Simon Hall, a spokesman for Virgin Money, knocked them back but said he would provide three free places in next year’s Virgin London Marathon, plus a signed football shirt and some match tickets for an auction.
The lady magpies, who are completely separate from the Mike Ashley run club, could not agree a deal with the owners of the former Northern Rock.
Chairman Phil Eadon: “With the change from Northern Rock to Virgin we’d hoped we could build a link up, but it was not to be right now,”