One of our volunteers, Les Hancock, recently interviewed Tony Green, whose career was sadly ended at only 25 years of age having played only 33 times for the club.
Here Green shares some memories of his time at Newcastle United...
'How did you find out Newcastle were interested in signing you?'
I knew they were interested but it wasn't until we had played Aston Villa in the League Cup on the Wednesday night and I knew Joe Harvey was there watching and that he wanted to sign me. Then on the Thursday he came by my house and asked me to sign for Newcastle.'
'Where did you stay when you got to Newcastle?'
'I stayed at the County Hotel opposite the railway station and was amazed at how many people recognized me when I was walking up to the match as there wasn't as much coverage on television as there is now.'
'We sold our house in Blackpool really quickly and when we left we had to make our way up to the North East. So we got a lift up in the furniture van! We drove up to Durham or somewhere like that and got a taxi from there. Travelling in style in the furniture van!'
First match memories (v Everton, 1971)...
'I was quite surprised as I didn't think I played that well but I got good write ups about my performance. I remember Bally (Alan Ball) playing well that game and Frank Clark trying to kick him but he scored from about 30 yards that day. I think it put Newcastle bottom of the league after that match.'
'After the match I went back to Blackpool then travelled up on the Monday to start training...that was a shock to the system as I didn't realise how cold it was! I can remember going to training in Benwell and in October and November it was already frozen.'
Home debut memories...
'I remember leaving the hotel and walking up to the stadium and being recognised as I'd only played one away game. The atmosphere was fantastic!'
'If you lived in the North West other than the Fairs Cup and Promotion Newcastle didn't really get a mention but I was surprised at how good the back four were with the likes of David Craig and Frank Clark.'
Most memorable match...
'Probably United 2-0 at Old Trafford, they had the likes of Best, Charlton, Law and Kidd in their team and was week after the Hereford match. I've got The Chronicle that had quotes from all the Sunday papers and their assistant manger saying handle me.'
Least Favourite match...
'Has to be Hereford. I remember if that had happened when I was at Blackpool you would have got a lot of resentment (from the fans) but nobody really had a go at us. People were dead nice to us and that's why we were glad with the next result.'
Tony Green
Newcastle United Foundation have a heritage project for fans of all ages called Toon Times.
Toon Times will culminate with a major Newcastle United exhibition at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle, although in the lead up to this event Toon Times wishes to reach out to all Newcastle United fans across the North East and further afield to get involved and share their memories, experiences, photos and memorabilia what people have collected over the years.
We are supporting the project by helping to collect NUFC memories online - fans can share their memories on the Replay Football website, simply select the Toon Times tag when submitting yours.
For more info contact the Toon Times Heritage Project Coordinator, Newcastle United Foundation, gavin.ferry@nufc.co.uk
Memory added on October 15, 2013
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