Celebrating my son joining the 100 club with Newcastle United 2 Hull City 1

Before I start on Newcastle United 2 Hull City 1, can I please just heartily recommend the Futbology app.

If you’re a football statistics type or a ground hopper then it’s a must have. Basically you log all games you attend, or have been to in the past, and it keeps track of milestones and stats that you can peruse for ages if you’ve built up a bit of a database like I have.

I took it so far that I even downloaded it for my 12 year old son, Blake, and it was through this app that I realised today’s game would be Newcastle United match #100 for him.

Part of me feels a bit miffed that the younger generation has had it comparatively easy. Since I took my then four year old to a scintillating 3-2 comeback win against Everton back in 2019 he has seen a largely successful team that has beaten the great and the good, experienced heady Champions League nights and seen an actual trophy won (from home, he wasn’t ready for a Wembley weekender).

This is a sharp contrast to some of my early days, although Kevin Keegan’s arrival heralded some great times before I hit 100 (when a good few years older than Blake).

Overall though, I saw it as a nice milestone in our lives. These aren’t just games, these are 100 shared days out for me and my son. I hope we’ll be sharing days like this for the rest of my life, albeit with changing roles, and while there have been ups and downs (sometimes it’s a mistake to take a grumpy seven year old to a midweek kick off in lashing rain) it’s been something that has brought a lot of happiness into my life. I will talk about Blake and these adventures more in the new Mag Pod but for today I had the hope that Newcastle wouldn’t do what Newcastle are wont to do by conspiring to spoil the event with a horrible performance.

Hull as an opponent will, for me, always bring an awful hark back to that nightmarish game after Kevin Keegan had rightly turned his back on the Ashley circus. The atmosphere was venomous and the game a shocker, but no one was to know at the time, that it was ultimately a head-to-head where the loser would go down. Today surely wouldn’t have such hefty consequences but it was certainly looking trickier than we might have thought pre-season. Having come 6th in the Championship and squeezed through the play-offs, Hull arrived at SJP unbeaten and buoyed, with United needing a reaction to the poor showing at Elland Road.

If anyone was after additional reasons to feel nervous, the latest unexpected injury to Livramento meant that Lewis Miley was drafted in as a substitute for Dedic and the general decimation of the squad saw five youngsters with zero PL minutes padding out the bench. I’m on record as saying this beforehand but with a 23 day break looming any sort of scabby win would do in the circumstances.

When the game got going though, it felt like scruffy scabby poxy wins were the expectations of a miserable pessimist (I happened to be sat next to one of these so should know) as United roared out of the blocks.

I honestly believe that finally someone at Newcastle United has started reading the solid advice I give in these articles and passed it on accordingly. My tip to merely convince Joe Willock he is on loan and subsequently conjuring up an all-action midfielder with an unstoppable goal scoring record has finally been heard. Willock was magnificent in spite of his obvious hypnosis and delivered double quick. His early drive into the box was snuffed out but Miley’s strong tackle sent the ball back to Barnes, who calmly played in Willock to stylishly smash in like he was playing for Steve Bruce in front of nobody. Not even two minutes gone, this bodes well, or badly, depending on what sort of personality you have (audible groans on my left).

Those that might have feared the worst were swiftly uplifted as United doubled their lead almost immediately. Lewis Hall won the ball in midfield and sent Barnes away. His drive forward drew the defence and allowed him to play in the onrushing Hall, who steered a composed finish across Tzolakis, 2-0 after seven minutes and it might just be that Hull had come to face the reality of the Premier League.

I would absolutely love to tell you all that the afternoon that followed was the comfortable stroll that 2-0 in the opening moments would suggest. Instead it became what we should all have expected, an afternoon of stress and anxiety that anyone in attendance today will likely look back on in later years, should they feel they are missing out on anything in the week or so of life that this afternoon has inevitably shaved off.

It’s wrong to say that stuff went upside down after the Hall goal but there were moments. The most terrifying saw Hornicek ignore a straightforward pass in favour of an attempted Cruyff turn under pressure, get found out and scramble to redeem himself with a desperate double save. This brought cheers of appreciation for the recovery, although an audible clip round the lug for the initial tomfoolery would have been equally justified.

United had chances to kill this off, with Jacob Murphy’s composed and calculated drive across the box bringing a pang of memories of the good times of 24/25. Neither Wissa nor Barnes was quite there and Hall’s desperate lunge at the back post was never going to hit the target.

Murphy’s next venture into similar territory was altogether more clinical, although it didn’t feel that way at the time. His cut in from the right was halted by a clumsy challenge from Thomas but there was little in the way of appeal as Murphy looks to recover and get his head up for a centre. The ref had halted play already though, deeming a penalty for the challenge. Perhaps the delay for a VAR check got to Wissa, who fluffed his lines on his debut as penalty taker, allowing Tzolakis to bat his low placed effort away from the corner.

So 2-0 is indeed a dangerous score but United looked comfortable until substitutions saw things take a turn for the nervous. Sean Steur had been highly impressive after his error against Leeds, constantly available to turn defence into attack and always on the lookout for that killer through ball. His withdrawal saw Lewis Miley transform from an impressive and reliable emergency full back into a clumsy and off-colour midfielder, as the change coincided with the advent of a half hour of relentless Hull pressure. This was kick started by Miley losing possession and visiting substitute Cho banging in off the post to create a nerve shredding reduction in arrears.

My memories of the remainder of the game are of United having momentary opportunities, with Malick Thiaw belting the ball high over the box when a straightforward square pass to Wissa or Barnes would have secured 3-1, while Hull marauded forward constantly to terrify a crowd desperate for their first taste of seeing their team concede less than two since we pretty much relegated West Ham.

Hornicek had to get involved a couple of times and Wissa produced a fine block at one point but somehow we saw it out. There were some ructions on field apparently full time, as Emi Martinez’ dad in the Hull dug-out took issue with how slick Jaissle looks or something, but no matter. As I said, I was happy to take a scruffy, poxy win of any description to allow United to relax into the international break in a decent league position (8th at time of writing) with a chance to reboot and a good few faces due back by the time we next convene. I left the ground happy and that is all I ask of them at any given time.

There was to be another poignant family moment for myself and the young centurion after the match. This game is close to the sixth anniversary of the death of my own dad. He would occasionally head to the game with me and as he got on a bit he couldn’t entertain the thought of heading off home afterwards until the crowds had completely cleared. So it would be a few beers, then he’d take me and my nephew to a nearby restaurant for a slap up feed. Given how often the establishments of the city chop and change I’d like to thank the people at Pinnochio on Westgate Road for still being around to welcome Blake and me to one of Big Ed’s favourite haunts.

It was a terrific end to a successful day to have a bit of time with Blake exploring the memories of the last few years. I have been writing about him on this site since before he was born (it was a magazine then actually!) for two reasons.

Professionally, I think it’s a good to get the personal angle of NUFC as a family club to the people who belong to this region or feel attachment to it. On a more selfish level, I hope my taking advantage of my public forum to put this down in writing will be something that he can look back on, maybe even when I’m sat with Big Ed and today’s adventures are distant memories.

I am sure I will talk about this in a lot more depth on The Mag Pod, but for now I’d like to thank my Dad for the old memories, Blake for sharing the new ones with me and anyone reading for putting up with me going off on this one.

Finally, I owe a small debt to United for securing the scabby win that was so important to helping the memory of today.

Thank you to our club.

Newcastle 2 Hull 1 –  Saturday 19 September 2026 3pm

Match Stats

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Willock 3, Hall 7

Hull:

Cho 67

Possession was Newcastle 56% Hull 44%

Total shots were Newcastle 12 Hull 21

Shots on target were Newcastle 5 Hull 4

Corners were Newcastle 4 Hull 7

Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 15 Hull 35

Newcastle team v Hull:

Hornicek, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Lewis Miley, Steur (Schar 66), Willock (Bamba 87), Murphy, Wissa, Barnes, Fernandez-Pardo (Toure 74)

Unused subs:

Pope, Mason Miley, Thompson, Salia, Pivas, Mills

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