Newcastle’s Katie Barker breaks new ground to fulfil St James’ Park dream

The tone of the announcement issued over the public address system was apologetic yet proud. Kick-off had been delayed by 15 minutes due to crowd congestion at the turnstiles where an unexpectedly high number of Newcastle United fans were queuing to see the club’s women’s team play at St James’ Park for the first time.

By half-time, when the official attendance – an extremely impressive 22,134 – was announced, those club officials who had forecast an audience somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 had fully woken up to the often underestimated pulling power, and immense potential, of women’s football.

Given that Becky Langley’s side currently reside in the fourth tier of England’s female pyramid, were facing lowly Alnwick Town Ladies and have just lost their battle with Liverpool Feds for the National League division one north’s sole promotion place, it was a remarkable turnout rewarded by a highly entertaining, decent quality game won 4-0 by Newcastle.

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Goals from Katie Barker, who was buoyed by a pre-match good luck message from Alan Shearer, the retiring captain Brooke Cochrane, Georgia Gibson and Beth Guy were fully celebrated by the biggest women’s domestic crowd in England this season.

“I’ve dreamed of playing here since I was a child,” said Barker. “It was amazing - and a few tears were shed when I scored.” Cochrane had similar emotions. “Overwhelming, unbelievable, phenomenal,” she said. “From now on this team is going to fly. This is just the start.”

Well before kick-off the Gallowgate End was already almost as packed as on a Premier League men’s match day and much of the stadium a sea of black and white flags. Granted tickets were