There IS a hero in fallen fortress

Jun 21 2009 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

ST JAMES’S PARK may not seem a place, and now not much of a time, for heroes.

Newcastle United has descended into a panto with multiple villains; a malicious melting pot of Captain Hooks, King Rats, Evil Stepmothers and Ugly Sisters.

I’ll let you put faces to names.

Unless you take your comedy black, though, it’s a panto short on laughs.

Alan Shearer seems the lone good guy; an Aladdin, Dick Whittington and Prince Charming (though not Peter Pan – not with that hairline) rolled into one.

Sadly, he is on the outside of SJP looking in; his destiny, like Whittington’s, lying in London.

For London is where the men who supposedly matter at Newcastle are lying low.

And yet there is one figure continuing to fight the good fight within the ruined walls of the fallen Fortress St James’s.

He is unsung and all but unknown, but clearly indefatigable.

While so many around him have been made to walk the plank or appeared to jump overboard, he remains.

He seems to be manning the bridge, scrubbing the decks and running the galley.

But for him, the listing good ship Newcastle would be the Magpie Celeste.

And if anything sums up why it has drifted into the perfect storm, it is his absurd and unenviable situation.

His name is Lee Charnley, and I’m not quite sure how he’s managing it.

Managing. Now there’s a word.

For not only was the Magpies’ managing director Derek Llambias in London most of last week, but he also managed to refer Newcastle-related media enquiries to the PR company of owner Mike Ashley.