After the enormous critical acclaim of his first two films, Brassed Off and Little Voice one would have forgiven director Mark Herman for wanting to tackle a big budget flick and, on the evidence of this low budget, low entertainment and, frankly, wasted opportunity he may which he had done so.

Indeed, so laboured is this film in points that one wonders how much help Herman had with his two earlier productions. Set on Tyneside it is a story of two teenage lads, Gerry (Chris Beattie) and Sewell (Greg McLane), who are prepared to do just about anything to raise the cash they need for two Newcastle season tickets.

Labouring under the watchful gaze of the Angel of the North, the pair embark on a series of ludicrous schemes to attain the cash.

From stealing books to digging scrapped toilets out of the muddy banks of the Tyne, cutting out narcotics from their daily diet and roaming the terraced streets for scrap metal, Purely Belter attempts to tackle the social dichotomization of football today - the divide between those who can afford a season ticket and those (teenagers in this case) who can't.

Yet despite such a noble subject matter and Newcastle United itself providing the perfect example of greed in football, no mention is given to fans being thrown out of their seats, bonded season tickets or fans taking the club to court. I'm sure the willingness of the club to assist the filmmakers had no influence on the scriptwriter.

Despite all this the film starts very promisingly. Our pair (who look like a young Alan Shearer and a fat Matt Le Tissier) begin on the turf of their beloved St James' Park, but it doesn't take long for the film to stutter to a halt, and one is left wondering whether we are supposed to like this pair of nasty, but nice thieves.

Even their search for money loses its momentum and reaches into the realms of absurdity when this pair of life long United fans, having acquired two Sunderland tickets, actually decide against selling them and opt to watch their most loathed enemies instead. With a meddling social worker, a violent father (Tim Healy), a druggie sister and a forgetful grandfather (played masterfully by Roy Hudd) thrown in to hamper the quest, the pair are doomed to fail.

Add tacky cliches like the Gazza-sized kebab, a pregnant teenager, a sadistic teacher, a skinheaded banned dog-lover, and random twoc-ing (taking without consent) and you have a party political broadcast for the 'It's Grim Oop North Party'. Which is a shame, really because the book Purely Belter is adapted from (Season Ticket by Jonathan Tulloch) is a rich chronicle of life as a teenager in the North East.

The film does occasionally find space to amuse and intrigue, particularly when it leaves off the social comment and sticks to the football. Alan Shearer's cameo as himself is as wooden as expected, but his car (and more poignantly his taste in music CDs) garners a few laughs. And the trip to the Stadium of Light, despite being unbelieveable) is poignant and advances the story far further than an hour of societal breast beating.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the wasted opportunity to photograph what can be a truly breathtaking area of the country. From the Angel herself to the developing city of Newcastle, Herman fails to bring more than just a brief glimpse of the North East, which means filmgoers still have to return to Get Carter to catch one of Britain's biggest cities on film.

All-in-all Purely Belter is a bit like watching Newcastle under Ruud Gullit. Fails to deliver after promising so much, but is a must-see for true Newcastle fans.