A few years ago, pre-covid, I took my two young kids for a day out at the O2 in North Greenwich, by chance, Sky Sports has a visitor centre and a mock up Sky Sports studio.
There, kids can read the sports news from monitors sitting at the desks, all the while being videoed with the info, side bar and ticker tape breaking news. There was also an opportunity to be filmed dressed as players, kissing badges doing silly dances etc.
My son was up for this and went to get the shirt to wear for the shoot. He rummaged through Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U and many other Premier League shirts. He eventually pulled out the beautiful black and white stripes.
The young lass who was overseeing this turned to me with raised eyebrows and said “no one ever chooses that one…”
My son then did the silly dance and badge kissing in front of a green screen background that was relayed to a big Sky Sports Player of the Match display.
I do not know the exact point that my son and daughter decided they were Newcastle United fans. All I know is my son took flak from his mates for going to games with me when we were in the Championship.
I (originally from Newcastle) have a mate here in London, originally from Nottingham, who is a Forest Lad. He also has a son. Not much older than my lad. Like me he visits his home town with his family and would take in a game at the City Ground just as I would with mine at St James’ Park.
Neither of us put any pressure on our sons or daughters to support our respective teams and actually discussed the fact that living in London, they would probably end up supporting one of the big London clubs.
Bear in mind this is when both Forest and Newcastle have been starved of success for a long time.
Fortunately, the only London team they have shown any sort of affinity for is Dulwich Hamlet. We have even done away days with Dulwich, at Hemel Hempstead, Billericay, Dorking, which were fun days out for the young lads.
My mate and his son have stuck with Forest and are loving being in the Prem.
Some five years ago now we decided to meet at mine and watch Notts Forest v Newcastle in the League Cup, with the kids playing PS4 and talking rubbish about Drill music pre game. We get beat 3-1 and my Forest mate lording it, with a crowd of 13,000 by the way. We take defeat on the chin.
What made me put pen to paper, was about who kids decide to support?
Well, this comment in a conversation by my good mate who managed to get me tickets for away games and allowed me to indoctrinate my son to being a Cockney Mag.
Thank you, you know who you are and how you and your mam helped make a young lad a Newcastle fanatic.
We are now looking forward to going down the boozer with our Forest mates and watching Notts Forest get a good stuffing on Boxing Day.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
