Pic: Media Image
MEET the SSTT – the South Shields Turnbull Twins. Gateshead's Phil Turnbull and Blyth Spartans' Stephen.
“Me and Steve are clowns so we tell people it's our gang,” laughs Phil, the older brother by an hour. “We tell them everyone knows about us but in reality they don't.”
The 27-year-old central midfielders are certainly putting that right this season. Both will be stepping out in the FA Cup third round for the first time on Saturday.
Phil's Vanarama Conference Gateshead take a trip to Premier League West Brom on Saturday while, at the exact same time, Blyth and Stephen, who works in the engine room of a cruise ship, will be trying to knock out Birmingham City.
The Evo-Stik NPL Premier Spartans have captured the romantics' hearts this season with a 2-1 win against League Two side Hartlepool United. Stephen scored one of the goals of this term's competition against Pools, a gorgeous free-kick into the top corner.
“We played against Wallsend Boys Club when we were kids and he put one just like that in the top bin against them,” says Phil. “When we were at Sunderland we played against Charlton in the Nike Cup and he did it then too.
“As much as I expected it to go in, he's not a free-kick specialist or nowt like that. I was absolutely buzzing for him. I went down with three of my friends and our mam and dad. I was behind the goal sucking it into the net.
“Gateshead and Blyth traditionally hate each other. A few of their fans were caning me when I walked in the ground because they recognised me.
“But when he scored I was bouncing all over the place. It was unbelievable. I was proud of him.”
Like most twins they know the other inside-out and their careers, too, are practically identical. Both started playing as six-year-olds for Panthers, a team run by their dad.
“We were centre-forwards then and everyone used to hate us because we'd only pass to each other,” says Phil.
“We played rugby together too. We were half-backs. I was the scrum-half, he was the fly-half. The teacher knew we were footballers so he thought they were the best positions for us to play on the rugby pitch. We used to take turns on the conversions as well. He'd kick one, I'd kick one.”
Back on the football pitch they played for all the same teams growing up, were released from Sunderland on the same day and went to Hartlepool. They've even played at Gateshead together before drifting their separate football ways over the last few years.
They do live together, however, in their nanna's house they bought four years ago.
“I come home and there's washing everywhere, no dishes are done,” Stephen says. “I say, ‘What have you done today?'
“He'll be like, ‘Well, I went to training ten to 12, and then I was tired and that'. I've been up at 7am, in college and got home at 5pm!
“‘Aye, but kid I was tired after training'. He's only ever known football. Now I know the real world I'm training him up.”
Like most siblings, the rivalry is intense. Things have been known to get broken.
“I remember when we were at Hartlepool,” Stephen says. “He did the bleep test with the youth team in the morning and got 19.54.
“I was in the first team at the time and the gaffer said to me, ‘There's no way you'll beat your kid'. I got 19.55 – I beat him by one. He was fuming, but that's the way we've always been.
“He beat me on FIFA with a last minute goal once. I ran outside smashed the Xbox controller against the wall – and they're £50 a pop – and lobbed it down the street. Two seconds later I heard it go through a greenhouse window.
“Me and Philly were like, ‘That's it, we can't do this anymore'. We try our very best not to come up against each other.”
Phil continues: “We've got a pool table in the back room. When we could be arsed to cut the grass we had the strimmer out and we were finding all these smashed plates and bowls. ‘How many games did I lose?' It's pathetic really. We should be more humble in defeat as we get older but we're probably worse than ever. We're almost the same person, so it's like beating yourself really.”
The success has caused one problem, with the family split over the two games. Mum Susan and sister Kathryn will likely be at Blyth, with dad John and brother Jonathan at West Brom.
“Our parents did everything for us,” Stephen says. “When we got in the first team at Hartlepool they kept our feet on the ground.
“They know how hard we've worked when we were kids, so it's nice for them. When I scored the goal my dad said he'd never had so many texts in his life.
“When me mam went to church the vicar was saying, ‘I've seen your Stephen's goal'. They're just getting two little grandsons as well so it's a great time.”
Yes, that goal on a Friday night on live TV.
“All we've heard since the Hartlepool game is, ‘Free kick, top bin, 2.4million', because that's how many viewers the game had on the BBC,” says Phil.
“I topped him last season with going to Wembley but he absolutely blew us out of the water.
“It couldn't have happened to a worse person! He'll milk the life out of it for the rest of his life, honestly.
“He knows what he's doing, it's just for banter, but he knows if I score one against West Brom I'll be over the top of him again. I'll be absolutely buzzing.
“I'm having every free-kick going. I'll be taking free-kicks, throw-ins, corners – the lot. I need to come back over the top and get a goal and then I can say it was against an England international goalkeeper in Ben Foster. I've got to pull something out the bag.”
For Stephen this could be one of his last shots at glory. When he completes his mechanical engineering course next year he'll be back on a cruise ship next December.
He spent five months away on P&O cruises this summer, only arriving back in September before fixing himself up at Blyth.
“This is what the FA Cup is all about, something you dream of,” says Stephen, who technically reached the third round in 2006 when on loan at Bury, only for the Shakers to be kicked out because he was ineligible.
“When I was in that engine room I was a million miles from thinking I would play in the FA Cup again, let alone score on BBC and get in the third round.”
The SSTT hope to continue writing the Cup headlines.
“We're a good side,” says Phil. “Our manager Gary Mills is unbelievable, he's a pleasure to play for. The style of football he plays is what I love. If we play well we can hopefully get them back to our place.”
Stephen concludes: “Birmingham aren't going to want to come to Blyth Spartans are they?
“Freezing cold changing rooms, just on the Northumberland coast, s**t pitch – if I was a Birmingham player I'd be getting off the bus thinking, ‘This is going to be horrible'.”
This interview featured in The Non-League Paper on December 29.
