brummie

Who gives a fuck? That's obviously a rhetorical question going by this thread like. Has anyone thought that, perhaps, if we were to take this with something approaching dignity then that might go some way to overcoming the negative stereotypes that a lot of people hold of us? All bullshit like this thread does is give them more ammunition to use against us. Football fans in 'indignant at being kicked when down' shocker. Sorry Indi, this is my issue de jour, as i can focus on this supposed slight from the Villa fans instead of reflecting on how shit a team we are/were. One of my mates was telling me today about the Newcastle fans (without tickets, some of them) he was chatting to on the walk to the ground yesterday, and what a decent lot they were and about as far from the usual stereotype as you could possibly find. I was telling him that this place is pretty much a good example of that, and that you can't judge vast swathes of people by stereotypes. My brother was out on Broad Street on Saturday night and got chatting to a few who were down for the game (there were a lot of them out on the piss, incidentally, who seemed to be having a good time, which must have been a struggle in such a boring city), and he said the same thing. I was reading on one of our forums earlier, one of our fanzine sellers saying that all the Newcastle supporters he came across were "a credit to their club", and there are shit loads of posters on here, who are precisely that. I understand you're pissed off, I've been in exactly the same situation myself, but you seem to have entirely missed my point, that by whingeing on about the way people behave, then sinking to their own level, you lose your claim to moral authority. Oh and I had you down for one of the interesting posters too, but reading this thread, you've come across as about as undignified as you possibly could. Smiley or not, that's pathetic and vaguely insulting.

Therein lies my point. Sink to their level and you've not got a leg to stand on when it comes to claiming the moral high ground. Rant all you like, I'm just a bit disappointed to read crap like that coming from one as sensible as you, regardless of the circumstances. Well you know what to do if you don't like it! :-) Yes I do. Bye.

Therein lies my point. Sink to their level and you've not got a leg to stand on when it comes to claiming the moral high ground. Rant all you like, I'm just a bit disappointed to read crap like that coming from one as sensible as you, regardless of the circumstances.

Think he'll be off this summer. Not got much of a look in the second half of the season. He's a great tackler, and it is good to have a niggly bastard like him in the centre of the pitch at times, but his passing is really utterly woeful.

And did you really expect any different, had the match been played anywhere else in the country? I understand people getting annoyed, but my points are: 1. Schadenfreude. It is what football is built on. How this surprises anyone is beyond me, 2. People in this thread spouting utter nonsense like "shit boring fans, shit city yada yada yada" being probably the same people who - quite rightly - get the hump when others go on about fat blokes with their shirts off crying need to get a grip and think about what they're saying and what kind of negative stereotypes they're perpetuating. 3. If you'd gone down and nobody had batted an eyelid that's when you should be worried, not when it gets the kind of reaction and coverage it has just got. 4. Martin Laursen - we did give him a good send off. After we'd got your fans to stop singing through his speaking to the crowd, that is.

Expected a bit better of you, Chez, that's a bit like me spouting utter nonsense about Newcastle. There's no point trying to take the moral ground on something if you then immediately sink to the level of the people you're having a go at. Whatever the motives of whoever made the banner, look at all the people on here getting their knickers in a twist over it. You'd think you'd have bigger things to worry about, to be honest, other than a banner. Keep it in perspective.

Talk Sport's business model. Ill informed gobby presenter (ie Adrian Durham) makes contentious point. Even worse informed gobby co-presenter (ie Wright) takes contrary position (NB usually neither presenter nor co-presenter will actually believe the point they are making). Morons queue up to phone in, frothing at the mouth with indignation. Talk Sport truly is a moron magnet.

Like I said the other day, the time to worry is when nobody really bats an eyelid. Like if West Ham or another yoyo club had gone down.

Coming from someone whose owner currently has a net worth of two bob, I'll take that as a joke.

I can't believe anyone is really shocked to see football supporters taking pleasure in the misfortune of other football supporters, like it is some kind of new thing which doesn't normally happen. A Blues supporting fan was telling me the other day how much your lot were loving it when you relegated them the other year.

i think it was more the waiting for the lap of honour, to be honest.

I was quite shocked today. When we played Stoke at our place this season, they were the worst team I've seen us play for about 10 years, no exaggeration whatsoever. They had zero talent, zero ability, but they stuck at it and at least had spirit, and - undeservedly, admittedly - got a point. Then when we played Hull, they were very, very marginally less bad than Stoke were, but again, you could tell they had some spirit. They lost but you could tell it hurt, and they at least had a real go at us when they realised they had 20 mins left to get something from the game. Newcastle, however, totally different story, no spirit, no sign of fight, no struggle, not even in the second half, absolutely nothing whatsoever. Really quite shocking, they didn't even look that bothered at final whistle. That's the shame, the squad isn't very good, too many non performers, but on paper it looks way, way ahead of Stoke and Hull, but it is worth nothing without that element of fight and spirit. They've let you down massively, and the best thing you can hope for is to be rid of the majority of them.

Tell you what, and I'm absolutely genuinely not joking or in any way taking the piss here, but word has it that MON has told Zat Knight he can leave this summer. He's prone to the odd lapse, but of our four CBs, he plays the ball around miles better than the other two, and will do somebody a very good job indeed.

He came across as pretty dignified. Didn't duck the issues when asked whether everything at the club was fucked up from top to bottom, either.

If we don't score within an hour, you'll get a draw. We're incapable of holding on to a 1-0 lead no matter how well we play.

I'm watching this at home, thanks to the Mrs deciding to get really fucking ill early today. I feel strangely tense.

Go into the city centre, have a few down Hurst Street. *whistles*

4 dead. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090524/tuk-four-killed-in-wrong-way-m6-crash-6323e80.html Not at Spaghetti as i thought, but the next junction up. Still, it means absolute traffic chaos in all approaches to the ground. It looks as if the accident happened at about 9am, hopefully the accident investigation won't take all day but they can't rush those sort of things. There was one near us a while back (M40) and the motorway was closed pretty much the entire way. I guess it is a crime scene, too, if someone was driving the wrong way up the motorway.

4 dead. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090524/tuk-four-killed-in-wrong-way-m6-crash-6323e80.html Not at Spaghetti as i thought, but the next junction up. Still, it means absolute traffic chaos in all approaches to the ground.

Our new away shirt. The England link obviously being that it, errm, looks like an England shirt. http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4853/shirtfront.jpg www.whenthenationcalls.com

Interesting. The M6 southbound is CLOSED at Spaghetti Junction in BOTH directions, for an accident on the south bound carriageway, a bad one apparently. Two things. Firstly, that's the turn off for Villa Park. Secondly, it is also Gay Pride parade today in town, so the traffic will be fucking awful. I can genuinely see this match kicking off late, which will be to your advantage.

God, the papers don't have talk some utter s****, don't they? The thing is, Sunderland could not spend 200m effectively because nobody who was any good would consider going there. All it takes is a decent manager with a fair reputation in Europe (Ranieri perhaps?), and players will join, particularly when there's big money on offer. All it takes is a decent manager with a fair reputation in Europe. Problem number one.

God, the papers don't have talk some utter shite, don't they? The thing is, Sunderland could not spend 200m effectively because nobody who was any good would consider going there.

If you need a goal tomorrow and I see Owen coming on, my expectation that you will get one will go up. I could watch Mark Viduka lumber around all day long and not have any worries.

Here's what I'd do. If, with ten minutes remaining, Villa are one nil up, visit the gambling site of your choice and go to their Live Betting page. Stick whatever you have on it finishing 1-1. We're pretty much unable (with the exception of Hull City recently) of closing out games like that.