Mick's highs and Lowes

“I’ve still got the Champions edition of The Mag (fanzine) from the end of the ’92-’93 season; it’s got a picture of David Kelly on the front with that famous old trophy,” he says. “The reason I kept it was because there was an end of season poll – best goal, best this, best that, and best North-East media.

“I was voted the best. In some ways it’s a little thing, but I thought it was great. This was when you had ‘Gibbo’ (John Gibson), ‘Ollie’ (Alan Oliver of the Chronicle), Charles Harrison, who had been at Metro Radio for ten years, and I’d only been at BBC Newcastle for a season-and-a-half.

“Awards from your peers within your industry are nice, the Sony Award was memorable, but the most important people to me have always been the supporters.”

Mick, originally from Nottingham, joined BBC Newcastle from Capital Radio in 1991 when, with no mobile phones or internet, journalists used one of several telephones in Kath Cassidy’s tea room to file their copy and broadcasters had to effectively carry a mini studio with them to games.

He moved to Metro Radio in 1994 before returning to the BBC in 2002, but will hang up his headphones for the final time after the weekend’s game against Blackburn.

He has covered famous European nights, seen two promotions and two relegations, interviewed several different managers and hundreds of players. To a generation of supporters, he is the voice of Newcastle United.

“People say ‘you could write a book’ – but I could write a library,” he smiles. “In 1991, the press box was high up in the Milburn stand; you looked to your right, and the Gallowgate was no more than an antiquated old terrace, the Leazes End was virtually non-existent and the East Stand opposite was very different as well.

“I think about that old press box and it makes me smile about the day a teenage Declan Donnelly came and sat with the press. There was a certain amount of attention because he was Duncan in Byker Grove at the time; roll on 25 years and he’s a superstar, in the jungle with celebrities, and I’m still plugging the gear in at 12 o’clock ready for the commentary!

“But I’ve always known I’m so, so lucky, that it would be churlish to moan about my notes getting wet or that it’s cold, or the team aren’t playing too well or Kieron Dyer’s turned me down for an interview. How can you moan?”

It is little surprise that Mick lists Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer as the two “standout characters” of his quarter-of-a-century following the team, and out of the 1,100 or so matches that he’s covered, three in particular are particularly memorable for differing reasons.

“It’s hard to look beyond Barcelona and the 5-0 against Man United,” he admits.

“You never think you’re going to even play against Barcelona and then when you do, you find that you’ve got a 5ft 8ins Columbian, who’s as mad a box of frogs and has decided that night that he could suddenly leap about 7ft 6ins.

“Even now, speaking to you, I’ve got in my mind’s eye the header from (Keith) Gillespie’s cross and I’ve got goose bumps on my arm. The noise, under the lights – it was crazy. I remembered walking into that mucky old stadium in 1991 and within six years, you see that, in a fantastic venue, a cauldron.

“Then there’s Man United, but I have a bit of difficulty with the 5-0 because it came so soon after the 1-0 defeat (the previous season) and for me that was the most disappointing and frustrating game.

“What if? I’ll always wonder what would have happened had we not lost that night. If we had gone on and won the Championship that year, who knows? We’d had lift off, but we could have gone into orbit. The 5-0 sort of made up for it, but it didn’t quite.”

Other notable games have included two FA Cup finals (the Sony Award came on the back of Metro Radio’s coverage of 1999’s Wembley visit), a Champions League tie at Inter Milan and the 4-4 draw against Arsenal.

And even as recently as September this year, matches like the stunning 4-3 comeback against Norwich have ensured that he will bow out on a high.

“It was important for me to get out while I’m still doing a good job because believe me, you get the pregnant pauses nowadays where the name of a player just won’t come into your head, or you get the name wrong or start checking things you never used to check,” Mick says.

“I remember laughing affectionately at dear old Sir Bobby getting things wrong but when I think how many names I’ve got banging around in my head, I can’t believe how many names he must have had! And every now and then you get, say, Howard Gayle instead of Dwight Gayle.”

Fittingly, Newcastle could set a new club record of ten successive wins in all competitions in Mick’s final match.

“If I could have wished for anything, it would have been that maybe there was something riding on the game – and the thought of my last game possibly being a club record game, you thank your lucky stars,” he says.

“I’m sure it’ll be emotional but it’s like that old cliché; maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet. Only when it’s gone will I miss it properly.

“It has been my life. Saturday is getting up, packing up a bag, getting to the ground probably before anyone else. I’m looking around St. James’ at 12 noon getting ready; the players start arriving from 1pm, warming up at two o’clock.

“You have your procedure. All of a sudden, that won’t be there anymore so it will be strange – but I’m not too sure if it will properly sink in until after Saturday.

“The closest I ever came to tears was Collymore’s goal at Anfield and the days of Gary Speed and Sir Bobby’s remembrance services.

“I’ll tell you at five o’clock on Saturday whether I kept it together. I’d like to think so, but I’m sure the lip will wobble at some point.”

Mick’s successor will be 28-year-old Matthew Raisbeck, who hails from Bedlington in Northumberland and currently hosts BBC Newcastle’s post-match phone-in on Saturdays.

“Strangely, this club is in a very similar situation now to back in ‘91-92 when I got my lucky break with Keegan,” says Mick.

“Just as he reinvigorated and re-energised the club and got the city bouncing, Rafa Benítez is doing exactly the same and in his first full season, he looks like he’s going to storm the old second division in the same way that Keegan did.

“I’m handing the baton on to someone who’s in a similar situation to me, a similar age to I was when I came up here. He’s one of your own and he’s very good.

“As a young man coming in, Matthew’s in the same position I was in; I hope he has as good a ride with Rafa as I had with Kevin, and then with Newcastle for nearly 20 years after that.”

Listen to Mick Lowes’ final commentary on NUFC TV from 2pm on Saturday