Almost exactly 60 years have passed since Gateshead last competed in the FA Cup third round and, at the time, few could have expected that the then Division Three North club would face such a prolonged spell out of the spotlight. They gave Tottenham Hotspur a fair workout in January 1955, losing 2-0, but five years later they dropped out of the Football League and the climb back to relevance has, to put it kindly, been gradual.
It is a tale that their assistant manager can identify with. Darren Caskey’s past decade can best be described as peripatetic, his list of employers coming as a surprise when cast against his early blossoming at Tottenham. In 1993, Caskey captained England in the Uefa Under-18 Championship final, scoring the winning penalty and looking a prospect as big as team-mates Gary Neville, Sol Campbell, Paul Scholes and Robbie Fowler. The “new Hoddle” comparisons arrived and there were 43 first-team appearances for Spurs, but it never quite happened for Caskey despite his technical gifts. Subsequent respectability at Reading and Notts County felt anticlimactic.
Since leaving the latter club in 2004 he had drifted, playing for a number of non-league sides and spending a season in the USA’s second tier with Virginia Beach Mariners. Now concentrating on a coaching career that has gained traction since joining Gateshead as Gary Mills’ assistant in September 2013, he returns to the top tier on Saturday as their upwardly mobile Conference side attempt to upset West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.
“We think we’ve turned the club around massively since we’ve worked here,” Caskey tells the Guardian, and it is hard to argue. Gateshead had lost six of their first nine games last season when Caskey joined his friend Mills, the 1980 European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest. They went on to finish third in the Conference, losing 2-1 to Cambridge United in the play-off final.
“After I left Notts County I stuttered and stumbled a bit, not really knowing where I was going,” says Caskey. “I went through several clubs and then had a lovely year in America which revitalised me. The choice was then between pottering about in the lower leagues or making a serious decision to give coaching a go. I served my apprenticeship with player-coach jobs at Kettering, Halesowen and Ilkeston. I’ve learned a lot that I can put into use at Gateshead and think I’ve still plenty to offer the game.”
Caskey is now 40 and, although still registered as a player, his time is spent helping Mills develop a team in their own image. “The gaffer was brought up by Brian Clough and I learned from Terry Venables, so it’s all about playing on the grass,” he says.
“We try to get the ball down and play it from the back, and wouldn’t ever change. The gates have doubled since we’ve been here so people seem happy.
“We’ll need that philosophy against West Brom. We’re used to dominating possession and, although we know we won’t get as much as usual, we’ll have to keep the ball for good periods if we’re to take anything from the game. I’m sure Tony Pulis will give them a lift but we’ll play as we always do and try to show what a decent side we are.”
Among that side are a 36-year-old John Oster, the former Everton and Sunderland player, and the South Africa international Matty Pattison, once of Newcastle and Norwich. Gateshead have experience, on pitch and touchline, beyond that of most underdogs and hope that it may be brought to bear at The Hawthorns and in the future.
“Our aim at the start of the season was to finish in the top five and get to the third round of the FA Cup,” says Caskey. “We’ve done one and are four points short of the other. We’ve broken a few records since we got here already; if we can show what we’re all about on Saturday and then get back into the Football League, it would be incredible.”
