The moisture level was perfect and the combine harvester had been oiled, so David Pope could begin the potato harvest in plenty of time to travel north for kick-off.
Some fields were not quite ready — green ears in the crop which needed to be sprayed off — but those could be left for another week until ready. No reason to delay departure when your son is starting in goal for Newcastle United against Liverpool.
Nick Pope’s parents, David and Bridget, have not missed many games of his 15-year senior career. They attended every game of last month’s summer tour, taking the opportunity to stop by old friends in the United States. With England, the pair have travelled to World Cups in Qatar and Russia.
But it is their journeys across the length and breadth of the UK that have been arguably more taxing — a path that has taken them from Bury Town in the Isthmian League to St James’ Park and, soon, the Champions League.
David still runs the family farm in rural Cambridgeshire, fitting his commitments on the land around matches, but Bridget has recently retired from a more than 40-year teaching career — with the entirety spent at the King’s School in Ely, where Nick was also a pupil.
(Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
Bridget may have been a one-school teacher, but her son has not been a one-club man. Pope has ploughed his own furrow, with rocks and roots along the way.
“I was just a casual Sunday morning player after a night at the pub,” says David. “My eldest son Josh took it up, he was also a goalkeeper, and Nick sort of cottoned on. He hated it to start though, used to hide under the bed and refuse to come and watch Josh.
“Then he got into Soham Town Under-8s, loved it, then we moved to Burwell Tigers, where I ran the team. He got picked up by Ipswich’s academy from 10 to 16 — then they released him for being too small.”
Speaking in recent years, Pope has said he agrees with why Ipswich took the decision they did, but the reality was no less gutting. David had held a season ticket at Portman Road for 42 years, with Nick and Josh regulars.
Unable to immediately find another academy, Pope dropped down into non-League for local club Bury Town, becoming their youngest-ever player at just 16. At this stage, a professional career felt a distance away and he took jobs as a milkman and at clothing store Next while at college.
His subsequent rise has been spectacular. Charlton took a chance on him and under the stewardship of goalkeeper coach Ben Roberts, now at Chelsea, whom the family credit as another father figure, Pope began to rise through the football pyramid. The lot of most young goalkeepers involves a string of loan spells — Pope was no different.
Nick Pope (right) at Charlton (Tony Marshall – PA Images via Getty Images)
“York was lovely,” remembers David. “Aldershot wasn’t so good. Cambridge is our local club, (we were at) Welling as well… we’ve got them all in.”
By 2016, Pope had found his way to Burnley, where a six-year stay saw him earn full England honours. The best was yet to come.
A £10million move to St James’ Park came ahead of last season, with Pope instantly becoming an integral part of the Premier League’s joint-best defence. Having at one stage kept 10 straight clean sheets across all competitions, his late save from Leicester City’s Timothy Castagne in the season’s penultimate game ensured Newcastle qualified for the Champions League for the first time in two decades.
There was just one low point.
In last February’s 2-0 home loss to Liverpool, Pope was sent off after 22 minutes for handling outside his own box, having misjudged a clearing header. The timing could not have been worse. The red card brought a one-game ban — meaning he would miss the Carabao Cup final against Manchester United.
“Bridget was in bits, but Nick is better at keeping it inside,” David remembers. “I don’t think it really hit him at first that he was going to miss it. People were saying, ‘There will be another one’, but the first one is always the best.”
“We didn’t speak about it all evening,” Bridget adds. “In bed afterwards, I asked David if he thought Nick was OK. We didn’t watch Match of the Day — and we always watch Match of the Day.
“It was two or three days later that we spoke and you just go back to being a mum. He was devastated because it was so unlucky, but he told me, ‘What happened, happened’. He pointed to where he was a year previously, facing relegation with Burnley, to now be fighting for the Champions League.
“What was harsh is that he lost his cup final ticket allocation. Obviously, the other goalkeepers wanted to bring their friends and family, but Nick had to retract offers to friends who he had said could come.”
It was a singular blot on an outstanding year. Now, with Newcastle preparing for their Champions League return and with St James’ Park having already seen a 5-1 opening day win over Aston Villa, The Athletic was invited to join Pope’s family for the rematch against Liverpool.
The first thing that greets visitors to Pope’s box in the Leazes Stand is five framed pictures of Chris Wood.
“We used to share it,” laughs Bridget. “But since Chris left (to join Nottingham Forest in January) we’ve had it to ourselves. Nick hasn’t got round to putting our pictures up yet!”
These are their seats for every home match, but for away fixtures, the pair sit amongst the fans — in the “bullets and muck” as David has coined it. Of the families of Newcastle’s squad, the Popes are close to Elliot Anderson’s parents, often catching up on trips around the country.
David Pope ( The Athletic )
Bridget laughs about the celebrity of Bruno Guimaraes’ father, Dick: “He’s always being asked for photos by fans. I don’t see anyone asking for Nick Pope’s mum!”
They might well. Bridget is responsible for passing on the sporting genes — having played county-level hockey for Cambridgeshire — and though David contributes the height, this fact is readily agreed upon.
More up for dispute is the question of who provided opposition in the garden more often.
“He was always at work on the farm,” says Bridget, as David shakes his head in the background. “So I usually did it after school — but despite both boys being goalkeepers, it was usually me in goal!”
As often as possible, they try to watch both sons on a weekend — Josh still plays at non-League level for Mildenhall Town in the Eastern Counties League Premier Division. When Nick was sent off last season, Josh was sent off on the same day back in Cambridgeshire. It was the first red card of both their careers.
This weekend, Josh helped his side to a 3-2 victory on Saturday afternoon, with David and Bridget travelling up to Newcastle late that evening. It meant they missed a pre-match tradition.
“I only realised this recently actually,” says David. “But Nick always cooks us lasagne the night before the game. Every matchday. He’s a good cook and so good with his nutrition.
“He’ll never have fries, only sweet potatoes. Being a potato farmer, that doesn’t sit well with me! I’ve tried growing them in my greenhouse, but they weren’t very successful.”
“I know he’s big now, but I still buy him an advent calendar every year,” says Bridget. “And even the tiny bit of chocolate in there — he won’t eat it, ever. I keep buying it though!”
At this point, Shannon, Pope’s long-term partner, chips in to say she actually cooked this week’s lasagne. The pair have been together since meeting on his 21st birthday, with Shannon the daughter of former Swindon Town and Manchester City midfielder Kevin Horlock.
“He told me he was at university when we first met,” she says. “The message from my parents had always been don’t go out with a footballer — but I have no idea how you could date one if you hadn’t grown up with this lifestyle, with all the moving. But this was the first time I had to do all the boxes myself!”
The view from the Pope’s box ( The Athletic )
Pope’s six years at Burnley were the longest Shannon has ever been based in one place. The family have recently moved into a new home in Jesmond and hope to be based in the north east for the foreseeable future. They have enjoyed trips to Alnwick, walks in Jesmond Dene, and — on the recommendation of Sean Longstaff, with whom David says Nick has a “bromance” — food at Riley’s Fish Shack on Tynemouth’s beachside.
Father to two children under five — ensuring there is as much of a battle in Pope’s private box as on the pitch — his elder daughter is now aware of her dad’s importance, frequently bounding up to other children in Newcastle shirts to inform them of his identity, with Shannon chasing behind.
In short, Pope is settled in Newcastle — but there is no place in his new garden for the goalposts of York City’s old Bootham Crescent ground, which Pope famously bought at auction after the stadium closed in 2021.
“I’ve not got a clue where they are,” says David. “Probably in some corner somewhere!”
A similar source of bemusement comes at last summer’s surprise viral trend — with thousands of fans replying ‘Nick Pope’ to a Burger King poll asking whether tomato or gherkin was their favourite burger topping.
“I just couldn’t get my head around that,” says Bridget, looking out over the pitch during warm-ups. “But he’s done so well.”
Kick-off is fast approaching and the saxophone of Local Hero seems to bring the nerves in with a tremor.
Bridget has two rules — to never be late for a match and to be there for the final whistle — and is the family’s most nervous watcher.
“She’s getting better — it was like this standing next to her when Nick was at Charlton,” says Shannon, before miming a combination of elbows and punches to the ribs which would make Conor McGregor proud.
The Athletic takes a seat next to David, one row behind.
Newcastle start well, though there is concern that the midfield is congested. Anthony Gordon’s early shot, easily saved by Alisson, gets everyone standing, but as Pope makes a stop at the near-post from Luis Diaz, there is nothing but concentration, followed by a terse clap which reveals the lineage of their son’s wrist strength.
Pope was sent off after 22 minutes of last season’s fixture and as Mohamed Salah chases an identical looping ball towards the same corner after 21 minutes, there is a collective failure to breathe as Pope rushes out of his goal. This time, the ball is headed away to safety.
“Why’s he done that to us today?” asks Shannon.
It is understandable why Newcastle’s high line and the progressive starting position Pope is asked to take up might lead to added stress, but David prefers this style: “It got a little repetitive at Burnley with the long balls.”
He remembers experiencing the St James’ Park atmosphere for the first time against Nottingham Forest last season — “indescribable” — and the acoustics are given a good reverberation moments later.
Gordon latches onto a mistake from Trent Alexander-Arnold and slides the ball under Alisson at the Leazes End. David double fist-pumps in the air, Bridget is off and jumping up and down with the strangers in the next box. No rib fractures were reported at half-time.
Moments later, Virgil van Dijk trips Alexander Isak on the edge of the box and the Popes rise like a slip cordon to appeal. Red. As the Dutchman argues the toss, the question comes: “What do you make of that then?”
Van Dijk trudges off and there is no reply but stunned laughter and Bridget’s waving.
Half-time brings a tray of general optimism and sticky toffee pudding, conversation centring on the Netflix series ‘Is it Cake?’ (the correct answer to that question being that it is, of course, Nick Pope).
David is notably quieter. “I can never switch off when it’s such high-quality opposition,” he says. “And it’s only 1-0.”
Newcastle’s passing is not at its best in the second half, with Eddie Howe’s side cautious despite their control of the game. Having kept just two clean sheets in their past 14 Premier League games, time ticks inexorably slowly.
“Tripps, Tripps, Tripps,” shouts David, pointing the way out of the press of Liverpool’s 10 men.
“Shooooot,” he cries soon after when Pope picks up the ball in his own box with Alisson up at halfway. His son declines the advice.
Sven Botman’s outstanding block from Salah after 68 minutes brings an exhalation, but scant relief. When Miguel Almiron hits the post moments before Harvey Barnes sees his shot saved, Howe’s hands are on his head and so are David’s.
(Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
It is strange supporting a goalkeeper. Their families travel the world to see them play but hope they are involved as little as possible. Last season’s game against Leicester — where Pope did nothing until making his spectacular late save — is held up as an ideal example.
“I think it’s much more difficult for us watching,” says Bridget.
“At least you know Nick is going to get 90 minutes,” David laughs. “But I’m just wanting a stress-free game.”
Good luck getting that against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Good luck getting that at St James’ Park. With 10 minutes remaining, David’s wish is denied.
Botman gets his legs tied up, substitute Darwin Nunez darts onto it and lasers his finish in off the inside of the far post. Pope has no chance.
There is a moment’s muted silence, then the swell of the Liverpool fans, above and to our left. David wordlessly gets up and heads inside. Clean sheet gone.
“They didn’t deserve that,” is the verdict when he returns. The dagger comes in injury time.
Bruno Guimaraes’ ambitious pass is cut out, Nunez slips in behind Dan Burn and is once more unerring. Same spot, same shot, same result, clipped off the post again. Pope thumps the turf in frustration.
The last three league fixtures against Liverpool have seen two last-minute winners and Pope sent off. This time, Newcastle have contrived to lose a match in which they led and had an extra player for over an hour. There is a dazed feeling at the box’s table as a performance that promised a statement win instead became a psychological blow.
(Robert Smith/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“He ain’t going to be happy.” Bridget breaks the silence. “He’ll be quiet, won’t talk much. But people forget that this is a job and you need to separate it and not take it home for the kids. He’s good at that.”
“I’m lucky,” Shannon agrees. “The stories I’ve heard from around football. I won’t be up all night — he’ll put it to bed.”
Still, it is a weary-looking Pope who emerges from the tunnel an hour later. His daughter sprints over to him as the rest of the family wait for the post-match journey home — as they have done for so many games.
“I still remember all the trips to the Ipswich academy. You don’t do it because you expect all this to happen,” Bridget had said earlier, motioning at the terraces and spectacle of St James’ Park. “You just do it to keep him away from mischief.”
And in turn, that is how Pope has laid his own path, making a career out of keeping his side out of trouble. Sometimes, as every parent knows, there is very little that can be done.
This defeat was a reminder that Newcastle still have some way to go to reach where they want to be. They can be braver, more composed, better organised.
But as Pope scoops up his daughter and turns to leave St James’ Park with his family — those who have been with him through Ipswich rejection, non-League with Bury Town, and Burnley relegation — there is an overriding feeling. For Pope, like Newcastle, the top is a lot closer than the bottom, and the distance left to go does not feel so far, especially with what is unwaveringly behind both.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images, The Athletic)
