Football Innocence

By Teresa Hannaby

This is something that took place in the early 50s. I lived in a street called Newminster Road, it was a very long road divided by Cedar Road and I lived in the part which was like a circle and my friend lived right at the top and across the road on the West Road. I went up to call for her and her sister said that she was over at Harvey’s house at the top of the street where I lived because her mam was babysitting there. So I went over and when I got there the door was slightly open, all the lights were on in the house were blazing and there was a lot of laughter and noise coming from inside the house. Anyway Maureen came to the door and we talked for a little bit and I could see men drinking out of a big cup, a big silver cup and passing it on and I was asking what was it all about. She said, “well it’s the Newcastle Cup, they’ve just won it, they’ve won it the FA Cup” and I didn’t really know much about football or anything like that but I realised, I was told then that Mr Harvey as I knew him, was actually Joe Harvey, the Captain of Newcastle United. And they’d just won the cup and there it was in Harvey’s house and all the team was there with them. And I met Maureen many years later, many, many years later and we were talking and I brought it up and I says, “have I got this right about Harvey’s house” and she says, “oh yes, yes and then they all went up to the Milvain club later on and took the cup with them”. That can’t happen in this day and age when you think of all the security that surrounds football trophies.