Watching the fascinating ITV documentary 7 up got me thinking about my own life and how as a Newcastle United fan it is completely intertwined with the fortunes of NUFC.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, back in the 1960s a group of seven-year-old children from diverse backgrounds were interviewed by a film crew about their hopes and dreams.
The film crew then revisited them every seven years to see how things had changed.
This culminated in a finale at seventy years old which happens to fall this year.
Having been born in 1986 means I’ve seen my fair share of ups and downs as far as Newcastle United are concerned, so I decided to conduct my very own 7 up to catch a snapshot of how much things had altered over the intervening seasons.
7 years old, 1993
Newcastle United had just achieved promotion to the Premier League under the expert guidance of Kevin Keegan. Special K’s first part season in charge had seen us just avoid relegation to the third tier of English football before then in 1992/93 taking the second tier by storm and blowing away all competitors to become first division champions.
Issue 51 – May 1993
The season culminated in a 7-1 demolition of Leicester City that saw hat-tricks for both Andy Cole and David Kelly on a day of high celebration that had Man United quaking in their boots as we set our eyes on the Premier League title.
I was too young to really know what was going on but was often seen tearing around the playground in my Black and White Toon top fully aware of who was my favourite team.
© 1995 The Mag. All rights reserved.
14 years old, 2000
Sir Bobby Robson had just finished his first season as manager having rescued us from the disastrous reign of Ruud Gullit. Robson had taken on his dream job with Newcastle near the bottom of the league having achieved just one point from their first six Premier League matches.
Sir Bobby’s first home game saw an incredible 8-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday and he’d go on to win thirteen and draw nine of the remaining thirty matches to ensure an eleventh placed finish that looked a million miles away when he took over. We’d experienced brilliant results against Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool as our form under Sir Bobby would have had us comfortably in the top six had he been manager for the entire season.
I was now a fully-fledged member of the Toon Army, I lived and breathed NUFC. I’d recently taken in my first ever away game at Wembley when Sir Bobby was desperately unlucky not to beat Chelsea in the FA Cup Semi-Final despite a brilliant performance from the Toon. An extension to the stadium saw an additional sixteen thousand seats installed at St James’ Park, meaning I was eagerly awaiting becoming a season ticket holder for the very first time.
Issue 133 – April 2000
21 years old, 2007
Glenn Roeder had just left as manager having taken over from Greame Souness fifteen months previously. Roeder had done a sterling job for the last three months of the 2005/06 season taking NUFC into Europe by finishing seventh in the table having won ten and drawn two of his fifteen matches in charge. He’d won away to both Middlesbrough and Sunderland as well as beating Villa, Tottenham and Chelsea in an incredible run of form. The 2006/07 season however had not been successful with just eleven wins ensuring a disappointing thirteenth placed finish. Newcastle were about to appoint the odious Sam Allardyce as manager and were in the process of being bought by billionaire Mike Ashley. The Toon being owned by a billionaire businessman, what could possibly go wrong?
By this time I’d been a season ticket holder for years and had racked up almost twenty away days. I was living and working in the North East and dreaming of seeing Newcastle win a major trophy. I wasn’t keen on having Sam Allardyce as manager but was very excited at the prospect of Mike Ashley taking over. A few months later, Kevin Keegan returned as manager and Mr Ashley was drinking pints in the stadium with Toon fans, everything seemed to be falling into place.
Issue 217 – 9 June 2007
28 years old, 2014
Fast forward seven years and Newcastle were managed by Alan Pardew, whilst Toon fans had been in open revolt against Mike Ashley for the past six years having endured relegation in 2009. Ashley’s ownership of NUFC had been completely disastrous and he showed no signs of selling up despite openly stating an ambition to exit domestic trophies early and spend just enough cash to try and avoid relegation every season. An less than enjoyable campaign included a double derby defeat and an abysmal seven losses from our last eight matches as a promising start was tossed away and we slumped to a tenth placed finish. The Toon would just about stay up a year later (avoiding demotion on the last day of the season) before succumbing to an inevitable relegation in 2016.
By this point, I’d lived and worked away from the North East for six years (ironically leaving just a few days after Keegan did) hoping and praying for Mike Ashley’s reign to end.
Issue 289 – 5 April 2014
35 years old, 2021
On 7th October 2021, it finally happened. The day we had all been waiting for!
Mike Ashley’s sale of NUFC went through and fans were finally able to dream again. Steve Bruce was soon to be replaced by Eddie Howe and his remit couldn’t be more simple, avoid relegation and restore some much needed pride. He’d achieve both of these with something to spare. Newcastle were without a win in their first eleven matches before Howe took over but thirteen wins and five draws in the remaining twenty-seven matches saw us comfortably avoid the dreaded drop with an eleventh place finish.
Having boycotted attending matches when Benitez left in 2019, I really was an armchair fan living and working in Manchester but still managing to catch every match on TV.
OK, so it hasn’t yet been seven more years but for the purposes of this article, five will have to do.
The past five years have seen Newcastle United reach their first cup final since 1999, embark on two separate Champions League adventures, go toe-to-toe with the likes of Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea as we compete for top four finishes and, most gloriously of all, lifted a big shiny trophy at Wembley stadium on the day all of our dreams came true.
So there you go – In the space of six ‘episodes’, we’ve gone from achieving promotion to the Premier League under Kevin Keegan to being managed by Matthias Jaissle and battling to once again climb into the European places. I’ve really enjoyed looking at my own personal ‘Newcastle United 7 up’ and have been astonished about how much things have changed over the years.
The best thing about being a Newcastle United fan is that you can form an instant rapport with any other member of the Toon Army regardless of age, gender, race or religion. We all have our own unique perspective on Newcastle United and none of us are shy about expressing them.
I invite you to have a think about your very own ‘7 up’ with regards to the Toon and reminisce about some of the ups and downs we’ve enjoyed (or endured!) during a lifetime of devotion to the greatest football club on Earth.
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