It is 5.30am and the founder, chairman, treasurer and manager of Jarrow Roofing is repairing the pitch. Groundsman is not one of Richie McLoughlin’s official titles — he used to be club secretary, a task taken on by his son-in-law, while Janice, his wife, serves the tea at half-time — but it may as well be. It is bad back territory, piling a wheelbarrow with fertiliser, strewing grass seed, but he loses himself in the repetition of the work and is used to it.
His day began at four, out on the road to South Shields and Hebburn to deliver estimates for the company that bequeathed its name to the club. Better to do it then, he said, because the traffic is light and it