Gateshead captain Greg Olley would be hard pressed to summon up just one single emotion when he reflects on a year of the highest highs and the lowest of lows. This is a year where becoming the first Gateshead captain to lead the club to a Wembley win came just weeks after the Heed were cruelly denied a place in the National League play-offs over issues with the security of tenure at the International Stadium.

A year where the former Newcastle United academy midfielder scored his first ever senior hat-trick on the opening day of the 2024/25 season - but saw his season all but ended by a horror tackle from Woking’s Dion Kelly-Evans just seven days later. The latter of those incidents is likely to dictate the headlines as Olley looks back at 2024 and assesses what lies ahead as his Gateshead ‘rollercoaster’ ride prepares for several more ups and downs over the next 12 months.

Such a stance is understandable given there were some fears the Heed talisman’s career could have been ended by a challenge that caused a broken leg, dislocated ankle and severely ruptured ligaments. After being given a strong dose of painkillers as he awaited surgery in a London hospital just hours after suffering the injury, Olley tweeted there were ‘no hard feelings’ towards his opponent - and although there is a limited aspect of forgiveness, the Heed skipper stressed his social media post does not ‘relinquish any blame’ for the Woking man.

He told ChronicleLive: “Looking back, I like to think I’m a forgiving person, maybe I do forgive him, but the tweet I put out doesn’t relinquish any blame, it’s just me saying you’ve done what you’ve done, don’t feel too bad about it. It is what it is, it’s happened, it’s now about me trying to work hard in the gym to get back and get back playing as soon as possible.”

By his own admission, Olley is not a good spectator of games he should be involved in. Frustrations are heightened, a determination to get back on the pitch increases with every passing week. But there is also an acceptance that, although his admitted ambitious target is to return this season, there is a need to be realistic when it comes to making a safe comeback from an injury that could have ended his career.

He said: “I’m walking fine, I only have a little pain at certain points, which is understandable four months down the line. I’m two or three months from jogging, I’ve lost some muscle strength so it’s about rebuilding them and strengthening the rest of my body to put it through its business.

“My target is to get back for the end of the season at some point. I don’t know the time-frame, we are just building it day-by-day and there’s no harm in saying I could be back by the end of the season. If it goes through the summer, so be it, it just gives me an extra eight or nine weeks to make sure I am ready.”

It seems somewhat cruel that the injury has prevented Olley from building on the momentum created by Gateshead’s first ever Wembley win. Just 12 months on from suffering an FA Trophy Final defeat against FC Halifax Town, the Heed found success in the same competition by coming through a dramatic penalty shoot-out to see off National League rivals Solihull Moors.

Their historic success further enhanced Olley’s standing with the club’s supporters and the midfielder admitted sharing the moment with the Heed Army and his team-mates will live with him for a long time to come.

“We were there to win and it was such a proud moment for us to do that,” said the Heed skipper. “I’m massively proud of it. After the game, Rob (Elliot, former Heed manager) pulled me and said he hadn’t known whether to start me and I am grateful he did because to lead the lads out, to win, to go up those steps to get the trophy was special.

“I tried to not let the emotions take over but once the trophy was in our hands, once we were back on the pitch in front of the fans, obviously it all came out. It’s a moment that will live with us for a long time and we know it’s such a special moment for the supporters too.”

The Wembley win was well-timed as it helped Gateshead emerge from the dark clouds caused by their removal from the National League play-offs just weeks earlier. After claiming a home win against eventual champions Chesterfield, Olley and his team-mates had secured a top seven spot and had taken the club to within three wins of a historic promotion into the EFL.

However, less than 24 hours after the season-ending home win against Bromley, it was announced the International Stadium did not hold the necessary requirements to host EFL games and, much to the anger and frustration of those at the club, the Heed were removed from the play-offs.

Olley reflected: “We’d obviously got a play-off place and then there were rumours on social media about a team not being eligible - but never in a million years did we think that was us. We enjoyed ourselves on the Saturday night and then got dragged in on the Sunday morning to discuss that we weren’t in the play-offs, which was tough to take after a really good year.

“If we didn’t have Wembley ahead, there would have been a lot more uproar and there was anger and disappointment - but Wembley just eased it a little bit. There was nothing we could do, we just had to find out what was going on. It’s fuelling us this year, the motivation to do it is there but we also think we are the best team in the league, so we want to win the league, not just get in the play-offs. We are still here, there is definitely an incentive and we want to get promotion.”

Despite being robbed on the services of Olley and key defenders Kenton Richardson, Robbie Tinkler and Joe Grayson for large parts of the season, Gateshead remain in the hunt for promotion and head to York City on New Years Day sat just two points from the top of the table. Even the departure of manager Rob Elliot and coaches Louis Storey and Antony Sweeney to League One club Crawley has failed to quell the promotion push.

Olley, who acted as part of an interim management team prior to the arrival of current manager Carl Magnay, believes the loss of former boss Mike Williamson and assistant Ian Watson 12 months earlier helped the dressing room cope with yet more disruption.

He said: “I think we drew on the experience and the emotion we had when Mike and Busted left and used that when Rob, Louis and Sweens left. We were doing really well and they earned their moves. I’m sure they’ll do really well down there but on the flip side it’s another time of having to repair and it’s not easy for the club.

“There was no immediate person to come in and it was more difficult this time around. We needed that one person that knew the club, knew what was needed and knows how it runs so when Mags was mentioned we just knew he was the right person. I said we didn’t need him to be our friend, we needed him to stamp his authority and be our manager and he has done exactly that. We needed to be steered back on to the right path.”

On the right path and on the road to recovery, Gateshead and Greg Olley are heading in the right direction for the new year.