If Carlsberg Did International Fans’ Day Weekends…

The prelude to Sunday’s game was a little special as planned to coincide with the visit of Tottenham was a reunion on the Saturday evening for those who left Houghton School’s Sixth Form in 1982. Meeting up with people — some of whom you haven’t seen for forty four years — was both exciting and a little daunting. The number of attendees wearing glasses had increased exponentially, and was inversely proportional to the amount of hair some of us had left!

Trying to recognise faces and put names to them was a challenge at times — but one we all approached with good humour. Among the attendees were some survivors of our cohort’s Under 19 football team. In our first year at that level, we’d won the Durham County FA Cup and our success was built on a very Régis Le Bris-style rock solid defensive foundation, with players capable of breaking quickly and punishing opponents.

The following season, we entered the Tyneside Senior School Cup. We were never expected to challenge the big Newcastle schools and yet every time we ventured north into enemy territory, we came away with a victory. Eventually, we ended up lifting the trophy without conceding a single goal throughout the competition — a statistic of which I’m still very proud as I was the keeper who never once had to pick the ball out of the back of the net!

We had a couple of lads who’d been signed on with Newcastle and Sunderland but, as good as we were, none of us went on to play professionally. After an enjoyable evening at Houghton Golf Club, some of us took an ill-advised and short-lived detour to Life of Riley’s in the city centre, before age and experience compelled us to retire to our various hotels on the Roker Riviera. The reunion had been planned around a home fixture, as a significant proportion of us are season ticket holders.