Jonny Stewart explains how he became a Newcastle United fan | OneFootball

Jonny Stewart is a bass singer, vocal arranger, and producer based in London, he is also a massive Newcastle United fan.

Quite literally, as at 6’5″ he is just an inch shorter than Big Nick Woltemade.

Despite not being born and bred on Tyneside, Jonny Stewart has supported Newcastle United from being a kid.

An interesting explanation from him on the two big influences that saw him start supporting NUFC.

Decades later he cried as Newcastle United lifted the Carabao Cup seven months ago.

Ahead of tonight’s match against Spurs, with United playing for a place in the quarter-final, Jonny Stewart (who is also part of the global folk group The Wellermen) has been talking to the official EFL site.

A friend of my parents was involved in building the Redheugh Bridge during the early 1980s, and lived up in Newcastle; one of my best friends at primary school was a Toon fan.

I kept getting Newcastle items from Shreddies Promatch player cards and Sugar Puffs pencil toppers; David Ginola featured on the first football game I owned, FIFA 97; and, perhaps most importantly at the time, I fell hard for the 1995-1997 home kit when I saw it in JJB Sports.

What are your earliest memories of watching the club?

I have zero memory of big games we won, like the 3-2 against Barcelona or the 5-0 against Manchester United. Just the big ones we lost, namely the 1998 and 1999 FA Cup Finals. And finishing 13th a lot.

Who were your Newcastle heroes growing up?

The names you’d expect: Shearer, Given, Ginola. The names you wouldn’t expect: Nikos Dabizas and Temuri Ketsbaia. Felt I had to full-name them for the wider footballing public.

What’s your favourite Newcastle memory?

Wearing my Dan Burn Carabao Cup Final shirt, watching the match with the Mile High Magpies while we were on The Wellermen US tour in Denver, and hearing the eruption of sound when Big Dan scored that header.

Not embarrassed to say I cried HARD.

Seeing us thoroughly outplay the best team in the league, breaking the trophy drought…doesn’t get much better than that.

Do you get to many matches?

Not as many as I’d like!

I don’t get that lucky with the ballots – I saw the Carabao Cup tie against Brentford last season when Tonali bagged a brace, and the away game at Crystal Palace.

Would love to make it to one of the Champions League games this year!

How do you see the Round Four tie vs Tottenham going?

I’ve not watched Spurs that much this season, but I’d back us to get the win – after some great wins in the Champions League, our attack is looking more productive and the defence has been imposing thus far.

What would retaining the Carabao Cup mean to Newcastle and the fans?

Now that we’ve broken the trophy duck…if you gave most fans the choice of qualifying for the Champions League again next season and no trophy, or retaining the Carabao Cup but no Champions League, I think they’d prefer the Champions League qualification for the financial benefits.