It seemed like we spent every other Saturday in Yorkshire… | OneFootball

As you get older, you are supposed to get wiser.

If you walk into a pub on a night out, don’t get to the bar first.

If you go for an Indian, do not say to the waiter, “give me the hottest thing on the menu.”

And never allow yourself to be driving on the A1 on a bank holiday…because you know it will end badly.

While I’ve certainly learnt two of those lessons, this Easter Monday , I allowed myself to believe it would be ok to be on the A1 around the M62 junction.

What a nightmare. It’s hard to explain the misery of being stuck in a two mile traffic jam, wondering if it will ever end.

The only thing that comes close to this hopelessness was probably watching Sam Allardyce’s Newcastle.

God, that was grim.

Which is why I find myself studying the satnav in the desperate hope of finding an escape route.

And that us why I find my mind drifting back in time, as I look at the names on the little screen.

Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and Doncaster. I’m guessing that there are many of you out there who also will have spent many a Saturday afternoon in these towns and terraces.

Back in those days, it seemed like we spent every other Saturday in Yorkshire.

I found myself trying to remember how many away games I went to in Yorkshire.

There were a lot. A hell of a lot.

So how many of these games did you go to?

Apologies for any incorrect stats but some were a long long time ago and I’m getting old.

Leeds 1976 (2-2)

You may remember this for the Paul Cannell goal, or possibly the battle of Rourke’s Drift after the game. Fair to say it got a little bit excitable on the way back to the railway station. We really didn’t get on with our Yorkshire cousins in the 70s.

Leeds 1982 (1-0)

This was the game which saw Chris Waddle in goal, or John Anderson scoring the winner, the very daft lads who overturned a hot dog van, presumably for running out of ketchup.

Rotherham 1982 (0-0)

I left Millmoor on a real high because Kevin Carr had saved a last minute penalty.

In 1982 I’m absolutely estatic to have got a point at Rotherham. You could say that our fortunes have changed a little since then.

Rotherham 1982 (5-1)

A few months later, Kevin Keegan had arrived at Newcastle and today he scores four.

Unbelievably, the game was also on Match of The Day (or have I dreamt that?).

That Scouse friend of Princess Anne, Emlyn Hughes, takes dog’s abuse from our end. Which was hilarious.

Pub quiz question. Who scored our other goal?

Barnsley 1980 (0-1)

When I said earlier about there being nothing worse than being stuck in a traffic jam for 90 mins, I lied.

Try 90 mins watching Newcastle in 1980.

Now 45 years later I still remember how abject we were this day.

However, there must have been at least 5,000 other sufferers with me at Oakwell.

Barnsley 1992 (1-3)

This was the Ossie Ardilles season.

We played this game with a team who had the average age of 14 and Steve Howey was our centre forward.

It wasn’t a good idea and it didn’t end well.

But as we know, the second coming was just around the corner.

Sheffield Wednesday 2009 (2-2)

This was the promotion season, when we won the league by a country mile, while Wednesday went down.

My memory of this game was watching the surreal sight of the cast of Beetlejuice being ejected from the home end and being marched round to the away end after Kevin Nolan scored.

Pub quiz. If any of you can guess who was up front with Shola at Hillsborough, you are indeed the greatest Newcastle fan ever.

I will give you ten tries. You won’t get it.

A clue, he was here on loan for about 12 weeks.

Bradford 1987 (1-2)

All the games so far were second division matches.

In 1987 we were in the top league but this was a Simod Cup second round game.

Hardly Champions League I know , but nonetheless plenty headed down the A1 on a Wednesday night in December , to watch us play.

We lost. We tended to lose every cup game we played in the eighties. I know that’s not actually true but it just felt like it.

Sheffield Utd 1994 (0-2)

I will finish with another defeat BUT it was one of the best defeats I have ever witnessed.

The reason for that being that in our first year in the Premier League, Keegan’s Newcastle United qualified for Europe today.

Everyone in our end was very very happy, apart from some seriously antagonistic stewards and police, who spent the match pulling people out of the crowd for little to no reason.

It’s as if South Yorkshire’s finest had an agenda. Surely not?

Life’s changed so much since those days.

Some things for the better, some for worse, but these day trips to Yorkshire with five or six thousand others will always be a favourite time of my life.