Secrets of the Toon brothers
MUM MICHELLE ON TOON BROTHERS MATTY AND SEAN
Football mad: Matty Longstaff in a Celtic top alongside brother Sean in Newcastle colours
WHEN Sean and Matty Longstaff climbed the hundred or so steps of the Milburn Stand on Sunday night and walked into the executive box where their family were waiting, they were greeted with cheers and tears of joy — and then the inevitable.
‘I gave them both the biggest hug and kiss ever,’ mum Michelle tells Sportsmail, her voice still bursting with pride.
Matty, 19, was still clutching his man- of- the- match prize after scoring Newcastle’s winning goal against Manchester United on his Premier League debut.
Brother Sean, 21, had presented it to his midfield partner during a television interview which caused Gary Neville to tweet: ‘The Longstaff brothers made me happy yesterday! The purity, the joy and the love of football was amazing and it should be shown to every young player.’
It is that innocence and enthusiasm which make their story all the more endearing, as their mum says: ‘They are really close, they genuinely love each other. They used to fight and argue when they were younger, but they’ve always had each other’s backs.
‘They are good people first and foremost. They are just normal, genuine lads blessed with a talent and they have worked so hard to get here.
‘Everyone keeps saying, “They’re a credit to you”, but they’re also a credit to themselves. We are all just so proud of them.’
Alan Shearer’s first thought when he saw the team-sheet was not for the boys on the pitch, but for their parents in the stand. Dad David, a former Great Britain ice hockey star, missed a match for current team Whitley Warriors to be there.
‘My first thought was for them, knowing what my parents went through when I made my debut,’ says Shearer, who opened a new floodlit 3G pitch at Wallsend Boys Club yesterday.
‘They must have been petrified and excited all in one.’
So, were they? ‘I felt sick most of the day with nerves,’ says Michelle, 45, who woke at 5am. ‘I have never felt like that before. It was because both of them were playing and it was Matty’s first time. As a parent, you are a nervous wreck with one, never mind two!’
But then, in the 72nd minute, came the moment of euphoria when Matty smashed the ball into the bottom corner at the Gallowgate End from 25 yards. ‘We just jumped up and down like lunatics,’ says Michelle, a fine netball player. ‘It was pure elation, it’s hard to describe how happy you feel.’
Until recently, when Sean moved into his own apartment, the brothers lived together with their mum and sister Milly, 15, at the family home in North Shields.
‘It feels like only yesterday we’d all be sat around watching Match
of the Day. On Sunday night the boys went out for some food and me and Milly watched it together. It was so surreal, you’re just thinking, “That’s my boys”.’
The family lived in Sweden for a year while David played for Djurgardens but returned to the North East and the brothers joined North Shields Juniors, where John Farrage is chairman. ‘Matty was only three,’ he tells Sportsmail. ‘He played against boys of six and I had to tell him to stop tackling so hard! He used to say, “But they’re bigger than me.”
‘Sean was a must-win character as well. We had to ask his dad to take him off one day and calm him down. He came back on and scored the winner!’
Farrage was in the Gallowgate on Sunday. ‘That feeling when Matty scored — wow,’ says the 64-year- old. ‘I didn’t realise I’d broken my toe in the celebrations until after the game. I’m in agony now, but who cares?
‘We couldn’t be more proud as a club. They have never changed at all, a nothing has gone to their heads. They called into training a few weeks back and a were just chatting away to t our seven-year-olds. That humility hu is a special quality.’ In I October of last year the brothers brot dined in the Miller & Carter Carte Steakhouse in Newcastle’s tle’s c city centre to celebrate Sean’s 21st birthday.
They Th were not bothered for a single autograph — Sean did not even have a signature — and a couple of weeks later they were playing together for the Under 21s in front of a few hundred fans at Grimsby.
Twelve months on and they are just about the most recognisable and popular pair on Tyneside. Their dad’s cousin is Alan Thompson, the former Celtic and England midfielder.
‘They are brilliant boys but they will stay grounded,’ he says. ‘You only have to meet the family to realise that.’
Sean revealed earlier this year how he leans on ‘Uncle Alan’ for advice, and Matty is tapping into that, too.
‘I sent Matty a text before the game just telling him, even though there are 52,000 there, you don’t have to change the way you play,’ says Thompson.
‘I told him not to complicate it, don’t feel you have to try anything too magical — and then he puts one in from 25 yards!
‘I was making the Sunday dinner and had to run back through to the living room. I was jumping all over, absolutely buzzing.’
It is a recurring theme, as Shearer says: ‘I was jumping around the studio in Manchester, what a story!’
This, though, is just the beginning. Mum and dad had better get used to those nerves, not that their boys show any on the pitch.
When Matty was three I had to tell him not to tackle his six-year-old rivals so hard - HIS FORMER JUNIOR BOSS JOHN FARRAGE