Proud grandad of debutant Elliot Anderson watches on as history repeats
‘FLYING WINGER’ GEOFF ALLEN RECALLS HIS OWN SHORT-LIVED TIME IN TOON SPOTLIGHT
FOR Geoff Allen it is like turning the hands of a big clock back over half a century to the time when he was a ruddy-faced flying winger with the world literally lying at his talented feet.
Allen was a Sixties’ boy star, making his debut for his home-town club Newcastle United at just 17 years of age before going on to produce a jaw-dropping man-of-thematch performance in the club’s first ever European cup tie.
Now Allen’s grandson Elliot Anderson has followed in grandad’s footsteps by making his United debut aged 18 at Arsenal in the FA Cup.
It was a mature cameo performance, too, brim full of promise, Anderson displaying ample quality gliding over turf rather than leaving footprints while seemingly having all the time in the world on the ball, which is the hallmark of all good players.
Technically gifted, he has a game awareness which is, perhaps, inherited! “I was so proud,” Allen told me from his home in Mansfield where he finished his coaching career. “My wife Katie and I were jumping up and down in front of the telly.
“We could not believe Elliot was coming on until we spotted him behind DeAndre Yedlin.
“To get 40 minutes including extra time was a real bonus.
“I know I am biased but he looks so comfortable even at the top level.
“He looks a proper player and is such a nice lad.
“Elliot has worked very hard and it means an awful lot to him as a kid from Whitley Bay. Yes, it took me back to when I was a bairn and made my debut against Norwich City at St James Park in April 1964.”
By the following year Allen, born in the Scrogg Road area of Walker, was an England youth international and on September 11, 1968 wrote his name indelibly into the history of
NUFC with a mind-blowing performance against Dutch masters Feyenoord, who the very next season claimed the European Cup.
He made United’s first goal in Europe for Jim Scott, struck the crossbar himself and generally tormented his marker Van den Heide with a mesmerising display of speed dribbling.
However, a few short weeks later, playing against Nottingham Forest, Allen was badly injured and his career was over at just 23. He had made 26 first-team appearances, scoring once against Spurs.
Now Allen can relive his career and what might have been through young Anderson.
The youngster stands out like a Belisha beacon of hope at a time when the Newcastle landscape is as dark as a mine shaft at midnight.
One of their own, he gives frustrated United fans something to cling on to during an awful run of results.
Allen admitted: “Aye, there are similarities with what we achieved at a young age I guess, but of course I want him to have a much longer career than I did.
“He is living the dream just like I did. To be a local lad playing for the best supporters in the world is extra special.
“Whenever I go up home they remember me, though it is more than 50 years since the Fairs Cup.
“That is what playing for the Toon means.
“Thousands upon thousands of Geordie kids want to do what Elliot and I have done and we are both aware of that – aware and grateful.” Anderson is the son of Geoff ’s daughter Helen and her husband Iain, a one-time non-league centreforward who went on to coach at local youth level.
It is through his dad’s mam he qualifies to play for Scotland, having become an international regular at under-19 level.
The lockdown brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has robbed both families of the joy of watching firsthand Anderson’s breakthrough - but grandad is dreaming of joining 50,000 kin folk at SJP some day soon.
He went on: “I used to watch Elliot whenever Newcastle’s under 13, 15, and 16 academy sides played South Yorkshire.
“I was due to go up to Newcastle in December to see him play for the Under-23s against Aston Villa – I had my first-class rail ticket to do it in style but had to cancel at the last minute. Still, hopefully I can see him play live for the first team in front of a big crowd. What a proud day that would be!”
Reflecting on family tradition Anderson explained: “I just want to try and carry it on.
“He got injured quite early which was a shame but it gives you that bit more motivation to do it. My dream has been the same as every kid’s which is to play for Newcastle and hopefully I can be successful.
“The experience has been mint. I had been used to just watching from the stands with my mates so being in and around it has been really good.”
Allen came through Montagu and North Fenham’s famed youth club while Anderson graduated from the North East’s most illustrious starmakers, Wallsend Boys Club.
In those far-off days Allen was not a left winger but played behind the centre-forward, who just happened to be Arthur Horsfield. Horsfield was fleetingly at United but made his reputation with Middlesbrough, Charlton and Swindon, where he scored a hat-trick in the 1969 Anglo-Italian Cup final.
Allen’s playing career was ended by a Peter Hindley tackle when Newcastle played Forest at Notts County’s ground after a fire engulfed the City Ground dressing rooms.
Instead of allowing bitterness to engulf him, Allen never blamed Hindley for the incident.
Allen was twice on United’s coaching staff, first taking the youth teamand then the reserves when they finished Central League runners-up to Liverpool with a side which included Chris Waddle, Steve Carney, Nigel Walker, Ray Clarke, Steve Hardwick and David Barton.
A crowd of 13,000 saw them beat champions-elect Liverpool 2-1 at SJP.
Now the sun is spectacularly out again for the Allen clan, black and white believers.
Elliot has worked very hard and it means an awful lot to him as a kid from Whitley Bay
Geoff Allen