Memories of Newcastle Town

By Dean Gillick

After 16 years at Newcastle Town, Dean Gillick hung up his boots this season to focus on his new career in the prison service. In response to a request from Town Secretary Ray Tatton, Dean penned the following article which looks back at his football career.

I first joined Newcastle Town back in 1992, from a very good Eccleshall team at the time. I came to the club all those years ago as a forward/wide right player and my first game was in a 2-0 win against Kidsgrove Athletic. Also my first goal for the club was against Kidsgrove Athletic in a 6-1 cup win.

The Manager at the time was the larger than life Alan (Siddy) Sides – a true character. The bunch of players at this time and for a few years were probably the most enjoyable group I have ever played with and we were together both on and off the pitch all the time, even though it was hard to break into a very good side.

The camaraderie between this bunch of players has got to go down as the best regarding team spirit, although I have known a lot of great lads at the clubs, and clubs used to love us coming to play at their grounds, just for the singing in the bar afterwards.

There have been many lows at Newcastle over the years and one for me was the bad injury that I sustained at Kidsgrove. After going in for a 50-50 challenge I spun round on the wet surface and noticed a big gaping hole in my leg, a sight that Colin, who was the physio at the time, didn’t enjoy seeing. Steve Griffiths and John Burndred did a good job at keeping my leg together until the ambulance arrived. After about 60 stitches and some months out I thankfully returned back playing.

There have been plenty of highs also but one of them was for the club and not unfortunately for myself. In 1996 I decided to join Eastwood Hanley with a few other Newcastle lads – managed at the time by Jimmy Wallace, a real gentleman.

I only played about 4 games for them but unfortunately for me one was a FA Cup Preliminary Round game. On returning to Castle I missed out on their fantastic run to the First Round Proper and a game against Notts County at Stoke’s Victoria Ground – the last ever cup match to be played there. Even though I missed out on this it was still great to be back and involved during the club’s best ever run.

In 1998 the club began the season with a new manager, Ray Walker. Ray was without doubt most people’s choice as the best manager the club has ever had – an opinion I agree with entirely. He improved everything around the club, both on and off the pitch, giving the club a more professional outlook and improving players including myself.

In 1999-2000 we had arguably our best ever season finishing runners-up to a very good Vauxhall side who now play in the Conference North. That season also saw us reach the semi-final of the FA Vase, losing to Deal, who went on to win the Trophy by beating Chippenham in the last ever final at the old Wembley Stadium – typical bad luck for us.

Since the loss in the semi-final of the FA Vase we have had a succession of managers which has never really helped the club, apart from maybe Nigel Gleghorn who came really close to gaining promotion, just missing out to Fleetwood.

We met in the penultimate game of the season at the Lyme Valley but unfortunately it was not to be, with a dubious refereeing decision ruling out a perfectly good goal in the first half and then losing two players to a clash of heads. We went down by the odd goal and Fleetwood went on to win the League and have also progressed up the Pyramid, which goes to show what you can do if you can get out of this League.

In 2004 I was given a testimonial by the club and Tony Pulis agreed to send a strong Stoke City side to play us. In true Newcastle style, I picked up a knee injury and was out for about four months so I would not have been able to play. However the game was cancelled due to heavy rain on the day of the match. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I was eventually fit to play when the game was re-arranged.

It has been a privilege to play for such a club for so many years, throughout the good and bad times. The way that every player has been treated, whether he has played five games or for five years is a credit to everyone who has ever helped the club and always on a voluntary basis.

And with a pitch that most Premiership players would love to play on, what more could a player want from a non-league club – other than promotion perhaps.

I would love to thank everyone at the club personally because they make the club a great place to be but the list of good friends that I have made would be endless. Players come and go at football clubs and I have been really fortunate to stay for such a long time. That is a credit to the people who do all the work off the pitch to make it such a great club to play for.

However, I would like to thank my wife Sarah who has always supported and followed my career. Many, many thanks to the present Management Team, Greg, Doz and John and I wish them future success for the club.

Maybe I’ll be back in some capacity in the near future.

Dean Gillick

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