The day I chose Newcastle. Coming from Chelmsford, Essex, there are no local teams to choose from. You wouldn't pick Southend or Colchester because they are naturally rival towns. All the kids at school supported Arsenal, West Ham or Tottenham. Other kids got beaten up for supporting Manchester United or Liverpool as they were the Glory Hunters. I didn't know much about football, but saw a picture in an old football magazine of a team that played in black and white stripes. I saw that their star player was Peter Beardsley and he had the same birthday as me! I was hooked from that day on, always felt something magical about the Tower in our badge and the black and white stripes.