Wandy

Completely agree. And all the bollocks that gets flung at them...."bought success", "not really a big club", "plastic fans" ....will be thrown our way too in the coming years. If there is one club that we should have a solidarity-pact with, it's them.

I did the Etihad stadium tour a few years ago. It's not much to look at from the outside, but on the inside it's a fantastic stadium. And the steepness of the stands lends for creating a good atmosphere too. I think the roof design lets it down a bit though as the noise isn't contained as well as it could be.

Utterly ridiculous. How on earth can that be justified?

Is it the case that only season ticket holders can apply for away games? That is ridiculous if true. If the club are genuinely trying to create a meritocracy for ticket-availability then members need to be able to apply for away tickets and have as much of a chance as ST holders.

The Trust are fair game IMO if this season confirms that the new ticketing policy has ruined the level of support at games, both home and away. It's the kind of issue that they were created to address, so they had better be monitoring this one closely. This is Blue Moon's take on the support yesterday... https://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/threads/newcastle-fans.336197/page-18 ...the verdict that it was average-to-poor. I guess the one-sided nature of the game didn't help though.

Agree. And I think that’s why there is a bit of frustration with Bruno tonight, which on reflection is harsh on him. We are desperate for him to be that game-changer but he isn’t it. So we need to find to find that game-changer that Bruno and Tonali can play alongside. We are significantly behind City and probably a little bit behind Arsenal too. We shouldn’t fear anyone else this season though so 3rd is a realistic target to go for.

Think you might be right. Don’t get me wrong, Bruno is an excellent player, but I’m having doubts that he’s elite. And let’s face it, that’s the narrative that is frequently pushed about him amongst our support. An elite player doesn’t scuff that chance he had. I dearly hope we win a cup with him in the team though. He deserves that for his passion & commitment to the club.

I’m interested to hear from people who were there tonight how the new ticketing rules affected our support. I could definitely hear some singing from our lot but on Blue Moon they are saying we were quiet/shite compared to what they usually see from us. @Paully you were there, right? Did the new restrictions have a negative impact on our support?

Aye he is rightly called out for it but, dear me, imagine even thinking of posting that on a forum.

I thought the atmosphere was pretty much on par from last season. Long periods of eerie, uncomfortable silence interspersed by some truly spine-tingling moments of noise & singing. At least the new ticketing arrangements didn't make it worse though, so that's reassuring. I really don't think we have bad support. We roar the team on, never get on a player's back & gee them up when we concede a goal. What we have definitely lost though is the ability to keep an atmosphere bubbling along when a game goes flat. In years gone by there would be songs & chants that lift the crowd but now SJP just goes incredibly quiet until something happens to cause a stir. We definitely need more areas, spread around the stadium, converted into safe standing and made into designated singing sections.

For me it was a really strange game until we scored the 3rd. Up until that point we had played ok without being anything outstanding, but from the moment the 3rd went in Villa just wilted & we sensed blood, so went for the kill. I just love how ruthless we were and hope that is going to be a theme this season as it was definitely one area where we were a bit lacking at times last season.

They are taking yesterday's result as badly as you'd expect. Meanwhile, in other news, one of them openly admits that his dad hates Bukayo Saka because he is black... https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/saka’s-goal-today.1613237/

£100m+ player. We actually got him for a bargain, the lad is simply world class.

He’s hating being here and is missing Milan. You can just tell.

Having listened to Eales on the radio on Thursday, and watched the first episode of the Amazon documentary, I'm fairly sure that they have no plans to relocate away from the current area of the city centre. Eales was waxing lyrical about the cathedral on the hill, and I think they do truly place a lot of significance on that prime location, so I think they will try everything they can to get 65k out of the current footprint. If that's not possible then they may have a Leazes Park contingency plan. I just don't see the Arena site happening, and I'm less sure that I'd want it anymore tbh.

The games that I was watching you could literally see the people in the various stands clapping along with the song. I think you can pick up from the sound coming through the TV where the singing is coming from in a stadium. For years & years I have poured scorn on Anfield's atmosphere but it definitely seems to have improved recently. You could say the same for Old Trafford too.

Normally I'd agree but, watching some of their live games last season, I was actually impressed at the singing that came from all four sides of the ground. They've also got a songbook that is significantly better than most of the league.

Not really cherry picking bud. In amongst the pointless bickering, the point I was trying to make was that a newly built stadium wouldn't necessarily be soulless. The risk would obviously be there though if they got the design wrong.

Good article that. I actually think it's now a big eight though, rather than seven, as Villa are only going to get stronger & also have seriously wealthy owners.

Higher is higher, the rest is semantics. The stadium that you singled out as having a soulless matchday experience compared to SJP is, in fact, rated higher than SJP for that very thing by actual visiting away fans.

So the Emirates is soulless, yet away fans rate it’s home atmosphere higher than SJP. Remind me again about own goals?

The case isnt closed at all, you lunatic. This was used to dispel the myth about the stadiums that get lazily tagged as "soulless bowls" by the likes of you. I look forward to you providing all of this evidence of the fantastic SJP atmosphere from away fans.

See, I disagree with that. If a stadium was built big enough to let back in all of the noisy fans from the last 20 years who walked away, with well designed & symmetrical stands, then you would see a much better atmosphere. The best option to improve the current SJP though is extend L7 to the Gallowgate to give it a horseshoe effect, then squeeze a new two tiered stand onto the East Stand plot, with a glass section taking its roofline up to match L7s. Your then keeping all of the sound in. Level 7 isnt great for views but if it extended around most of the stadium then people in it would feel like your actually a part of the match experience. At the moment there is a feeing of detachment when your up there.

A cop out if ever I saw one.

Here's a recent survey of best home atmospheres, from away fans who actually went. SJP is behind other stadiums that are regularly tagged as "soulless". https://www.midnite.com/rundown/best-worst-premier-league-grounds-atmosphere