NUFC 1958/59 - Season Review

At the AGM in October held McKeag stated that it was the club's ambition to build up a reserve of £250,000 to improve the ground: "that is the goal to which we are working and it is not impossible". Plans included a covered double-decker stand on the Leazes Terrace side which would provide 5,000 additional seats and the overall capacity would be increased to 80,000. However, he made it clear that the team would always take priority and that further team building was still required.

As usual there were several outbursts from self-styled rebel Mr EC Pringle who was ruled out of order and told to sit down on numerous occasions. In the stormiest encounter he accused McKeag's sons of using privileged car parking tickets. McKeag called it "damnable slander" and his son Clive stated that although he had used the car park he had been acting as a chauffeur for his father.

In February McKeag voiced his hope that progress would soon be made with their plans to build a new stand on the Popular Side and provide additional car-parking spaces behind the Leazes End. It was also possible that a tunnel would be built to allow easier access to the Leazes.

It was twelve years since the club last applied to extend St James'. The Freeman and the Council appeared broadly in favour at the time but the plans were dropped in 1951. The club had offered to fund both the Parliamentary Bill required to sanction the development and the cost of moving the children's swings.

McKeag and Hurford attended a meeting with the Town Moor and Park Committee to discuss the club's request to buy additional land to build a car-park on land behind the Park End. T Dan Smith of the Newcastle Transport Committee responded by stating that the Council were considering acquiring the land themselves for parking.

Members of the Town Moor and Parks Committee then visited Gallowgate to examine the proposed car park site. After the inspection Councillor J McKenzie said that he "agrees there is a slice of land in excess of what we require for the children's recreation ground" and that the City Engineer will report to the Committee at their next meeting.

In September, McKeag warned youngsters to keep off the pitch at the end of games or risk exclusion. He explained that the hard work of the ground staff "is retarded considerably by pointless invasions of the pitch in a quest for autographs which the players have strict orders not to give on the field". And, at a recent reserve game, a visiting goalkeeper was "bombed" by an ice-cream carton filled with ash.

Before the start of the next home game against Manchester United McKeag addressed the crowd regarding the pitch encroachments. As soon as he started speaking there were ironical cheers and as he continued the slow hand claps and boos started.

At half-time the visitors’ mascot had apple cores, ice-cream wrappers and red grit thrown at him. And at the end of the match youngsters and teddy boys once again swarmed onto the pitch. The Board announced that the Boy's Gates would be closed until further notice.

There was no invasion at the end of the next home game and the Boy’s Gate's were re-opened once more.

Train driver Wilfred Bee of Shiremoor swapped shifts so that he could attend the cup tie with Chelsea but in a cruel twist of fate he suffered fatal injuries when his electric train from Longbenton collided with an empty train at Central Station.

Jimmy Scoular missed the start of pre-season training as he was involved in a bowls tournament in Bognor Regis. The Scot and his father (along with another player) won the Triples.

Newcastle arranged a couple of behind-closed-doors pre-season games against teams from Fenham Barracks; one to be played on the Army's own ground on August 6th and one to be played at St. James' a week later. However, the Northumberland FA banned the games as it contravened an FA rule banning "irregular matches" during the close season.

The United squad went to Blackpool for special training prior to the match at Blackburn in December. They played a match on the beach and did not realise that the incoming tide had left them marooned on a small island of sand. As a result they had to wade through the knee-high water back to dry land.

In February McKeag stated that at the next meeting of League chairman he would call for a fact-finding committee to be set up to look into the possibility of using all-weather pitches. And he argued that "so far as I can see the best pitch needn't be one of turf. It is not outside the bounds of imagination to picture a pitch of red shale for example".

Comedian Bobby Thompson was performing at the Empire Theatre when United were due to play Chelsea in the Cup and before the game he said he was disappointed he couldn’t be at St James' to support the team. He said he had arranged for a telephone call to be made to the theatre every 5 minutes during the game so he could keep abreast of the score and revealed that he had "verses ready to put across to the audience based on a Newcastle lead of 1, 2 or 3 goals". When asked what he would do if they were losing he replied: "there won't be any verses".

United arranged for the Romanian touring side to visit the pictures (in the afternoon) to see 'South Pacific'. They turned down the offer, but having changed their mind the evening was spent watching "The Barbarian and the Geisha" and "School for Violence".

Swedish side Halmstads left at 4.00am to travel to Newcastle for a a 3.00pm kick-off. But they were delayed at Malmo and they did not arrive in Newcastle until 5.30. They were whisked straight to the ground and had to play immediately. Despite their lack of preparation the visitors showed some flashes of good football and it was probably the best friendly so far. However, due to the delayed kick-off, many supporters left at half-time.