The tale of an unlikely underdog with origins in the north-eastern has been exposed in the first European qualifying sessions.
Behold the bizarre and beautiful early rounds of Western competitions.
Starting in the height of summer, often before the end of the previous month's major tournaments, groups that you've never heard of, usually with unintelligible names lock horns in the hope of making it to the various competitions ' party stages.
And they often throw up beautiful stories, apparently of fallen companies reduced to fish position, or former Premier League players you'd forgotten existed now trying their luck in all four corners of the globe.
This year is no different, as we take you to Gibraltar, via the north east of England for one of the tales of the 2024/25 season so far.
This one begins in 2013, when a group of associates who have poured in Bruno's Bar & Restaurant in Gibraltar and Mick Embleton made the decision to form a restaurant team. Bruno's Birds were born.
After a few disappointing second-place runs in the Gibraltar Second Division, Embleton was given the right to take over as director, and the team started to develop into a more significant entity.
After finishing second in the Gibraltar Football League next season, they made more progress and qualified for the UEFA Conference League's second qualifying round, where they faced British side Derry City.
Starting as big losers, Bruno's Birds claimed a magnificent 2-0 first-leg win thanks to goals from Ash Taylor and Francisco Zuniga ahead of Thursday night's next calf in Derry.
The match went into further time thanks to Magpies ' substitute Evan de Haro's 111th-minute winner, giving the original pub team their most ancient first-ever victory in European competition. The hosts eventually rallied to equalize the deficit just before the hour mark.
After finishing seventh in the Premier League and failing to qualify for Europe, Bruno's Seagulls are now gearing up for a trip to Denmark to face FC Copenhagen, who finished fourth in the Danish group last year, in order to advance to the third and final qualifying square. And they may just have the help of the Geordie Nation behind them.
Copyright Notice:
Datavictory copyrights this specification. No part of this specification may be reproduced in any form or means, without the prior written consent of Datavictory.
Link: