Newcastle United fans packed out Peter Dillon's pub in New York, 3,334 miles from St James' Park, as the Magpies opened their Premier League campaign with a 2-2 draw against Liverpool on Sunday.
There wasn't a spare seat to be had at St James' Park, with the stadium packed to the rafters for the entertaining clash. And it wasn't just on home turf that United drew a crowd, with a pub over 3,000 miles away rammed with supporters for the game.
New boss stirs optimism among fans
After the exits of Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimaraes, the NUFC faithful weren't feeling too confident going into the new season, but the arrival of new boss Matthias Jaissle seems to have stirred something inside the club, with a sun-drenched St James' buzzing in the run up to Sunday's 4.30pm kick off.
The already highly anticipated clash between United and the 2025 champions was heightened by tributes to the late and great Kevin Keegan, who famously played for both sides and went on to manage Newcastle on two occasions. Wor Flags pulled out all the stops to ensure that both home and away fans were involved in one of the best displays to ever grace the terraces of SJP, before King Kev got a well-deserved minute's applause seconds before the game kicked off.
Four-minute opener and late drama
Once it was underway, it took Newcastle just four minutes to get their noses in front, thanks to a great finish by Anthony Elanga. They held onto their lead until the 55th minute, when Cody Gakpo levelled for Liverpool. The score only remained at 1-1 for three minutes though, as sub Joe Willock found the back of the net with a superb shot.
Five minutes of injury time were added on at the end and the clock had ticked past the 95 mark when Liverpool were awarded a penalty and Dominik Szoboszlai stepped up to make it 2-2 right at the death.
New York pub becomes sea of black and white
While gutted to miss out on three points, NUFC fans can definitely be encouraged by Sunday's performance and over in New York City, Peter Dillon's pub was the place to be in the Big Apple. Weeks after the dedicated NUFC haunt paid their own tribute to Keegan, the premises was a sea of black and white as American-based Geordies turned out in force for the new season opener, which began at 11.30am NYC time.
There were wild scenes when Elanga put Newcastle ahead and, in the aftermath of full time, Peter Dillon's shared a photo of fans outside the bar and captioned it: "Won't mention the result but plenty to get excited about."
Peter Dillon's was where United legend Alan Shearer headed to down his sorrows after England were knocked out of the World Cup and also where North Shields' own Sam Fender had a night out with fellow Brit winner Lewis Capaldi earlier in the summer.
