I’ve never been a fan of football; growing up on the Isle of Man, we have no real involvement in the UK national leagues, so for me, watching football was invariably just an excuse to go to the pub with my friends who all seemed to support either Liverpool or Man’ United.. With that said, it won’t come as a surprise to learn that I have never been to an actual football game or have any interest in it. These photographs aren’t about football, though; they’re about vendettas and loathing that go so far back in time that most people don’t even know, let alone remember, what they’re fighting about. The rivalry actually goes back 400 years, long before Ebenezer Morley fathered the modern game.
Newcastle v Sunderland Derby, Sunday 22nd March ’26 – My initial plan was to get the Metro into town early, grab a coffee, then wander over to St James’ to get some candid shots of fans pre-match. Even at 8.30 am, there were lengthy queues at the various pubs and bars on the outskirts of the stadium, most of which weren’t open until 10 am. By 10.30, I’d decided nothing much was going to happen, so I began heading back into the city centre. To the south of the stadium, where Strawberry Place meets Barrack Street, there’s a grass bank – Newcastle fans had started assembling on and around it. They were waiting for something. Or Someone. Hundreds of men, women, and children were waiting to ‘greet’ the visiting Sunderland fans.
It wasn’t until I was writing this that I discovered the name of the road from which the Sunderland fans were emerging – Gallowgate, quite literally the route on which prisoners travelled for execution at Barrack Road. Taking into account the bitter loathing the two sides have for each other, I assumed things might be about to get ‘ a bit spicy’…
Phil Kneen 
Leave a reply to Phil Kneen Photography Cancel reply