When the final whistle went at Wembley – The first person I thought of who is no longer with us | OneFootball

We sent out an invitation to a number of Newcastle United fans to contribute to this feature, some regular and irregular contributors to The Mag.

The idea was sparked by that win at Wembley last Sunday.

The first domestic trophy win in 70 years, the first major silverware of any kind in 56 years.

Basically, this was an invitation to these Newcastle United fans to contribute to a feature, where each of them could talk about somebody who is no longer with us, who instantly springs to mind now Newcastle United have won this trophy at (very) long last.

Nat Seaton:

‘When the Editor sent over the idea of ‘When the final whistle went at Wembley – The first person I thought of who is no longer with us’ tears started rolling down my face, just as they had at the final whistle on Sunday.

Around me at Wembley more people were crying than not, and it will have been for differing reasons, but I’m sure several of them were thinking of others who were not there.

It was at this point I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude, what a privilege it was to be one of the fortunate ‘few’ inside the stadium. The pure elation that we were all feeling is so hard to put down in words.

After a short while the tears stopped, as we were all swept away with the celebrations with the players and the singing, but the tears came back when I looked up from not too far away as Bruno, Trippier and Lascelles finally lifted the Cup.

They were not sad tears; they were shared tears for my Dad who is no longer with us.

Finally winning a trophy in my lifetime was always going to be extra special, but oh how I missed not being able to share that with Dad, he would have loved every minute of it all and he would have been so happy for me to finally see us win something, what a joy that would have been to share with him.

Tears are flowing again as I write this… happy tears.’

Tony Mallabar

‘My mate Simmo ( Paul Simpson) was from Darlo (Darlington).

Where every sentence ends with the letter o.

Hence, Simmo.

Simmo was just a lovely working class lad who used to go home and away with us in the 80s and 90s.

In the 90s, Simmo met the love of his life Patricia (Trisho) and they had a daughter together, so after that he didn’t get to the match as often.

But we still kept in touch and went to games together, along with our in-joke about everything coming from Darlington ending in o.

Just ask Johnny Robbo.

Simmo died on the 12th of March 2001 after an unprovoked attack left him with an unsurvivable head injury.

That one was for you mate.’

Jinky Jim

‘John Shaw and myself went to matches for over four decades.

He died last August (2024).

As his time came to an end, what really hacked him off was the fact that he wasn’t going to be around to see his club become winners again.

John had a typical construction worker sense of humour and I’m sure he would have been whistling Alanis Morissette’s song when we lifted the trophy on Sunday.

He was on this planet for every one of our 70 domestic barren years and as soon as he leaves , Newcastle United win the very first trophy we compete for.

Isn’t it ironic, big guy!!’

Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey

‘My brother served in the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards for 22 years, serving in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kuwait and Iraq amongst other places.

He unfortunately struggled to come to terms with life outside the army when he left in the early 200os and Paul sadly passed away in October 2016 after contracting throat cancer.

He was a larger than life character, with great inner strength and an equally strong sense of humour, the type of bloke who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it more.

On the night before the final, I met up with a mate from yesteryear in London and we exchanged some hilarious stories about some of our escapades with my brother down the years.

Paul is sadly missed and when the football gods decreed that his beloved Newcastle United had once again lifted a trophy at Wembley, he was very much in my thoughts. Nulli Secundus.’

Mark Jensen

‘My mother in law never went to a single match.

However, no Newcastle United fan could have been more passionate.

She absolutely loved watching every match she could on TV and her bias was legendary.

No Newcastle United player ever committed a foul, whilst every decision that went in favour of the opposition was a miscarriage of justice.’

David Punton

In the summer of 2023 a friend (Steven) of some 30 years suddenly and without warning took his own life.

It came as a massive shock. To this day there is little explanation as to why he did it.

I’d been to many Newcastle Utd games with him.

I seem to recall a pre-season game at Celtic in 2004 when we had liquid refreshment on the train and when we arrived in Glasgow we got in a taxi and asked for the Travelodge, to which the Glaswegian cabbie looked back, bemused, and said, ‘aye which wan pal, thuz aboot six e’em.’

Not long after the final whistle went at the League Cup final win, my thoughts were how much this absent friend would have loved to have seen us win a cup.

Let us hope there can be more.’

Greg McPeake

‘The first time I went to St James’ Park I was with my best mate from the Grange Estate where we lived.

We went to games with my older brothers and their mates and paid into the East stand Paddock hours before kick off. It was six years since the Fairs Cup win. We would have only been eight years old.

Little did we know back then that we would not be seeing silverware for so long.

Me and Mark grew up together going to Punk gigs and regulars at the glue bag laden floor of the Garage every Sunday to see Total Chaos play and which moulded our shared political views.

Later years when I left Newcastle to go to Trent Poly I would bump into Mark at away games.

Before the age of mobile phones I think we had a second sense of where to be or where “things” were happening.

He gave me my first Naom Chomsky essay to read and we shared Anarcho-Communist literature while discussing NUFC.

Mark left us during Covid and was the first person I thought of after the final whistle on Sunday. Top Gossy Lad.’

Bazoox

‘I have lost family and friends quite recently. Along with everyone else, I have known they will never be forgotten.

I had no one person particularly in mind when the final whistle blew and Newcastle United had won the Carabao Cup.

But there was one nice little story I did listen to the other day.

Stevie Owens sadly passed away in 2009 when he was still in his forties. Although he had no children of his own he doted on Amy, his best mate’s daughter.

He saved up programmes for her etc and turned her Newcastle United daft as she grew up.

Amy is the manageress at Tynemouth Club and Stevie’s brother Phil came in for a pint the other day.

I listened intently as Amy told him that as the final whistle loomed, she looked towards the Wembley sky and silently asked her ‘Uncle’ Steve to help pull United over the line.

I felt that it was a very tender moment indeed.’

(As always, all contributions from Newcastle United fans are welcome. Whether you want to talk about somebody who you had in mind when the final whistle went at Wembley, or anything else at all to do with Newcastle United – past, present or future. Please send to contribute@themag.co.uk)