Stevie

Aye he's nee Alex Mathie like is he?

In the early 90's everyone thought he was a c***. We used to be live on ITV what seemed like every week, and I used to watch the matches again when I got home, and there was a classic. I think we were playing Birmingham at home, ended 2-2, and this is how it happened, Roger Thames had just got the words out "great atmosphere here today at SJP", and right on cue, all you could hear was the entire ground loud as F***, as if we knew he had just said that, "ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGER THAMES IS A WAAAAAANKER, IS A WAAAAAAAAAAANKER." He didn't say another word for what seemed like about 2 minutes. I remember we were playing Boro away and he walked past the Holgate End who were clapping him, and he gave some sort of royal wave back to them, and it was set in a lot of peoples minds he was pro-Boro. His commentary was tedious as well, the amount of times someone used to score and he'd say "Oh that's meat and drink to Mick Quinn/David Kelly/Marco Gabbiadini/Paul Wilkinson/fill in any c*** with a reasonable scoring record" I seen him playing squash at Eldon Rec one time with some remarkably fit bird, and I said "areet", and the baldy c*** ignored me. All in all a cockney wank as far as I'm concerned.

True, but still better to be in the top half of the league than not. You should be on the telly or something with insightful comments like that. I find it amusing they're having a go at us for 48,000 - only THIRTEEN thousand more than they got !!!! We're p*ssed off at Shepherd and Roeder, and on the verge of outright boycott of the club in protest, 9 goals in 14 games, in relegation bother, yet STILL get THIRTEEN THOUSAND (I think it worth the capitals) more than they get. Both visiting sides - Wigan and Portsmouth - were hardly big draws - neither take many with them.So if we're bad - WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MAKE SPUD FANS ?? Not me if you read my posts again. Spurs' home ticket allocation was sold out and Newcastle's was about 1000 shy of doing the same. I don't see any reason to have a pop about this as there's very little difference in my book. The fact that Newcastle's attendance was 13000 more is down to the size of the stadium, not the support in it. Easy to say when you have a much smaller stadium. Impossible to prove though. True, especially when Newcastle is a one team city, which is an advantage that Newcastle will always enjoy. With fingers crossed, maybe we'll be able to see if Spurs are capable of filling a 48k stadium in 5 or 6 years. I'm struggling to see how being a one team city is an advantage in relation to our stadium size or our ability to attract fans when compared with Spurs who are one of the 'big three' in one of the biggest cities in the world. You also attract fans from areas like the Home Counties, some of whom are relatives of mine. I can't really be arsed with this 'who's the biggest club' bollocks as it's success on the pitch that counts though. I think it's fair to say we are very well supported and have been historically when you consider all the factors though. Spurs are pretty well supported too but if I was you I would be embarrassed by the shite that numpty Kingdawson spouts. He talks complete, total and utter pish mate, no conviction in his views or fuck all. I was the only one that could see it 9 months ago, it's nice to see other people are opening their eyes.

True, but still better to be in the top half of the league than not. You should be on the telly or something with insightful comments like that. I find it amusing they're having a go at us for 48,000 - only THIRTEEN thousand more than they got !!!! We're p*ssed off at Shepherd and Roeder, and on the verge of outright boycott of the club in protest, 9 goals in 14 games, in relegation bother, yet STILL get THIRTEEN THOUSAND (I think it worth the capitals) more than they get. Both visiting sides - Wigan and Portsmouth - were hardly big draws - neither take many with them.So if we're bad - WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MAKE SPUD FANS ?? Not me if you read my posts again. Spurs' home ticket allocation was sold out and Newcastle's was about 1000 shy of doing the same. I don't see any reason to have a pop about this as there's very little difference in my book. The fact that Newcastle's attendance was 13000 more is down to the size of the stadium, not the support in it. Easy to say when you have a much smaller stadium. Impossible to prove though. True, especially when Newcastle is a one team city, which is an advantage that Newcastle will always enjoy. With fingers crossed, maybe we'll be able to see if Spurs are capable of filling a 48k stadium in 5 or 6 years. This one team city bollocks yet again. Within 10 miles of Newcastle there are maybe 1m people and some of them are in Sunderland territory like Washington etc.... Within 10 mile of WHL you have maybe 8m people, with 2 large clubs, 2 medium sized clubs and 6 small clubs.

Rafa is a good Liverpool fan I have to concede. He's realistic about Liverpool, isn't arrogant and condescending like most, and I voted for him as best non toon fan on the board.

True, but still better to be in the top half of the league than not. You should be on the telly or something with insightful comments like that. I find it amusing they're having a go at us for 48,000 - only THIRTEEN thousand more than they got !!!! We're p*ssed off at Shepherd and Roeder, and on the verge of outright boycott of the club in protest, 9 goals in 14 games, in relegation bother, yet STILL get THIRTEEN THOUSAND (I think it worth the capitals) more than they get. Both visiting sides - Wigan and Portsmouth - were hardly big draws - neither take many with them.So if we're bad - WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MAKE SPUD FANS ?? Not me if you read my posts again. Spurs' home ticket allocation was sold out and Newcastle's was about 1000 shy of doing the same. I don't see any reason to have a pop about this as there's very little difference in my book. The fact that Newcastle's attendance was 13000 more is down to the size of the stadium, not the support in it. Easy to say when you have a much smaller stadium. Impossible to prove though. He knows fine well they'd struggle to sell 45,000 tickets even against the likes of us and Arsenal. I have to emphasise what a nothing club they are. That Semi Final we had against them at Old Trafford, in true Boro style they only sold out their allocation 2 days before the game on general sale, and there was even talk of them sending us some for the Stretford End. To me there are AT LEAST 12 "bigger clubs" than Tottenham. We're only looking at 2003/2004 when they only had 7 sell outs in the one season, with 33,000 being the norm, including one gate of SIXTEEN over 30,000 against Birmingham, SIX THOUSAND EMPTY SEATS, and 22,000 less than our average gate for the season. When Danny Murphy signed for Charlton he described Charlton as a bigger club with a bigger fanbase, and it's not hard to agree, in essence a mickey mouse club. I mean 4fs 17,000 in the Premiership years in 92, 93 and 95. Till the last 18 months, no ones ever noticed Spurs they've always known their place, they've been there but nobody cared, one half decent season and they're all mouthy. They remind me of Ipswich. http://www.mousestars.com/images/mmclogo.jpg An appropriate new badge for THFC

Its signing on day. blueyes.gif http://www.online-flowers-pottery-shop.com/store/images/Red-Rose-Wreath.jpg http://www.rich.durge.org/pics1/photos/ace.jpg Justice For Michael Shields

It's a bigger gate than Tottenham have has since before Ardiles and Villa. It irritates me when people think of them as anything more than a Charlton Athletic.

True, but still better to be in the top half of the league than not. You should be on the telly or something with insightful comments like that. I find it amusing they're having a go at us for 48,000 - only THIRTEEN thousand more than they got !!!! We're p*ssed off at Shepherd and Roeder, and on the verge of outright boycott of the club in protest, 9 goals in 14 games, in relegation bother, yet STILL get THIRTEEN THOUSAND (I think it worth the capitals) more than they get. Both visiting sides - Wigan and Portsmouth - were hardly big draws - neither take many with them.So if we're bad - WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MAKE SPUD FANS ?? Not me if you read my posts again. Spurs' home ticket allocation was sold out and Newcastle's was about 1000 shy of doing the same. I don't see any reason to have a pop about this as there's very little difference in my book. The fact that Newcastle's attendance was 13000 more is down to the size of the stadium, not the support in it. :lol: Most deluded people in the United Kingdom.

About that poster Delima Smoggies don't count in any voting procedure.

Not embarrassed by his comments but doesn't mean to say I agree with them either. Both Newcastle and Spurs' attendances dived in their bleak years, both are currently getting near capacity attendances currently. I would be more embarrassed if I was a Blackburn or Boro fans who in the past couple of years have been playing Uefa cup football to half empty stadia in spite of concessionary ticket prices to attract a half decent team. That's embarrassing imho. How's it embarrassing? The UEFA Cup is shite, and boring, we're shite, have been for 3 years yet we've had two UEFA QF appearances, and one semi final appearance in that time. We're in the so called hardest group and we've pissed it. It's a joke cup for sides like Tottenham and Boro to get all giddy about, but we've fucked up so badly, we have no hope of CL football for a while. Hand on heart if we were rich enough to do without being in the UEFA Cup I'd be delighted if we weren't in it. It's a complete joke competition. In the UEFA Cup we've played about 40 odd games in 3 years, and lost two, us yes, only two. The fact is your smaller clubs your Tottenham's get all emotional about it as they never get in Europe anyway. What is embarrassing is a club taking only 400 to St James' Park for an FA Cup replay in 1999, and getting 17,000 in the Premiership one week against the likes of Villa and Wimbledon, and when a proper club plays you, there's 30 odd thousand at the Lane (4/12/93). The Uefa Cup a joke competition? Suppose Newcastle got fed up winning it? :roll: In the unlikely event that we win it, I will say exactly the same. It's been pure shite since 1997/1998 when they started ****ing on with letting second placed teams in the CL. We benefitted in 97/98 as it happens with CL football but so ****. When you've played in the UEFA Cup as much as we have, you will know, which is why I said the UEFA Cup is a tournament for nothing clubs like Spurs, Villa, Boro, Fulham to get all giddy about. We're 17th in the League, we end up in the group of death, and we win all our games with our reserves. You can kid yourselves all you like that beating the likes of Club Bruges is an achievement but it's not. Under-achievement for Newcastle in the UEFA Cup based on our turnover and transfer expenditure is not winning it. That sounds arrogant but it's true. Hand on heart of the sides in it right now, with the strongest XI's, only Sevilla are clearly a better side than us, which emphasises my point on what a true joke cup this is. Even Spurs are capable of the last 8 I feel which underlines all the above points. the champions league did have to change though,quite often the teams in the uefa cup were out performing the previous years chmaps in their domestic leagues.the uefa cup isn't a joke,it just isn't top quality. It's the biggest joke in football. Palermo, who are no where near the size of us, have never been in it in their history yet their chairman is on record as saying he'd be quite content if they get knocked out so they can concentrate on the league. When small clubs are showing this much contempt towards the competition, it just goes to show the people across Europe are sharing my sentiments. As for teams in the UEFA Cup out performing teams in the European Cup....so ****. It has always been the competition for the individual Champions of Europe, that's why it was initially called the European Champions Cup, which became the UEFA Champions League in 1992. It's never called the European Champions and 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed League. The reason all of Liverpool's, Madrid's, AFC Ajax, FC Bayern Munchen's successes were so special is, they not only proved they were the best side in their domestic competition but also against all the other Champions from the previous season. Say in 1985, when Everton won the league, (I'm not having a dig at Heysel here), but if that event hadn't of occured you think Liverpool should've been involved in the European Cup for the 85/86 season, because they were a better side? It's a joke argument. Rafa is right to point out in 2001 and 2004, the last 16 got a bit interesting, but that shit is few and far between. Look when we were in it after our 16 year absence it was class, we got on paper a tough Belgian side even though we pissed them, and in the SECOND ROUND end up against one of Spain's strongest sides, who eventually put us out on away goals, and if we'd won that we'd have had Parma, who were 2nd in Serie A, in the THIRD ROUND! That's the way it was always meant to be. Contrast that to our three opening opponents in 2004/2005, some suicide bombers from Palestine, Bnei Sakhnin, a side full of real life Borat Sagidyev's but with less talent, Tblisi and fuckin a side full of Greek waiters, Panionios, who ended up relegated!! Yet you can sit there and tell me the European format in it's present state is working??!?!?!!? Greed has killed it. It's been shite since 1999 on the whole, which also coiincided with the bigger nations have four CL sides instead of four. UEFA killed it, greed killed it, and to me anyone that says the CL should be for the best four sides in a country has no appreciation for how football was, and is a product of UEFA and Rupert Murdoch's greed.

Fuck knows but they were nice "aye plenty onions" those were the days. I could take my £5 pocket money, get me hot dog for 60p. get in the match for £2, 30p there and back on the bus, £1 for the programme and still have £1 left for crisps and sweets. Good read by the way Stevie. Cheers Alex, there'll be more to follow soon. It was one of the most interesting seasons of my time supporting the toon I think, even though it ended in a catastrophic manner. Certainly of the most memorable for me anyway. I just remember loads of things. The horrible revival of flared jeans of the lads at the match, pink wallabee shoes, stepped hair cuts, ocean pacific t shirts...I had them all, hehe tragic looking back.

Fuck knows but they were nice "aye plenty onions" those were the days. I could take my £5 pocket money, get me hot dog for 60p. get in the match for £2, 30p there and back on the bus, £1 for the programme and still have £1 left for crisps and sweets.

I will mention that horrible night yes, the joint worst Newcastle experience for me along with Poyet at Wembley Quinn got 36 but I thought McGhee got 21, I'll check before I write about that. I remember McGhee didn't score for ages though when he first came and then they all started flying in. I thought we had the new Stanley Matthews after Gallacher's goal and performance against Leeds, but as with a lot of young players at Newcastle he just seemed to drift away to obscurity. Michael O'Neill is the classic example of that, and everyone who saw him at 18 thought he'd be a world beater.

Look at the last 10 finals 98 Inter v Lazio - fair enough two good sides, but there was only 2 Italian sides in the CL 99 Parma v Marseille - Marseille were a poor poor side, and Parma's best days were behind them 00 Galatasaray v Arsenal - Both sides dumped out of the CL which emphasises how pathetic it had become 01 Liverpool v Alaves - Dippers dumped out of the CL, Alaves are very ordinary Spanish side relegated the next year 02 Feyenoord v Dortmund - Feyenoord's star players two failed Premiership strikers, Dortmund pale shadows of 97 03 Porto v Celtic - Porto are the exception to all of this, but to emphasise what a joke it is the final was nearly an Oporto derby, with Boavista 7 minutes away from the final. 04 Valencia v Marseille - Valencia dumped out of the CL, and Marseille came TENTH in France 05 CSKA v Sporting - Joke 06 Sevilla v Boro - Biggest joke of all This competition has become something for the likes of Spurs, who will never get anything better than this, to get excited about, we know better than anyone how dull and uninspiring it has become.

Not embarrassed by his comments but doesn't mean to say I agree with them either. Both Newcastle and Spurs' attendances dived in their bleak years, both are currently getting near capacity attendances currently. I would be more embarrassed if I was a Blackburn or Boro fans who in the past couple of years have been playing Uefa cup football to half empty stadia in spite of concessionary ticket prices to attract a half decent team. That's embarrassing imho. How's it embarrassing? The UEFA Cup is shite, and boring, we're shite, have been for 3 years yet we've had two UEFA QF appearances, and one semi final appearance in that time. We're in the so called hardest group and we've pissed it. It's a joke cup for sides like Tottenham and Boro to get all giddy about, but we've fucked up so badly, we have no hope of CL football for a while. Hand on heart if we were rich enough to do without being in the UEFA Cup I'd be delighted if we weren't in it. It's a complete joke competition. In the UEFA Cup we've played about 40 odd games in 3 years, and lost two, us yes, only two. The fact is your smaller clubs your Tottenham's get all emotional about it as they never get in Europe anyway. What is embarrassing is a club taking only 400 to St James' Park for an FA Cup replay in 1999, and getting 17,000 in the Premiership one week against the likes of Villa and Wimbledon, and when a proper club plays you, there's 30 odd thousand at the Lane (4/12/93). The Uefa Cup a joke competition? Suppose Newcastle got fed up winning it? :roll: In the unlikely event that we win it, I will say exactly the same. It's been pure shite since 1997/1998 when they started fucking on with letting second placed teams in the CL. We benefitted in 97/98 as it happens with CL football but so fuck. When you've played in the UEFA Cup as much as we have, you will know, which is why I said the UEFA Cup is a tournament for nothing clubs like Spurs, Villa, Boro, Fulham to get all giddy about. We're 17th in the League, we end up in the group of death, and we win all our games with our reserves. You can kid yourselves all you like that beating the likes of Club Bruges is an achievement but it's not. Under-achievement for Newcastle in the UEFA Cup based on our turnover and transfer expenditure is not winning it. That sounds arrogant but it's true. Hand on heart of the sides in it right now, with the strongest XI's, only Sevilla are clearly a better side than us, which emphasises my point on what a true joke cup this is. Even Spurs are capable of the last 8 I feel which underlines all the above points.

Leicester, one of the best games ever. Kevin Campbell ran us ragged, Roy Aitken's debut too I believe.

Alpal I 100% agree with you pal. "But for me there's only one candidate this year, it's Thierry Henry. He just deserves it. He was the best goal scorer in England, best player in England, best goal scorer in Europe behind Luca Toni, he played the Champions League final and he played the World Cup final.'' Wenger is a nob, but I completely agree with these sentiments. He dragged Arsenal who were fancied by no one to the CL final, and for people above to say he choked?!?! He had a decent game, and if Henry choked, what the fuck did Ronaldinho do in that final? Henry was far better, and if he had've scored that one on one to make it 2-0 beyond doubt he would've won the award. I detest Italy and Italian football, but the one person I respect is Fabio Cannavaro, I think he's their best player since Baggio, however, as good as he is, he plays in a fantastic back four, while Henry was and is the key player for France, and both sides are more reliant on him than Italy/Juventus FC/Real are on Canna.

Aye Budgie loved the toon, with all his heart, he gets kicked in the face by Paul Hardyman in Part Six of my piece, but I won't spoil it for cunts who don't know what happened that season. Budgie had a shop under the Swallow Hotel selling football shirts, but there was some scandal about tax or something and the poor cunt ended up in jail. When he left the toon I was delighted for him, he went up to Hibs for a little spell and finally won the first proper medal of his career winning the Scottish League Cup at 41 or 42.

No Paul Sweeney was there, he had the best game I saw him in a toon shirt against Derby that season in the Simod Cup, shame he couldn't recreate that form very often in the league. He was also the most ginger person in the history of the homosapien species, no disrespect to ginger people.

My mate had fucked off home with 2 minutes left and missed it One of the worst games of football in history, with one of the worst penalties ever, Quinn nearly hit the scoreboard, punctuated by one of the best goals the ground has ever seen.

Aye 3-2, that was at home, great atmosphere that day, we had a pen that was never a pen, and Kevin Scott scored a goal that was the most blatant foul on Leighton you'll ever see, but no cunt was complaining. It was 2-2 with a few minutes to go, and everyone in the Gallowgate was talking about going to Old Trafford and then Brian McClair scored an open goal . You know what though, going off topic, despite his scoring record, I always thought McClair was shite. I remember watching it again when you got home as you did in them days, and Jimmy Hill saying "the top flight is never quite the same without Newcarssel United." Anyway more to follow for those interested...........

I started doing a diary from memory of the 1989/1990, through the eyes of an 11 year old lad, me. My intention was to do loads of seasons, so in 30 years time my memories will become more vivid, as I'll have a record of what happened, but it's hard fucking work, but enjoyable at the same time. I'll do about 6 different parts of 89/90, I've written about 20 paragraphs for the first one, and the opening game against Leeds hasn't even kicked off yet! If you're not interested that's fine, but if you're some wank like Invicta Toon, if you have nothing good to say, say nothing, and for those who want to read more about this tragic season, I'll update it every three days. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My memories of 89/90 Part One I was 11 years old in the summer of 1989, and my whole world revolved around Newcastle. Even at 11 I was mortified and quite depressed at how things had gone so terribly wrong since we’d sold Gazza just 12 months before. We were relegated, and as ever Newcastle were as ever THE National joke. We were a feeder club. We bought players off Portsmouth, Birmingham and Crewe, and we’d sell players to Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton. That was the way it was in 1989. We had no self respect at all as a club. The fans had seen years of false dawns, all of their players were being sold and for what? A new stand that probably wouldn’t be filled due to the numerous body blows the side was consistently taking by, a draconian board failing to appreciate what the fans wanted. All through the summer there was a lot of talk of mass boycotts. People had just about had enough of McKeag and a hierarchy who had achieved nothing really since the mid 50’s. A group formed during the summer going under the name of USFC (United Supporters For Change), looking back they were nothing more than a few teenagers and early twenties lads who thought the best course of action was to boycott matches, thus forcing senior board members to resign, enabling Malcolm Dix, Hall and the Magpie Group to take us to the promised land. While ethically I appreciate why the USFC did this, as a young child my life wouldn’t be complete without a Saturday afternoon in the Gallowgate, and there was no way I was allowing my dad and my friends to follow suit. On the playing side we basically finished the previous season, with a joke side. I remember we in essence didn’t have a striker, Anth Lormor and Steve Howey played up front in the final desperate act in a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford. Mirandinha was still on the books, but he couldn’t be arsed towards the end, and he was shunted off to Portuguese side Belenenses, Smith didn’t like him at all, that much was obvious and the feeling was very much mutual. On a brighter note a few of the summer arrivals, certainly proved to be decent value. Mick Quinn came in from Portsmouth for £680,000 (a big fee then), Mark McGhee crossed the border from Celtic, another Scot to join the club was young winger John Gallacher for a tiny fee, Kevin Dillon the experienced Birmingham schemer came in on a free and Smith made him club captain immediately, while Mark Stimson came North from Tottenham. Added to this we still retained a few decent players from the previous season, Bjorn Kristensen (Benny) for one, Kevin Scott, Brock was mediocre but was a decent passer, Andy Thorn was at the club, and in Tommy (the barman) Wright, we had a competent keeper, who loved the club from the word go.. The Second Division was looking extremely strong though aside from Newcastle. Newcastle had finished rock bottom of the First Division, and also relegated West Ham and Boro were well clear of us despite demotion. Leeds United, had done something that was almost unprecedented outside the top flight. They spent approaching £12m building what was to prove to be a brilliant side. Strachan, Sterland, Chapman, Vinny Jones, Chris Fairclough and John Hendrie, amongst others came in all with hefty fees on their heads, adding to a few magnificent young players, like David Batty who went on to play 39 games that season, and the effervescent Gary Speed. They weren’t the only decent side though, oh no. Sheffield United and Wolves both came up, from the Third Division, with feared striking partnerships. Wolves’ strikers were arguably the most potent in the division with Steve Bull, who became the clubs leading ever scorer, and Andy Mutch. Leicester had a reasonable side buoyed their inspirational captain Gary McAllister, and young impressive Arsenal loanee Kevin Campbell. Sunderland as much as I hate admitting it were one of the better sides, all in all it was a hugely competitive league. When you consider Reading won it in 2005/2006 with 112 points, it demonstrates how competitive the league was in the 89/90 season when 85 points was good enough to capture the title. Leeds, who had been in almost terminal decline since their hugely controversial 1975 European Cup Final defeat to Bayern Munich, were installed as low as 6/4 to win the league, and when the fixture list came out the biggest two clubs in the division would lock horns at St James’ on the opening Saturday. I remember my mates dad, who was likeable in a way despite being a foul mouthed, drunken, abusive, psychopath at times, said there was no way he was allowing his son to go to the Leeds game. He recounted countless tales of serious violence with Leeds fans in the 70’s and 80’s and he tried his best to convince me not to go, “they’re animals, they’re not human, they smashed up The Magpie (on Barrack Road)….” His comments seemed to me even more poignant by the fact that it had been reported in the local press that after selling the 5,000 Leazes End tickets in a matter of hours, many hundreds of Leeds fans had obtained tickets for the Newcastle sections of the ground, and without being cynical, ticket sales were so slow it wouldn’t have surprised many if the club had unofficially sanctioned it. Anyway this was the first season I was allowed to go on my own, although my dad came along a lot but against Leeds there was me and two of my mates, as we walked along Stawberry Place, we picked up our usual hot dog with onions, from this funny lookin bloke, with KEEGAN’S HOTDOGS, in big letters along the side of his little food trolley, we could see that estimates of a gate under 20,000 were going to be wide of the mark. That said there were scores of people in these USFC, telling us we were killing the club by going in, **** them I thought at the time. So in we went handed over our £2 to the turnstile operator, straight up the Gallowgate steps turn right for a quick piss, in what was, for younger people reading who never had to put up with this, basically an open sewer, but I look back fondly on the Gallowgate bogs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1989/1990 Part Two - Leeds, Leeds, and Leeds.... 1st December

I know Shepherd is a fat cunt, his time is almost over and he has to shoulder a lot of the blame, but......he has his good points. When they got the batch before Wigan he sent them back because he thought they were shite, these ones we got yesterday, I'm absolutely staggered by the quality of them, they didn't make them like this when I was a bairn. A lot of people think it's a small time gimmick, but these people are also wankers, I'll be taking mine, and thank you NUFC for this whatever the motives are.

Not embarrassed by his comments but doesn't mean to say I agree with them either. Both Newcastle and Spurs' attendances dived in their bleak years, both are currently getting near capacity attendances currently. I would be more embarrassed if I was a Blackburn or Boro fans who in the past couple of years have been playing Uefa cup football to half empty stadia in spite of concessionary ticket prices to attract a half decent team. That's embarrassing imho. How's it embarrassing? The UEFA Cup is shite, and boring, we're shite, have been for 3 years yet we've had two UEFA QF appearances, and one semi final appearance in that time. We're in the so called hardest group and we've pissed it. It's a joke cup for sides like Tottenham and Boro to get all giddy about, but we've fucked up so badly, we have no hope of CL football for a while. Hand on heart if we were rich enough to do without being in the UEFA Cup I'd be delighted if we weren't in it. It's a complete joke competition. In the UEFA Cup we've played about 40 odd games in 3 years, and lost two, us yes, only two. The fact is your smaller clubs your Tottenham's get all emotional about it as they never get in Europe anyway. What is embarrassing is a club taking only 400 to St James' Park for an FA Cup replay in 1999, and getting 17,000 in the Premiership one week against the likes of Villa and Wimbledon, and when a proper club plays you, there's 30 odd thousand at the Lane (4/12/93).