Newcastle United Armed Forces Supporters Club see prayers answered at Wembley | OneFootball

I received a photo (see above) from my good friend John McAllister during Newcastle United’s dream Wembley weekend.

It was of lads and lasses that are affiliated to the Newcastle United Armed Forces Supporters Club, that was founded on the 8th December 2023.

John is older than me and back in the 1970s, he and his younger brother Stephen lived at the bottom of our street.

Me and Steve were still lads when John was deployed to Northern Ireland with the Royal Corps of Signals.

He was later stationed in Germany as part of BAOR (British Army of the Rhine).

After seeing the photo, I naturally wanted to find out more about this recently formed supporters club.

John put me in touch with their Founder and Chair, Mick Warke and I had an interesting chat with Mick.

Mick was a 24 year veteran in the Royal Logistics Corps and he has seen service in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan (I hope I didn’t miss any out there Mick).

He went on to tell me that their organisation is now the biggest Armed Forces supporters branch in the country, and probably the World.

There are also Newcastle United Armed Forces Supporters Associations in Europe, America, Asia and Australia now.

On his way to Wembley, Mick told me that they stopped off at a service station to have a traditional toast of Port.

This is a tradition that goes back to the 18th Century when British troops were fighting in Portugal.

The weekend was apparently excellent and one of the older lads even treat the troops to his very own Northern Soul repertoire in a West End Bar.

There were prayers on matchday (They had seemingly thought of everything, for they had even took their own Army Padre along).

Well, their prayers and ours were truly answered at Wembley.