Good Team, That
As the only Mag in the village, Rob's not used to compliments from strangers, but things have finally changed.
“Good team, that”. I hear this a lot more often these days. At least relative to how often I’d heard it during the previous 30-years, which was, essentially, never.
North Cambridgeshire is not a Newcastle United hotbed. Shocking, I know. The terrain is flatter than an early 90s back four, so it should be easy for all to see how great the club is, but for a long time I knew of just three other Mags fans in the local area - a friend-of-a-friend, that same friend’s brother, who never said two words to me, and a guy who staunchly bought the new home shirt every season and could regularly be seen just wandering around town in said shirt. I salute you, sir, wherever you are, but the 'Fenland Mags' were never really a thing.
Conversations about the team's performances with others were few and far between as a result, because there were few fellow fans, and not many other people cared about a club that had slowly gone from ‘everyone’s favourite *other* team’ to ‘average league finish: 12th’, and rarely bothered either the trophy engravers nor the transfer mill operators. A husk of a club.
Where people did notice an NUFC logo, or learnt you were a fan, ‘discussion’ - inverted commas used because what was there to really discuss? - would inevitably start with some misty-eyed nostalgia centred around the Keegan years followed by a more sympathetic turn towards ‘it’s been a tough run since then, eh’ before they head off and go about their day, safe in the knowledge their own club would never hire Steve Bruce or Graeme Souness, while I am left with the reminder that my club did in fact hire Steve Bruce and Graeme Souness. Thanks for that.
One Cup win, another Final appearance, and two Champions League qualifications in the space of three seasons have changed things. Suddenly people note the Mags badge on my baseball cap with a sense of almost second hand pride. Other fans identify themselves, no longer worried starting a conversation will lead us both to a state of melancholy, and a ruined week because we were foolish enough to remind ourselves of how rarely Saturdays brought us any kind of joy, just more grind (assuming the kick-off wasn’t moved to Sunday or Monday to suit Sky Sports, so everyone could watch us be shit in real time on television).
Truthfully I am still not entirely sure how to respond to this new found interest in my attire, or the club. High points have been so few, and trying to explain why we hated Mike Ashley so much was so tiring. A sort of shell had formed. I often felt like the token small club fan everyone liked to metaphorically tousle the hair of before getting back to big talk about the Big Six. ‘You plucky little guy; hang on in there, it’ll be your time soon’. Don’t patronise me you dic…oh, you’re complimenting us now? Okay then.
I suspect it will take some time to adjust. Having gone through two Directors of Football over roughly that same three-year period means a sense of caution remains. That this is still the same Newcastle United that shares borders with both chaos, and ineptitude, and struggles to sever diplomatic relations with either entirely. The ownership issue is never far away either, and so a pensioner complementing my choice of team on a recent trip to the Lake District will still go through the sarcasm detector before I deliver a cheery response about how better days may have finally come to St. James’ Park.
Please do not misunderstand me; it is nice to discuss the fact that it was finally ‘our year’. That we’re a couple of signings away from being regular European participants rather than occasional ones. That performances on the pitch are, by-and-large, much improved and more consistent, both home and away. Heck, there’s even been a bonafide first team signing this summer, and the sense there might even be one more before the window closes.
But it’s been a long road, even for an ‘out of towner’ who’d spent a chunk of his early fandom almost spoiled by the aforementioned Keegan years. At least the football was exciting, even if we didn’t win. There are those out there who’ve only ever known shite Newcastle sides, and for them the adjustment might be even bigger - the very idea the team could post a winning record consistently. That they could win at Old Trafford. That European nights aren’t just something other teams get to enjoy.
Maybe I am getting ahead of myself. Maybe last year has obscured things. Maybe 2025/26 will see us drop down to 8th again, over-stretched by a European and domestic campaign with a squad we all know has imperfections.
Or maybe we can collectively say, yes, we have a team capable of competing now. That this is a club on the rise despite the occasional bump in the road or executive departure. That things are heading in the right direction, even if we’re doing so slowly on occasion. That this is a team aiming to finish in the top-four, five, or six in a given season rather than the comfort blanket of 12th place.
Good team that? Yes, it is, thank you very much. And it’s nice to be able to say that, at last.
Rob McGregor
Image: “Big sky and flat fields - The Fens” by Richard Humphrey, CC BY-SA 2.0.
"This is still the same Newcastle United that shares borders with both chaos and ineptitude, and struggles to sever diplomatic relations with either entirely." This is a great sentence, wonderfully descriptive of the lingering causes of our collective worry.
Nice read, Rob.
I live in York now and you’re right, no one used to really bother (unless we got pasted by the local team - Man Utd, Liverpool and crucifyingly, even York in a fairly recent, pre season friendly).
It’s been disheartening over the past couple of months since the season ended (hope there isn’t worse to come) but it’s been a fantastic 3yrs or so and I can die happy with a cup won and witnessed in my lifetime.
The arrival of Trippier and the purchases made when Eddie first arrived probably raised expectations above what PSR etc would allow to continue and it is frustrating.
Hopefully get a couple of new signings on top of Isak staying (and agreeing a new contract - greedy I know) and ‘Fenland Mags’ might gain some proper traction.