They gathered together one more time back at St James' Park where they made magnificent history 56 years ago. The last men of Newcastle United to bring back a trophy to this great club.

Appropriately they assembled in the Moncur Suite, named after Captain Marvel who led them to triumph in the European Fairs Cup of 1969 not only as skipper lifting the tulip shaped cup into the night air on the banks of the Danube but scoring an unbelievable hat-trick over the two legged final when a defender.

The reunion was to celebrate a significant milestone, the 80th birthday of United's grand leader Bob Moncur, who rightly is recognised as an official ambassador at his footballing home.

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They were less of hair and thicker of waist than in their pomp but they are all part of United's history . . . Pop Robson and David Craig, Alan Foggon, Keith Dyson, John Craggs and Jim Scott who had travelled down from Falkirk. As the only hack still working on the NUFC beat from the Press Corps of 69 - I ghosted Bob's autobiography United We Stand - I was privileged to break bread once again with players of true value.

Maybe they are all old aged pensioners now by a considerable distance but when it comes to winning trophies they are still the yardstick by which an ambitious Eddie Howe and his players will be judged as they reach towards the stars. No one has done what they did. United have lost the likes of Jackie Sinclair and John McNamee from the grand old days, and manager Joe Harvey of course along with coach Dave Smith, but we must cling to and appreciate those still with us.

Moncur skippered a Scotland side that included Denis Law, a true footballing legend we lost at the weekend aged 84. Bob himself has survived two cancer scares all of which makes us realise that even heroic footballers are human and susceptible to life's frailties. It is not supposed to be this way in our mind's eye but it is.

Surrounded by wife Camille, son Paul and daughter Angela as well as personal friends and former playing colleagues, Bob acknowledged the inevitable: "Yeah, I guess still being here to celebrate 80 is one of my best achievements. It's been a privileged life to be part of a great club and still be involved. I have so many happy memories and so much hope for the future."

Foggon, who often sits on Moncur's table at SJP come match days as a passionate supporter, added: "It is still a surprise to me that Bob, our defensive lynchpin, scored a hat-trick in the final. How did that happen?

"I'm proud to have claimed the second leg winner in Hungary but I was never an outside-left before our cup run. I played mainly centre-forward but anywhere else as a kid. However Geoff Allen got badly injured at Nottingham Forest, I went on as his replacement on the left wing, and scored in a 4-2 win as did Keith Dyson. We instantly became the teenage terrors because we went to Ipswich a few days later, won 4-1, and we both scored again."

Jim Scott insisted: "We didn't have any superstars when we won the Fairs Cup, we were a team who fought for one another and got the job done. It was the highlight of my life and I have remained a Newcastle United fan ever since. They are still the only club I look to see their results.

"I desperately want Newcastle to win something because 56 barren years is a lifetime and I actually think they can lift the Carabao Cup this season to get the monkey off their back. I watch Newcastle constantly on television but I had never actually seen them lose live until the Bournemouth game. However they were so good before that I want to believe that was a blip and big things lie ahead."

Moncur's influence spread beyond the Fairs Cup of course. There was the 74 FA Cup final side of SuperMac, a spell in management north and south of the border, and a return to Tyneside where he took up radio work and became part of the NUFC family once again.

Therefore those who flocked to their old arena for an extra special occasion included players over a wide spectrum of time such as goal ace Mick Quinn who is a recognised voice on talkSPORT, former skipper Mick Martin, Dave Hilley from the 1965 championship winning side that included a young Moncur, and striker Jim Pearson.

The club were the ones who did the honours organising the late Sunday afternoon gathering with officials turning out in numbers to pay homage. This was a club looking after one of its own and so they should.

To give younger readers a snapshot of how long ago that was let me set the scene. The swinging sixties quivered with change. A chain of famous events in 1969 would impact on the world for good and bad, leaving its mark in history as one of the most culturally defining 12 months ever. Some of the year's most notorious events saw Neil Armstrong land on the moon, members of Charles Manson’s cult slaughter five people in Hollywood, 350,000 music fans attend Woodstock for the first time, Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death after being convicted of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, and the legendary Pele score the 1,000th goal of his glittering career. We are delving into history here and Monc led our history makers.

The young man who arrived at my house in Whitley Bay with the Fairs Cup on the back seat of his car and plonked it on our lawn while we had a celebratory bevvy handed me a glass of fizz all these 56 years later. It tasted just as sweet. So did the company of him and those who helped him make such an impact.

It had been quite a ride for our hero among heroes across a continent into immortality. Moncur missed United's European debut because of a cartilage operation not even travelling with the club's official party to Rotterdam for the Feyenoord return instead flying along with 1,100 fans on an Evening Chronicle organised supporters trip. Can you imagine that these days - the club skipper on a European night reduced to enthusiastically mucking in with punters on a cheap flight?

It remained whacky and wonderful - Moncur, an outfield player, was officially United's cover keeper for an away tie and almost didn't play at all because of illness before he emerged into glorious sunshine on a June night in Budapest.

The crisis was against Porto away when Moncs spent all the build up flat on his back in bed with food poisoning - we hacks were told by the manager he had no chance of making it which would have been a tad tricky because he was the stand-in goalie for McFaul. John Hope was injured and as Bob sometimes played between the sticks during training he was duly nominated.

When we think of great footballing occasions we automatically visualise the pomp and emotion upon winning... the triumphant skipper leading his weary troops up to the Royal Box at Wembley each to have his winner's medal draped round his neck by some dignitary.

However at Budapest 69 - United's greatest ever moment in history - it was somewhat different. Bob not only received the trophy from FIFA president Sir Stanley Rous but was also handed a bunch of miniature trophies which masqueraded as winner's medals and carried them down into the dressing-room. Putting them on a tray he announced: "Anyone want one?" They quickly went.

Moncur played a total of 361 times for United, won 16 full caps, and skippered both club and country. Maybe he is a Jock but his home is very much the green grass of St James Park. When he had finished as player and manager he came back to live amongst those who remembered the debt we all owe. An adopted Geordie, indeed, and aren't we grateful. Black-and-whites had a hero and I a great friend.