Sunday 10th December 2023
Third Round
Newcastle United vs. Stoke City
I’ve enjoyed watching these games on a Sunday afternoon – getting to and from games is a far more relaxing experience than a Saturday, with its busy crowds, but the downside for those of us who rely on public transport, is the usual timetables are truncated. So, I’m facing a race against time today as in their wisdom, both clubs have agreed to a 1pm kick-off. This means I’ve realistically got only one train to catch at my connection in Manchester to get to make the game in time. That’s the best-case scenario if everything runs on time; the last ten days has seen snow and rain hit the UK harder than the dose of reality you get when you leave school, so delays are probable – and then there’s the question of the game being on at all. Imagine if I get to go to Newcastle and see that the game has been called off. ‘LOL’, as the kids say.
Usually, Newcastle Women play their games at Kingston Park, the ground of Newcastle Falcons rugby union club. However, the Falcons are playing at home today, so the Newcastle Women’s game has been switched to Gateshead, which regularly fills in for when Kingston Park isn’t available anyway. Ironically, the stadium in Gateshead is closer to the centre of Newcastle (a mile-and-a-half, compared to Kingston Park being 5-and-a-half miles away), despite being over the River Tyne, in a different town, so the switch has done me a favour if anything. St James’ Park was also muted as a potential venue by some Newcastle supporters online; it would have represented a great opportunity to showcase the unbeaten women’s team on the larger stage of the men’s ground, as so many WSL clubs have been doing in recent seasons. However, there was another event taking place within the stadium, so Gateshead was left as the best option.
As I’m sat on the train to Newcastle (my original train to Manchester – one of two I could have got to get there to make my connection in time – was cancelled, LOL), I console myself by thinking about the Gateshead International Stadium and its history as one of the country’s premier athletics facilities – it’s surely got undersoil heating, right? Then I thought, why would an athletics stadium need undersoil heating for its field? No, according to The Football Ground Guide, it doesn’t, and after looking at various other clubs on there, undersoil heating is nowhere near as common as I thought it was! In fact, it’s only the Premier League that insists on clubs having it – it was reported at the start of this season that newly-promoted Luton Town have been given special dispensation to play without it. After going down a groundskeeping rabbit hole (no pun intended) as the train powered through Yorkshire and on to the North East, I was left with the impression that pitch coverings were generally the anti-weather protection of choice for most EFL clubs. Here’s hoping Gateshead have some bloody good ones!
Despite all my weather worries and to my great surprise, everything does run on time – I arrive a couple of minutes early and soon as I get to the Metro station underneath Newcastle Central Station, the train to Gateshead Stadium is waiting just for me. I’m sure. Thank you to all on the transport network – you have made this blog happen. So now the reader knows who to blame when they feel they’ve not got their money’s worth!
Formed in 1989, Newcastle United Women were operated independently from the men’s club but would often link up on various projects – one of which being a curtain-raiser to the 1996 Charity Shield, in which they played Manchester United Women, prior to the match between the same men’s sides. While the women would lose 2-0, the men would see a rampant Manchester United put four past them, with no reply – with the game notable for being Alan Shearer’s competitive debut for Newcastle too. The following few years saw Newcastle United Women consolidate themselves within the football pyramid, achieving promotion to the third-tier Northern Combination in 1999, and continuing to grow by creating a youth set-up at the University of Northumbria. Now well-established as one of Northern England’s strongest women’s clubs outside of the top two divisions, the club embarked on a partnership with Newcastle City Council’s Football Development Scheme, which aside from continuing to aid their growth and giving more opportunities to girls to play football, set out a five-year plan to reach the top tier FA Women’s Premier League.
Although they didn’t get to reach the top division in the end (at least not yet), they did win promotion to the second-tier and go on a FA Cup run that saw them a couple of penalty kicks away from a semi-final – drawing 2-2 with top tier Liverpool in the 2006-07 quarter-finals, they lost 9-8 in the shootout. Winning a ‘Club of the Year’ award from the FA for their run, Newcastle continued to develop within the second tier – but a setback arrived in 2017 when they were relegated; picking up just 2 wins in 20 games, shipping 65 goals. A new outlook was needed, and that same year saw the still-independent Newcastle United become part of the Newcastle United Foundation, the registered charity arm of the men’s club – clearly, with women’s football showing huge signs of growth, this was the start of the process to bring them in-house.
It was in August 2022 that Newcastle United WFC were officially made part of Newcastle United, with the club’s new ownership setting out ambitions of reaching the Women’s Super League. The announcement was particularly timely as it followed the first appearance of the women’s side at St James’ Park that May, as over 22,000 saw them beat Alnwick Town 4-0 – and who could forget, mere weeks after England won the Euros. Anyone who knows the game knows what a hotbed of football the North East is – I’m not just talking about its professional clubs here, but there’s a strong non-league football tradition in the area, with clubs commanding relatively big crowds for the levels they play at. So, considering all that, it makes it all the more bizarre that there isn’t a women’s club from this region in the Super League already. Somehow, I think that’ll change in the next couple of years.
Despite being labelled ‘Gateshead Stadium’ the nearest Metro station is about a 12-minute walk away from the stadium, which usually wouldn’t be too bad, but it’s freezing, so the walk feels extra-long. Seeing Geordies wearing bobble hats and big coats just hits home how cold it is. Nevertheless, I get there in one piece and such is the organisation, I get my e-ticket (a very reasonable £5) scanned and I’m straight in the warm bosom of the main stand. And what a nice stadium it is! Aside from athletics, The Gateshead International Stadium is used by Gateshead FC of the men's fifth-tier National League, so it’s fully set up for a football watcher’s experience. Any trip to Gateshead wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory mention of the Angel of North, the massive sculpture that sits by the A1, dominating the landscape. I didn’t see it on this trip but I feel it important to mention because it was designed by Anthony Gormley – the same artist who put a hundred sculptures of himself on Crosby beach, which I saw during my visit to Marine a couple of rounds back. How neat!
Built in 1955 on land previously occupied by Georgian-era chemical works, the Gateshead Youth Stadium was a modest construction, consisting of a cinder running track and an asphalt cycling track, with floodlights and a seating area being added later. By the turn of the 1970s, there was a need to reverse what was described as ‘inner city decay’ in Gateshead, with regeneration of existing structures being identified as a particular area of interest. The Gateshead Youth Stadium was one such building earmarked for regeneration and so in 1974, the council turned to local schoolteacher-turned-athlete, Brendan Foster, to head up a sport and recreation department that would handle the project. After the laying down of a synthetic track, further developments followed within the next decade – including the building of the huge seated main stand I’m sitting in today, with three more following. This allowed the stadium to host international events and thus, The Gateshead International Stadium was born, and further improvements have seen the site incorporate further sporting facilities to cement its place as the North East’s premier multi-sport venue.
With an all-seated capacity just shy of 12,000, the stadium is certainly set up for the Football League – but whether people would enjoy watching games here is another matter. It's easy to dismiss these stadiums because of the running tracks between the pitch and the stands – it doesn't help to boost passion and atmosphere when you're further away from the pitch and thus feel disconnected from the action on the pitch. This is some contrast to August when I stood on the sidelines on a field in Penwortham, where it felt like I were a part of the action! Having seen football games at other athletics stadiums where the view can be difficult, the stand here is steep enough that it offers a decent view of the pitch, so I don’t really mind the rare treat of staring out over a running track to watch a football match!
Today’s sides play in the same division – currently, Newcastle are battling for promotion, while Stoke are mid-table in a 12-team league that, despite it being halfway through the season, is already fractured into three ‘mini-leagues’. Newcastle won the league clash 3-1 at Kingston Park in October, and with the winner of today’s tie going into a draw that will feature WSL clubs for the first time this season, it’s certainly got an extra weight of importance. Resplendent in their traditional black-and-white stripes (it’s Stoke’s – wears of the red-and-white variety of stripes – turn to wear green this time), the Newcastle team walk to hearty applause from the crowd. Despite the venue change, there’s a decent number of supporters here, by far the largest crowd I’ve been a part of so far during this run, but that could have gone without saying! It’s crazy to think about how I was watching a game in a 3G cage in Leigh in the same competition justtwo rounds ago.
The first 15 minutes of the match is pretty even – Newcastle have most of the ball, but without creating any clear-cut chances. They do force a couple of corners which are met with a chant of ‘on the heed, on the heed, on the heeeeeed’, by several people around me, eager for their side to score. A beautiful accent that sounds like whale song, Al Murray’s Pub Landlord character once remarked – I’m sat here, listening to them, feeling like I’m in an Enya song, having sound therapy or something. This attempt at football witchcraft almost worked too – one corner did indeed find the heed of a Newcastle player; she connected well, it heeds towards goal but a Stoke player is there to heed it away.
Much of Newcastle’s play has been coming down both sides of the pitch – full-backs being pushed up high, winning the ball back, often in the Stoke half of the field. On one such occasion, 21 minutes in, Charlotte Potts intercepts a stray Stoke pass, runs up the left before slipping a well-weighted pass towards Bridget Galloway, 10 yards from goal – she shoots, Elizabeth Hobson in the Stoke goal makes a great block with her legs, but the ball spins behind her, and into the corner of the net. Gutting for Stoke – it looked for a second (and it was a second, it took that long!), that Hobson had saved from point-blank range, but the ball squeezed agonisingly past the post. The Newcastle supporters obviously don’t care, they’re too busy cheering with more whale song!
The goal gives the home side renewed confidence and they’re now playing more forward balls in attacking areas, creating more chances. Hobson has to make two good saves in quick succession to keep her side in it – the second of which looks like she saved it with her ‘lower body’ because she spent a minute, doubled up on the grass afterwards (the first save was a more conventional tip round the post!) Just as it looks like Newcastle are about to add to their lead, they almost concede on 40 minutes – a clearance from the Stoke area is played quickly upfield, eventually finding its way to midfielder, Danielle Puddlefoot 20 yards out; she hits the ball first-time on the volley which Newcastle goalkeeper, Grace Donnelly, has to reposition herself quickly to palm the ball wide.
So close to an equaliser – and a warning for the home side that an opposition goal is a mere (in this case, well-crafted) swing of a boot away. It remains 1-0 to the home side and despite a shaky end to the half, it takes nothing away from how much they’ve controlled the game. I expect them to up the tempo in the second half and create more chances – they’ve cut through Stoke at times, but just need a bit more quality in the final third.
And it takes just 10 minutes of the second half for them to notch the long-awaited second goal! After spending half-time under the stand, away from the cold and wet, enjoying the experience of an empty men’s toilets, I return to see a quicker, more penetrative Newcastle. The high pressing continues and after Katie Barker successfully nicks the ball off the Stoke right-back, she runs away with it, towards the area and plays square to Galloway who taps into an empty net. Parker looks an excellent player; a quick forward who likes to run at defenders – and her goal is the very example of that. On 65 minutes, after much more Newcastle domination, Galloway returns the favour and finds Barker in space on the left of the area; she skips inside a defender before shooting over Hobson’s heed, great finish.
The supporters who have travelled here, braving the elements, are enjoying themselves, now ‘olé-ing’ every successful Newcastle pass. They even (I’m pretty sure) persuade their players to shoot from 30 yards out – constant cries of ‘shoot, shoot, shooooooooot’ erupt into the Gateshead sky – and she does shoot! And the ball goes at least 10 yards clear of the crossbar, bouncing on a puddle on the running track for good measure.
Stoke have no answers and are being run ragged – their only chance being a long ball forward that Donnelly had to slide to the grass to collect. Other than that, it’s damage limitation for them, which doesn’t work either, as they concede two more goals in the last ten minutes. First, some quick play in midfield leaves the away side chasing shadows, the ball is played out wide before being crossed into the area – Hobson misses the ball and Anna Soulsby is there to tap into another empty net. With many around me taking the fourth as an opportunity to leave and beat the traffic (I don’t know why, there is ‘only’ 600 people here?!), they miss out on the injury time goal and a second for substitute, Soulsby. Stoke have been too slow in playing the ball out and despite being late on in the game, Newcastle are still pressing – Soulsby presses the last defender on the edge of the area and wins the ball before turning and firing high past the frustrated Hobson.
It's been an entertaining game, an illuminating insight into the difference that being fully-professional makes at this level. Despite playing in the same league and backed by their respective men’s clubs, Newcastle were able to run harder, press for longer and simply look better on the ball. With so few clubs in each division, it’s difficult to get a reading on how good the depth is in women’s football at the moment – that will come in time, of course, as more girls are inspired to play, clubs grow, professionalise and leagues expand.
I must mention the PA chap here who has been entertaining, with his ‘unique’ mic work. He made everyone chuckle as he tried to announce a player’s name but struggled a few times before giving up. He also took the opportunity to announce something every time there was a treatment break, uttering ‘at this unfortunate time…’ before talking about something going on at the stadium in the coming weeks, even inviting us to go and watch Gateshead Ladies who are playing a match on the pitches behind the stadium. Now, he’s passively aggressively chastising the officials for not indicating how much injury time there is. 'I'll let you know when I find out' he tells the crowd, before following it up with '3 minutes', 10 seconds later!
Full-time arrives and the home side are saluted by the remaining supporters. Their ambitious side will be taking their place amongst the best in the English women's game in tomorrow’s fourth round draw. With WSL clubs now added alongside Championship sides, it should be intriguing to see what draw we get – and ascertain how good these Geordie Lasses truly are.
Now here’s hoping the trains don’t bugger up on the way back.
Newcastle United
5
(Galloway, 21, 53. Barker, 65. Soulsby, 83, 86)
Stoke City 0
Attendance: 654
Next Round: Manchester United vs. Newcastle United
