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When the ball leaves Matty Longstaff’s right boot on the way to changing the teenager’s life, there is a story behind the moment.

Longstaff’s crisp strike – 72 minutes into his Premier League bow – capped a Newcastle United debut for the ages. That the teenager did it in the eyeline of his elder sibling – the man who had been there on every step of his journey – adds an emotional footnote to the Longstaff’s remarkable story.

Older brother Sean gulps when he remembers the moment. He needs to take a second to compose himself. He’s been sat alongside his brother Matty for 20 minutes in a small room at Newcastle’s Benton training ground in front of a handful of journalists, the pair of them riffing off each other about the remarkable story that took them from being newborns in an island in Stockholm to dictating the tempo of a Premier League game against Manchester United in front of a global audience of millions.

Matty’s 19 now, Sean’s 21 – Boy’s Own heroes from North Shields whose propensity for fighting each on the pitch when they were kids saw Newcastle summon their parents to tell them if they didn’t stop they’d have to leave the Academy. Those days are long gone now: their bond and openness a touching antidote to the cynicism and poison of football’s worst excesses.

The love shines through when Sean’s asked why he rates Matty’s debut above his own maiden strike as the favourite moment of his career.

“I remember thinking ‘This is the best seat in the house’,” Sean says. “Getting to watch him walk out for the first time at St James’ Park as a brother and teammate.

“I was a bit to the side of it when he scored but I think I did shout ‘Just hit it Matty!’ when the ball came to him. I wasn’t up with play, he was.

“I’ve had that feeling before, but for him to do that on his debut against Manchester United, it was such a big game, the emotion was crazy. I actually froze for a second.

“I didn’t know what do, I didn’t know whether to just fall down on to my knees and I filled up, I thought I was going to start crying and you can’t do that out on the middle of a football pitch. I had to try and jump on someone and hide a bit. It was pure happiness.”

There’s a moment after the goal when he runs like a man possessed to his little brother’s side, shoving teammate DeAndre Yedlin out of the way before “just grabbing him.”

“I think it was a better feeling than one I scored my first goal,” he said.

“Just the occasion, him being so young and it being his debut, knowing everything he has been through to get to that point when he was younger. He was turned away by Newcastle when he was 10 or 11, but he fought back.

“I was in the car with him when he was rejected on the way home and he was crying. From that night, he said ‘Nobody is going to be able to do this to me again’.

“He worked so hard to get back, he probably does work harder than me. I look at him and if I could work as hard as he does, I don’t know where I could get to.

“His work rate, everything he does off the pitch is better than me. It felt like everything had been building to that moment he scored. It was unbelievable and even now I get a bit emotional talking about.”

There were tears a fortnight ago for the Longstaff family, but when Matty was turned away by the Academy – too small, too many players ahead of him at the time – it was anguish.

“It was one of the toughest things you can go through as a kid. We have supported Newcastle since we were little,” Matty says.

“I remember Middlesbrough and Sunderland constantly asking us every year to come and join them and my Dad saying ‘He wants to go to Newcastle.’ I finally got the chance to come in and train with them. It was a four week thing and and they pulled me and one other kid in here and said, ‘Look, thanks for coming, but we’re not going to keep you...’

The tough little kid from North Shields couldn’t hold back. “I walked out crying. When you look back at it, it probably fired me up to get where I am,” he says.

(Image: Newcastle United via Getty Image)

“It really pissed me off. Looking back, being able to do what I’ve done since then, it all comes from that moment.”

He went away, re-focused, played like a boy possessed for North Shields. He’d come back to the training ground to watch his brother train, kicking a ball up and down the touchline.

“Sean was always one of the best. I used to be here almost every night when he was training or playing and I would have my little ball on the touchline and I used to think I wish I was playing for Newcastle,” Matty remembers.

He had other options. “I remember Sunderland asked me three or four times if I would go and play for them, but no, I wanted to do everything I could to get back to Newcastle,” Matty says. “Middlesbrough came in for me as well. But there was only one club that I wanted to play for and thankfully I got back into the set up.”

And two years later, he was back. “I came back and signed for the Under 13s. It was pretty quick. I had more of a fire in my belly, I didn’t want to ever be rejected again,” he says, revealing the steel behind the smiles.

When you hear the story, the goal, the performance, the debut that swiped national headlines make that bit more sense.

Matty’s nerveless display came after a ‘surprisingly good night’s sleep’. Matty still lives at home, in the house his brother only vacated in the summer. His mum noticed he’s been quieter than before. “Don’t worry,” Sean told her. “He’ll be fine.”

“I woke up pretty early and thought I’d try and get back to sleep but it’s playing on your mind, playing in the Premier League against Man United. It’s like Christmas morning, as stupid as it sounds, I just couldn’t really get back to sleep,” Matty says.

“This might sound dead stupid but the thing that calmed my nerves down was when I walked out with the mascot and I was playing passes with him!

“You pass the ball and you are thinking, ‘Just concentrate on the pass’. I remember thinking just before the game, ‘Just get some good touches in here’ as stupid as that sounds! Just get a feel for the ball after walking out with the music. I’m thinking, “I know it’s just a little kid but I might as well make my passes be pretty good’. That set me up for it!”

Longstaff’s first pass to Yedlin was perfect. “It was not deliberate. When you are playing you try to make the best decision. I think I thought that was the pass that was one,” he said.

“Playing alongside my brother makes it a lot easier for me. You see how composed he is on the ball. A couple of times the other day when I went a bit headless chicken he was there to cover. To have some you grew up with that close to you in the game, they kind of talk you through and it helps,” Matty said.

The lads are refreshingly grounded; so normal in their outlook that they both retain their North Shields season tickets and still go to watch games whenever Newcastle aren’t playing.

And they’ve not been spoiled by the trappings of the Premier League lifestyle either – a response to their upbringing but also a reflection of their character. Both are popular among their teammates and their honesty shines through in their long chat with a room full of journalists.

Sean’s not bashful when he’s asked if he agrees with his mother’s assertion that they “genuinely love each other”.

Watch: The Longstaffs' brilliant Sky Sports interview

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“I would say genuinely we do. It’s like any brothers, any family, you do love each other. There are teams when you will fall out but ultimately when times get tough it is family that will be there for you the most.

“We try to do that. We have been lucky to have had a bit of success so far, but whenever times are good or bad we will try to be there for each other and keep each of us level.”

Parents David – a GB Ice Hockey international – and mum Michelle, who was a good netballer, keep them grounded too.

“They were pretty strict in school and if we got wrong they weren’t very happy with it,” Matty admits.

“The way they brought us up, not just my mam and dad but as a family, nanna and grandpa and everything, they played a big part in how we grew up. They were pretty disciplined with us.”

That includes, he notes, a “clip round the ear” when he had a brief brainwave to give up on football and try “full time” to make it in cricket, another sport the duo are prodigiously talented at.

He says: “When I was under-13s, football wasn’t going so well but in cricket I was doing really well. People were saying I could see you going to the top. I told my dad I might concentrate on cricket and he gave me a clip round the ear for saying it as if to say ‘There’s not a chance that’s happening’.”

There is another sporting Longstaff: younger sister Milly. She plays for the county and Seatonians at netball, and has Super League teams asking about her.

(Image: Getty Images)

Sean explains: “Milly is great, she has been dragged round training and to football ever since she was three-years-old. She is a really good netballer. Like Matty says, she probably is a bit lazier than us two.

“She is obviously really good at netball and we support her as well. It’s funny, you look at the Nevilles - those two played in the Premier League and their sister was a netballer and played for England and coached England.

“We’ve said to Milly, ‘We’ve done our little bit, it’s up to you now!’. She’s amazing. She comes to all the games. She’s much more into her football now that we are playing. It can be tough sometimes for her as well, when she does go into school and everyone is speaking about me or him.

“It must be hard for her sometimes, but we speak to her all the time and make sure she is not reading too much of social media when it is not going as well. Obviously, I think it was the West Ham game last year when I got injured and we lost.

“There was a bit going on on social media and a few people were sending her stuff in school. That is obviously the not great part of it. We do everything we can to help here and we cannot thank her enough for the sacrifices she has made as well.”

On Saturday, they could line up alongside each other at Stamford Bridge, where Sean made his first start. The whirlwind that followed his goal saw the pair compared to Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes. “Phwaargh. Big boots to fill, aren’t they?” Matty says as the comparison.

Sean agrees. “I don’t know (how it makes me feel). Obviously, he is someone I have grown up watching and being from around here, if I can have a quarter of the career he’s had, I’d probably snap your hand off. He’s probably one of the most successful players ever to come out of Newcastle,” he says.

“Like I say, when you hear people comparing to someone of his calibre and say good things about me and him (Matty), it’s really nice and gives you a bit of motivation to kick on and see if you can get anywhere close to what they done.”