IT was one of those moments when time stands still. As Matty Longstaff drew back his right leg on the edge of the D outside the penalty area in front of the Gallowgate End, more than 45,000 of his fellow Geordies inhaled and held their breath. He couldn’t, could he? He bloody well could.
It was the shot the 19-year-old has dreamed of hitting ever since he started kicking a ball around with his elder brother, Sean, in the back garden of the family home in North Shields, and was made all the more remarkable by Sean’s presence just behind him, silently urging him to hit sweet and true.
It was the shot he had initially honed at North Shields Athletic Juniors, or perhaps with the school team at John Spence Community High School, again at North Shields, the unremarkable town on the banks of the Tyne that is threatening to become the heart of the universe, with another of its sons, Sam Fender, riding high in the album charts.
Yet it was also the shot that might never had happened had a rumoured loan move to Bury materialised last season, and that had still looked unlikely at the start of last week when the talk around Tyneside was of surrender and embarrassment in the wake of Newcastle’s five-goal thrashing at Leicester City rather than the possibility of a golden moment that will forever be etched in black-and-white folklore.
Classic Newcastle. Just when you’re about to give up on them, when the accumulated angst from the last few years is threatening to become all-consuming, something like this happens to warm the hardest of hearts. Watching Matty Longstaff wheel away in disbelief, listening to his post-match interview alongside his brother on Sky Sports, when their sense of excitement and giddiness positively burst out of the screen, it felt like something important had been rediscovered. A Geordie, scoring the winner against Manchester United on his Premier League debut at St James’ Park. Forget Mike Ashley, Lee Charnley, Steve Bruce, the lot of them, that is what football is supposed to be about.
It was a collective triumph for the unbreakable sense of identity that endures despite the multiple failings that have ravaged Newcastle in recent years, but it was also a very personal success for a remarkable family.
David Longstaff, Matty and Sean’s father, is an ice hockey player who has won more than 100 caps for Great Britain and has long been the lynchpin of the Whitley Warriors club. Even now, well into his 40s, he still plays competitively for the Warriors, and just last week, he was named the National Ice Hockey League player of the month for September, having scored in his 30th consecutive season. He has clearly passed on his sporting genes to his sons, who spent plenty of their own youth on the ice, even if he admits he came close to stopping their footballing careers before they had even begun.
“I played for a Swedish team, Djuyrgardens, who were the Man United of hockey,” said David, in a recent family interview with the Sunday Times. “I did well, and they offered me a long-term deal. I was also offered a farm team with the chance to the make the NHL. I turned it down. I’d spoke to your (Sean and Matty’s) mam about coming back and I’m pleased I did. If I didn’t, you and your brother would be playing hockey instead of football.”
Ice hockey’s loss has been Newcastle United’s gain. Matty and Sean’s mum, Michelle, was a fine netball player, and the brothers both played cricket at Tynemouth Cricket Club, with Sean displaying a particular talent from a young age. He was playing for Tynemouth’s first team when he was 16, but even at that stage, it was becoming clear that football would be his future.
The same was true of Matty, and when Sean made his Premier League debut under Rafael Benitez at Liverpool last December, no one was prouder than his younger brother. A couple of months earlier, they had played together for the first time in what could just about be termed a first-team fixture, a 2-0 Checkatrade Trophy win at Notts County for Newcastle Under-21s in which Sean played in central midfield and Matty was a late call-up at right-back. Matty was starting to make waves, even if a fully-fledged senior call-up still felt a long way off.
Had Benitez remained in charge, there is a good chance Matty would have been loaned out to a club in the Football League this summer, but Bruce saw something in him after he was a late call-up to the pre-season tour of China, and he made his competitive debut in August’s Carabao Cup defeat to Leicester City, a game Sean sat out.
They played together at the weekend, and just as Matty had been beaming when Sean excelled against Liverpool in December, so this time the roles were reversed.
“When he scored, I froze for a second,” said Sean. “I thought I was going to start crying. It’s unbelievable. I’m so happy for him, I know how hard he’s worked.”
“What a moment for him, what a moment for his family,” said Alan Shearer, who knows a thing or two about being a hometown hero. “What an unbelievable strike and moment, it will stay with him for his whole life.
“The two of them were fantastic, and their dad should be very, very proud. What an unbelievable day for them and a great day for Newcastle, because they needed that result.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel