The subject’of how we all support Newcastle United in recent months has become something of a hot-topic with plenty passionate discussions about booing, haranguing players or the funereal atmosphere that some of our games are played in.
In this latest issue of true faith (TF128), one of our new writers Oliver Pashley, poses the question of us all, what are we – SUPPORTERS OR CUSTOMERS?’
This is a great piece of writing from Oliver and I’d encourage you all to click on the link and have a good read of it.
To get at this excellent piece – SUPPORTERS OR CUSTOMERS, just click here.’
Keep On, Keepin’ On …’
I absolutely detest Graeme Souness but the one thing he got right about us was that out of the 50,000+ who regularly attend SJP there’s 20,000 supporters and 30,000 customers who demand to be entertained and are quick to make their feelings known if things aren’t to their liking.
On atmosphere I wouldn’t argue with the article one bit, it’s crap considering the numbers we have and worse IMO even then when we were getting sub 20,000 crowds in the early 90’s. The fans are less vocal than they were but there is no doubt that the end of the terraces and the rise in the cost has been a huge factor there, a fair few people who used to make the most noise have been effectively priced out of the game and the demographic has changed.
On getting on the back of players and the team I don’t see that much difference to the 80’s. I can remember both Ray Ranson and Mark Stimson getting any amount of abuse in 89/90 when we were fighting for promotion. Then there was George ‘Mavis’ Reilly and Mike ‘Dodgy Keeper’ Hooper who had the pleasure of hearing his own fans add to that chant with ‘We want Pavel’. As a set of fans we have always had form for getting restless when our players send the ball backwards and honestly I couldn’t count how many leads we must have thrown away over the years because our defenders have ended up punting the ball forward because they were being screamed at by their own fans to get it up the park. When clear at the top in 93 that team was booed off against Bristol Rovers for drawing 0-0 prompting KK to do his nut. Charlton was hated because of the style he had us playing and resigned after taking a load of gip in a pre season tour in Ireland and so on.
The flags initiative is a big step in the right direction as is trying to get a singing section together but getting people to park their expectations at the door is going to be another matter. Yes we are an underachieving club but there does seem to be a large minority who expect us to win every home game 3 or 4 nil playing stylish football into the bargain, the same people who ball ‘Howay man Newcastle this lot are shite’ at every team we play. It ain’t gonna happen and no realistic fan is going to expect it to.