The words of a haunting ballad, set to the melody of the House of the Rising Sun, drifted out of a shop selling Newcastle United memorabilia and down Leazes Park Road. Smoke billowed wistfully from a pipe above the door. Fans made their way past, towards the Gallowgate Stand, around the corner.
At Stack, in the lee of the hulk of the stadium that sits atop its hill like the city’s cathedral, there was a different kind of energy.
The sound of White Stripes came from inside. ‘I’m gonna fight ’em off,’ they were singing. ‘A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back.’ Supporters started getting into character.
It has been that kind of season so far for Newcastle. No one quite knows whether to shout or mourn. Whether to worry, or whether to party. Eddie Howe’s side has been ordinary in the Premier League and their performance in their defeat to lowly West Ham in London at the weekend left their manager in a cold fury.
They sit 13th in their domestic league and their hopes of repeating the feat of making the top four or five already look somewhat forlorn. And yet in the Champions League, they are playing as if they are to the manor born.
It is testimony to just how far they have travelled under Howe that they look so comfortable in the presence of the European elite that they seem more at home in this company now than they are at the London Stadium or Elland Road.
They performed creditably in their opening Champions League game this season against Barcelona and even if they lost that, they followed it up with convincing wins against Union Saint-Gilloise and Benfica.
This 2-0 victory over Athletic Club was no less impressive. It was not quite a cruise but it was not far off. Newcastle were rarely threatened by the team from Bilbao and should have scored more than goals in either half from Dan Burn and Joelinton.
The victory left them in sixth place in the competition table, ahead of both Liverpool and Real Madrid. They have nine points from four games with some easier matches to come before they finish the group stage away at Paris Saint-Germain.
The reality is that this win means they should qualify comfortably for the knock-out stage in the New Year. It seems a little upside-down but their success in the world’s premier club competition will give them time and space to try to improve their position in the Premier League.
Both teams made positive starts. Athletic Club were bright and lively and broke up Newcastle’s play. Newcastle had their fans at their back. Joelinton ran on to a through ball, held it up and lashed it past Unai Simon but an offside flag went up.
Then, Newcastle scored with the second brilliant header the Champions League has seen in this country in the last two nights. At Anfield, Alexis Mac Allister scored with a bullet off his forehead from close range. Dan Burn’s in the 12th minute was different but just as beautiful.
When Kieran Trippier curled a cross to the back post, Burn peeled away from his marker and found himself in glorious isolation. He was about 15 yards out and if it is possible to bend a header, Burn bent his. He added some loft to the ball and it rose and drifted and curled beyond Simon and in off the far post.
Newcastle should have gone further ahead just before the half hour but Nick Woltemade didn’t get the memo about wonderful headers. Harvey Barnes lifted a superb cross into his path from the right and if Woltemade’s leap was majestic, his header was weak and mistimed. It dribbled wide.
Joelinton wasted another opportunity to extend Newcastle’s lead three minutes before half-time. He stole in on the blindside of a defender but with only Simon to beat, he hit his shot straight at the goalkeeper.
It rebounded back to him but he controlled it with his arm as he sought a second chance and the linesman’s flag went up. He hit the follow-up over the bar anyway.
Anthony Gordon, who had had a quiet half, was forced off with what looked like a hip injury just before half-time, which may have repercussions for his place in the England squad, which will be announced by Thomas Tuchel on Friday.
Three minutes after half-time, though, Newcastle’s other wide man set up their second goal.
Harvey Barnes wriggled free on the left and clipped a neat cross into the box where Joelinton rose unchallenged and wrong-footed Simon with a clinical header.
Dan Burn found space again on the left and, emboldened by his earlier heroics, he ignored teammates waiting in the middle and tried to do with his left foot what he had done with his head in the first half.
But instead of guiding his effort gracefully into the corner again, he blasted it high and wide.
The Newcastle fans caught Burn’s bug. ‘Shoooooot,’ they shouted, every time the towering defender touched the ball in a remotely threatening position. Their hopes of him adding to his goal tally were brought to an abrupt end when Howe brought him off midway through the half.
He and Barnes and Bruno Guimaraes were all substituted at the same time. Greater tests, after all, lie ahead. Newcastle are away at Brentford on Sunday.
