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!

Sunderland Echo, 18th May 1982

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. Among that contingent was John Walvin, who’d suggested the idea of the ‘Fans Tribute’ in January, in memory of our good friend and classmate, the irrepressible Kenny Wardhaugh, who we sadly lost in 2022.

We managed to beg, borrow or otherwise blag seats for those who didn’t have season tickets and wanted to take in the game, and arranged to meet up at the Colliery Tavern. It took several cups of coffee among the dog walkers on a blustery Seaburn promenade to blow away the cobwebs before I was ready to head down there.

Just before kick off, I took my customary seat in the Roker End, accompanied by two friends I’d first met at Burnside Junior School in 1972.

They found the opening exchanges a little more anxious than me as I’ve gradually become accustomed to the Le Bris low block, knowing that we have a defensive unit perfectly capable of executing it. Even when Rob Jones awarded a penalty to the visitors, it was easy to see from our vantage point that VAR would overturn it, and every little thing was going to be alright.

We all might’ve been a bit slow and jaded but there was certainly no sign that the team were already on the beach as the end of the season approaches.

I don’t know what bet Noah Sadiki and Habib Diarra lost during the week but the two newly-shaven headed young Africans absolutely ran the legs off the Spurs midfield. Sadiki is just such a joyful player to watch, and Diarra is really finding his rhythm again after injury disrupted his progress.

Robin Roefs brought his Dutch chill to instil confidence in a back line where Luke O’Nien again proved any remaining doubters (surely there can’t still be any?) wrong — three Premier League starts, three wins, two clean sheets.

Up front, Brian Brobbey laid waste to a Tottenham defence that was simply unable to cope with his physical presence. The only disappointing feature was that Enzo Le Fée, Diarra and Chris Rigg rarely got close enough to him to properly take advantage of the situations his strength and skill created.

The Lads were straight out of the blocks in the second half and it was no surprise when Nordi Mukiele’s deflected shot gave us a deserved lead.

Tottenham offered very little but there was entertainment elsewhere as news filtered through of a Crystal Palace equaliser against ‘the Visitors’. That lifted the volume of an already noisy and boisterous crowd and, as we entered an eleven-minute period of added time, a shirtless fan in front of us held up his phone to show the penalty that gave Palace the win.

A welcome catch-up with people who were with me through some of the best moments of my school years, a win for the Black Cats, two points off a European spot and four places and four points above the Mags.

If Carlsberg did weekends…