NEWCASTLE United football manager Sir Bobby Robson celebrated his 70th birthday on Tuesday with a 3-1 win in Germany against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
Sir Bobby was born in Sacriston and raised in Langley Park.
In an interview this week with the Advertiser's sister paper, The Northern Echo, he spoke about playing for his first team - Langley Park Juniors - and his time down the mines with his father Philip and brother Tom.
Sir Bobby was an apprentice electrical engineer and earned £3 a week. He said: "I crawled 100 yards - that's almost the length of a football pitch - to get to a coal cutter that had broken down.
"I think my mining roots gave me a certain toughness."
He also talked about how he has coped since August 1995 when he had radical surgery for cancer in his mouth.
Magpies chairman Freddy Shepherd said of Sir Bobby's role as team manager: "Don't be too surprised if he's still here at 75."
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