colback’s contract ran into its final year, approached his agent.
He had originally wanted to stay at Sunderland but felt their incentivised contract offers didn’t reflect his status as a regular first -team starter. West Ham and Newcastle registered interest and while moving to London would have been easier he “would have always been wondering” about the move to Tyneside.
“I knew it was the harder move, the one where it could have all gone wrong. But I’d never have forgiven myself if I’d run away from it,” he says. He stayed off social media to avoid the worst of the backlash but did try to get the celebration picture removed from the internet – to no avail.
The Black Cats, furious at the snub and losing him on a free, then threw petrol on the fire with an incendiary statement after the move.
“I understood their frustration, of course but the statement was a load of nonsense,” he says.
“It was immature and petty. I’ve not been one to dwell on that sort of stuff but I wish it had ended differently. I have a lot of respect for Sunderland and I loved the club but going to Newcastle it was always going to leave a sour taste in the mouth.”
He walked into a dressing room full of good players at St James’ Park but the cliques were noticeable from the outset.
“It took me a week or two weeks of being at Newcastle to realise why we used to beat them every time we played them,” he said.
“They had better players than us and a better squad, technically but that fight, desire and hunger wasn’t there as much as we had at Sunderland in the dressing room.
“It’s all just a mentality thing. If you haven’t got the minerals you will struggle.”
Your next read
That’s exactly what happened in derbies – Colback going from a serial winner in the fixture to not enjoying a single victory as a Newcastle player. He ended up playing nearly 100 games for both clubs, something he is rightly proud of, and had the cajones to make a move few others have dared to make.
Now retired, a short stint in the Baller League earlier this year aside, Colback intends to be there on Sunday when Premier League hostilities between the two renew after nine long years.
“I’m hoping to get a ticket though I’m not sure which end I’d be safer in,” he says.
“I might just go in the director’s box instead.”
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/Ql15rfX
Post a Comment