Benwell Lad

Shame really, always found it quite amusing especially their vitriolic obsession with all things NUFC. Read it today and they had an article from the Independent about how Roy Keen is losing the dressing room and is unable to attract anyone other than overpaid ex team mates to Sunderland. Surprised it's taken so long for him to be found out. Could be that their manager is going the same way as their message board before long ?

Who else would get our support with our lack of achievement? No one. Which ironically is one of the very positive things about Newcastle.

agreed... we're english if we couldn't complain then we'd just be bored and would have less excuses to visit the pub. supporting newcastle is character building, every match day i wake up with a strong belief that some how, without a doubt we gonna win. i also spend a good few minutes examining how the table will look *when* we win our next 3 games... but then, more often than not we don't win and we play s**** so i bitch and moan about it until next game when i wake up with the same irrational feeling of imminent success, put my lucky pants on and keep my fingers crossed... but f*** it thats why i love football! That's me every time a game comes around. Me too. I wish I could get over it !

Well said imo. In terms of entertainment, which is what we would all hope for, Sam's unlikely to deliver - short or long term. I believe the majority of the current negativity has come about from that realisation. In the summer everyone was on a high, the majority at least. Gone was the old regime, new owners and a new manager - positive transformations were the order of all expectations. It's the football that has crashed everyone back to earth. There would be nowhere near the amount of negativity if we had just a few more points on board from watching good games. People sometimes refer to Sam's "previous success". What he actually did was an OK/decent job at a small Premiership team. However with the exception of Keegan and SBR the football we've played this season is about as good or bad as anything else we've served up in the top flight since the sixties. Joe Harvey and Cox had their moments - but mainly in the second tier. Sam's got the job right now so I'll support him. If a new Keegan or Sir Bobby exists and would come to us for the right reasons then I'd support them too.

Very philosophical. Good post.

Very wise post. Once upon a time we got a daily report in the Chronicle, an occasional paragraph in the nationals and a couple of Match of the Day appearances each season. There was a long concerted campaign on Tyneside to get rid of Joe Harvey, (THE legend Joe Harvey) it was probably never mentioned at a national level. It's all so different now.

OK granted you can't refer to that which you did not experience. Put another way, think about the eighty odd football league teams (and their fans) who would love to have what NUFC has. Or even another way, think about our closest rivals in the "city" ten miles down the road. Do we still have a lot to complain and moan about ? There is no doubt that they would all love to be where we are right now. But that suggests we should rest on our laurels, happy to simply be in the top division every year. Happy to be above loads of other teams. Where I personally (and I'm sure many others) get so disillusioned is when I think about where we could be, with this stadium, these facilities, this ridiculously loyal fanbase etc etc. And before anyone points it out, I know the previous board helped us to get to that status. It's a terrible cliché, but we're the classic example of a sleeping giant. A 'could do better'. I don't see the issue with wanting the best. Of course there are loads of knee-jerking mongs (on the forums and at SJP), but who takes notice of them? I certainly don't. I agree Dave - we should never rest on our laurels. What I'm saying though is, in a broad perspective we're not actually that bad and were better off than most. Like you that is NOT good enough for me, I want our club to taste success.

OK granted you can't refer to that which you did not experience. Put another way, think about the eighty odd football league teams (and their fans) who would love to have what NUFC has. Or even another way, think about our closest rivals in the "city" ten miles down the road. Do we still have a lot to complain and moan about ?

Almost twice your age Tom. I realise mate that we all suffer being Newcastle fans - it's in the contract. I did not want Allardyce, I wonder about some of the teams he's selected but I must say he's risen in my estimation lately showing dignity during adversity as the nation's media bays for his blood. Many of the players would not be my choice either, but like the manager they are NUFC right now and for that reason I will support them and I'm certainly not going to voice opinions which London journalists and mackems would like to hear.

This board may reflect the opinion of "fans" in general, but it's also more liable to be infiltrated by stirrers than a match would be. I have never been totally satisfied with goings on and I moan myself, I just wonder why we're so negative ? At recent matches the numbers bothering to boo could be counted in the hundreds, which out of 50,000 is a pretty small percentage. It is however audible and gives BBC, Sky, The Gaurdian etc all the ammunition they need for their continued Newcastle baiting.

Trust me mate the last 13 years supporting NUFC has been like heaven compared to the 30 years before that. Can't say I agree - as I'm too young - but I share the sentiment that people want too much too quickly. I guess we'll be the ones still supporting the team when we next get relegated...whether that's in 5 years or 50 years. You've hit a nail right on the head there. We WILL be the ones still supporting the team when that day comes round. Long after owners,directors, managers, coaches and players have departed, the fans will still be there just as the fans of Leeds, Sheff Wed, Luton or Oxford will still be there supporting their clubs. The fans ARE a club, and we've always been considered to be a pretty special and defiant bunch.

Trust me mate the last 13 years supporting NUFC has been like heaven compared to the 30 years before that.

Why are the majority of contributors to this board so negative about Newcastle United ? It may be an old notion but aren't football supporters supposed to be stoically upbeat about their team through thick and thin especially those who don't mind sometimes being referred to as "the best in England" I'm one of the older posters on here and along with a few others can remember REALLY bad times. Some on here have had no NUFC supporting experience outside the top league, and most of that has been sprinkled with high league placings, European football and decent cup runs. And yet we get page after page deriding the club and whinging on about how bad things are and how "s****" all our highly paid internationals are. Imagine (god forbid) we'd been born mackems - now they have had it rough - compared to them we ARE a success story. Even today's top post is just loaded with miserable self pity and jokes about how bad it is going to be to play Arsenal away. Twenty or thirty years ago we'd have been salivating about that draw and getting ready to queue up Barrack Road for hours to get a ticket, before heading south to take over North London for an afternoon, being totally defiant about our chances and "upping" our players despite having a much worse team and much less chance than we will have this time (assuming we beat Stoke of course ??) This board has it's mackem stooges masquerading as NUFC fans to stir things up and it's share of moaners (just like "that bloke" who sits behind you at the match annoying the sh*t out of you) but it seems that everyone is getting dragged into it. Right now we are in a period of transition with new (wealthy) owners, a manager attempting to change the ethos of the team and club, and new players. Get behind them, we've sang the songs about loyalist supporters, Geordie boot boys etc - we should try living up to it.

He's a left back, who looks like a left back and plays like a left back and does the things left backs are supposed to do. Therefore he's better than anything else we've had at left back for quite a while.

Given Stoke's recent form and the awful conditions I think most Prem teams would have taken a draw down there this evening. In the context of this weekend FA cup games not a bad result at all.

Lousy journalism. Putting some agenda before reporting the facts again. He also gave a decent mark to Milner who had his worst game ever in a B&W shirt against City and looked right off the pace. Did he watch the same game as the rest of us ?

Some performances this season have plumbed the depths (Derby, Sundlund & Wigan away) but generally we have played better than under Roeder.

I think any initial problems he's had have been more to do with language and communication in a new defence/country. Once he gets through this he'll do well as he looks a decent player and very strong.

Really? I thought he looked quality. Comfortable on the ball and strong in defence. I know it was only half an hour or so but certainly didn't look out of place for me. Looked as good as we've had at LB for a while, but I thought he also looked OK before he was dropped. Stick with him and bed him in to the defence.

No longer a top keeper. Time Harper was given a long run in the team.

A decent place but crap bar - but there are plenty within spittin distance of the place. You should have a decent view of Amsterdam form your seat if it's a clear day.

You can draw a parallel with Harry's Norway there. For years SK Brann in Bergen were Norway's best supported club but had not been champions for decades. Their supporters were Scandinavia's equivalent of us, turning up in numbers but were perennial also rans. Like us it had become a bit of a joke and some had given up hope of ever winning it again. This year they finally won it again ! Keep the faith.

God Jul Harry. You've more chance of a white Christmas than us. Enjoy the Jul Oel.

Not the only one A lot on here seem to think it's 3 "gimme" points in the bag already. Well sorry but football isn't like that and I'm sure the management and players know it. Derby may be bottom but they're a team of highly paid professionals with a new manager. They have not had much luck and were very unfortunate to be beaten at the SoS recently. Oh and didn't they just beat US earlier this season ? Any complacency and we could be done by them. Lets just knuckle down and beat them with the same attitude we'd play against any other team at home.

Anybody see Inverness vs Celtic on Setanta yesterday - what a great game - thought the Inverness goalie was excellent. Perhaps Roy Keen will make a £12M bid for him in January to help cover his goalkeeping deficiencies down at the SOL.