‘‘I started playing football because I was watching Newcastle.
I was a Junior Magpie (an NUFC kids club) from the age of 6, that’s when I got my first boots and then I remember the Champions League nights — Andy Griffin scoring against Juventus. The last game I went to was probably when we beat Sunderland 5-1, with Shola (Ameobi) scoring a few’’

Dan Burn grew up in Blyth, a coastal town a short hop north of Newcastle, in a household where Saturday meant black and white stripes. His relatives and friends were all Newcastle supporters, and the boy took his hero from the same shelf: Alan Shearer, the centre-forward every kid on Tyneside wanted to be. Burn's own first position was a long way from the penalty area. He began life as a goalkeeper, a gangly youngster in gloves, and the Magpies' academy found room for him.

The dream lasted until he was barely into double figures. Newcastle let him go, and the boy drifted into the junior sides of the Northumberland coast, New Hartley, Blyth Town and eventually Blyth Spartans, filling spare hours with futsal and five-a-side. At sixteen he was struggling to hold down a place in an amateur Saturday side, and the idea of a career in football was slipping away.

‘‘It was tough. I think when you’re a kid you’re maybe a little naive and you think that when you get around the setup, you are going to play for Newcastle forever.
It definitely knocked me. But, to be fair to Newcastle, I don’t think I was very good at the time. I’ll give them that’’