On this planet for every one of our 70 barren domestic trophy years and as soon as he leaves… | OneFootball

At the weekend, the Editor of The Mag asked a few of us Newcastle United fans who contribute, if anybody came instantly to mind, when United won at Wembley against Liverpool.

He was asking about NUFC supporters who are no longer with us.

I contributed to the compilation, each of us supplying a short piece on those who meant so much to us, who would have especially loved to have been still around for when we finally did it under Eddie Howe.

The Newcastle United fan that I talked about was John Shaw.

He only died last August (2024) and as it happens, I wrote an article about his passing, his story, for The Mag back then.

I would like to share it again…

‘It’s 1994 and I’m moving into a new home.

One day I’m in the garden surveying my land, that’s all 25 square feet of it.

Suddenly, this huge bloke looks over the fence and bellows at me “Hello neighbour, I’m John. How you doing?”

My first impression was that he reminded me of Bomber out of Auf Wiedersehen, only with a Geordie accent. As I’m a midget, this lad was quite intimidating.

We get into our first conversation and quickly realise we have a common obsession. Newcastle United.

“I see that our new local is showing the match tonight. Fancy a pint?”

And that’s how a few hours later I am off to the pub to watch Newcastle take on Luton Town in a FA cup replay, in the company of John Shaw. We expect to win but we are untypically poor and are knocked out by a second division side.

However, on the plus side we end up with a lock in, and don’t stagger home until after midnight.

Suffice to say the girls are not impressed, but for us, a thirty year friendship is born.

Back in those days we had to sit apart, but when the ground was expanded ahead of the 2000/01 season, we decided to get ourselves two seats at the very very top of the Leazes.

I was 40 at the time and despite this fella being over bloody 60, he took great delight in racing me up the stairs every fortnight.

I’d say that at his age we could get them to let us use the lift but he wouldn’t have any of it, “The lift is for the old ones.”

He had worked in construction all his life and he was proud to tell me he had built half of Newcastle during the 60s .

From our Leazes vantage point, he would point out over the city and say, “see that building, built it in 65… See that building, built it in 68… See Eldon square… I think I built it all.”

He gave up his season ticket when he retired but he still kept coming to a few games each season

Our last away game was on new year’s day 2015, where we endured a torrid 90 minutes watching John Carver’s black and white army get beat in the FA Cup at Leicester.

On the long journey home, while we ate rubber chicken in a service station, John turns to me and says, “The next time you want to do this, I’m washing my hair.”

Our last home game was to be Burnley in the League Cup 2nd round in September 2021. I was in the company of 82 year old John and my 85 year old father in law. The game was a truly hideous 0-0 draw.

After an hour, the two guys had given up on the game and were now reminiscing about their national service days in Africa and Cyprus. Which to be honest, was more interesting to listen to than watching Jeff Hendrick.

At the end, the cup tie went to spot kicks. John looks at me and says, “Come on, we all know the script, let’s go now and beat the rush.”

So after over 70 years of going to St James’ Park, John walked out of the ground for the last time.

This won’t be a surprise to many of you that the lad who worked in construction, died of lung cancer. However, unlike far too many of his colleagues, he was very thankful that it didn’t appear until his 80s.

However, what really hacked him off was the fact that we never got him inside the ground to see an Eddie Howe team and that he wasn’t going to be around to see his club become winners again.

” Did I ever tell you I was there when we beat Ujpest Dozsa?”

” Yes John , you did… time and time and time again.”

I appreciate this piece is hardly uplifting as we go into the new season full of hope… but I think that many of us have a John Shaw in our Newcastle United lives.

So if next May this club finally put the ghost of Ujpest Dozsa to rest, remember to lift a glass and toast those who are not here to see it.

To absent friends.’

As it happened, none of us (who are still here) had to even wait until May 2025 for that long-awaited domestic silverware. Only seven months after my prophetic/hopeful article, Eddie Howe and the lads have delivered in March 2025!

As John’s time came to an end, what really hacked him off was the fact that he wasn’t going to be around to see his club become winners again.

He was on this planet for every one of our 70 barren domestic trophy years and as soon as he leaves, Newcastle United win the very first trophy we compete for.