bigfella

What a read. Hopefully days like this are in the not so distant future. https://www.nufc.com/html/1996-97html/1997-05-11forest-h.html That afternoon was just fuckin perfect. Bloke who sat in front of me used to always bring a little transistor radio to the match and keep all around him up to date with the scores elsewhere (these were pre smartphone days). Me and my mate usually left the ground pretty sharpish, but after the lap of honour we got talking to radio guy and ended up, just the three of us in a pretty much deserted Gallowgate End, listening to the last seconds of the Coventry game. When the full time whistle blew and we realised that not only were we in the Champions League, but Boro AND the makems were down, well we went ballistic, running up and down the now empty stand until we got chucked out by some laughing stewards.

Very good. Can I join the clique?

Tickets were very expensive at the time! Tickets were expensive, there were very few Bulgaria/Romania fans over here, lots of tickets were bought (and not used, the attendance was actually the numbers through the turnstiles, not tickets sold as per now) by French and Spanish fans as there was a loyalty scheme for the next stage. Remember showing my makem mate round the newish Gallowgate end and he was open mouthed at the change in the place, the last time he'd been in there was an 80's Simod Cup game against Derby, with an attendance of about 7000.

Sunderland are overshadowed by us though, and remember they weren't even considered a city until fairly recent times. Leeds I will give you though, I always feared that if the Saudis didn't buy us, they would turn to Leeds next. Massive club historically. Leeds? A massive club historically? Naa. They were only a big club for twenty five years, won nowt before the late sixties.

Naa, this thread is missing the Chronic Town EP (vinyl, original pressing)

I've just woken up from a nap. We been taken over yet? Fables of the Reconstruction.

Aye, like every time Dawn Thewlis is mentioned, someone will call her "kipper knickers" - it's literally '70s schoolboy humour.

Yep, seems to be as many of us as them on there. Is funny watching them try to work out who is a mag or not like Anyone who disagrees with the barmy made up concensus of opinion on there is called out as a "mag".

Just looking at this again and wondering how much more scope for ground improvement there could have been if only Grainger had built Leazes Terrace where the fuckin tennis courts are. Built in the 1830s. Football started at SJP in 1880. We should have picked somewhere away from it I wasn't being, like, entirely serious

Just looking at this again and wondering how much more scope for ground improvement there could have been if only Grainger had built Leazes Terrace where the fuckin tennis courts are.

Surely the car parks in a complete new build ground would be under the stands? I think moving the car park to the gallowgate end in this mockup was just a bit of artistic license.

Welcome To The Occupation Excellent. And yes, I'll take you up on that offer of a pint when all this madness is over.

Approximately 70,000. The present East Stand only holds 5,500, the Milburn stand, without L7, seats over 8,000. When it was constructed, level seven added approximately 15,500 to the capacity.

Doubt R.E.M. will ever get back together, they did things properly in terms of sharing the songwriting royalties etc, so none of them need the money.

The last time we talked, was when Keegan came back as manager and I was considering a return, but obviously changed my mind when it all went tits up. Never been back. Doubt I ever will now. I jacked in my season ticket when Fat Sham got the job, so at least I can say that Ashley has never had one penny out of me.

Definitely, I’ve expressed the same on here. It’s a lot easier to fuck a match off if it’s on some industrial estate next to an IKEA, rather than the middle of a city centre, 5 mins from loads of bars and a night out Said this for years. So what explains our (certainly when I was still going) extraordinary away support, when clearly the opposite is true, considering our fans have got to travel much further than any others? Away following is a completely different phenomenon and metric of measurement to home support. They are simply not comparable. We'll always have a good away following because we have a core of 5k who will follow us everywhere, and travel anywhere in the country, and a good amount of southern based fans for more distant trips. In terms of home numbers, you can undoubtedly attribute thousands who turn up simply because it's part of a weekend routine of drinking. Once you move that out of the city and make it more than a 10 minute walk from bars, loads of casual support will simply not bother, certainly during tougher times anyway. Newcastle is such a small city as well, with limited spending money in the population. Taking the fans out of the city centre would be massive. If anything the club should be embedding even further... bigger and better retail, bars you can use all week, plenty of options. We always have great away support. No one saying there isn’t a hardcore loyal fan base like all clubs and ours being one of the biggest. So selling out the standard 3k allocation is generally no trouble if still economically very impressive. The myth is we are a big club in just Newcastle alone and that we are parochial when in fact there’s probably more Geordies spread around the country than a lot of perceived areas in the country. London games definitely attract a different fan base compared to some of the northern away trips IMO. As the song goes “Geordie’s Here, Geordie’s There...” Aye I know, what I meant was that the football club makes up a bit part of the city centre... culturally and financially. Removing that reason to spend time in the city centre would be pretty risky. My reply was aimed bigfella[/member] and just an addition to yours Actually I’ve a question for bigfella[/member] which might sound weird Did I work with you around 28yrs ago? "Work" would be pushing the truth with you Lfee , but yes, we've had this conversation before, many years ago, when I first joined this forum.

Definitely, I’ve expressed the same on here. It’s a lot easier to fuck a match off if it’s on some industrial estate next to an IKEA, rather than the middle of a city centre, 5 mins from loads of bars and a night out Said this for years. So what explains our (certainly when I was still going) extraordinary away support, when clearly the opposite is true, considering our fans have got to travel much further than any others?

How long does it take for a pitch to set?......or do they know there won’t be any home games in the next month. The pitch lights are all locked away under The Leazes. The pitch can’t survive without them due to the lack of natural light. They’ve clearly ripped up the pitch as they know it won’t be played on again for the foreseeable. The pitch survived for years before they got the pitch lights. They will just be doing it to maximise the time they can have for the pitch to bed in. There clearly isn’t going to be any games at SJP anytime soon. Even if the game in played behind closed doors and as a home game and not a neutral venue, it could quite possibly be played at the training ground. Pre 2000 they ere fine. Not since they built up the Milburn and Leazes though. Naa, we had one of the worst pitches in the league in Keegan's first stint as manager; he'd often complain about it hampering our passing style. Wasn't till we got the pitch lights that it improved.

Be the saviours of football if they bought Man Utd. The red carpet would be rolled out. There would be an acknowledgement that sport and politics are separate issues. Aye, it would be full of articles like this praising them: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/11/04/manchester-united-fans-may-want-rid-club-glazers-sportswashing/ The red carpet for sure. Can we please cease with this cretinous paranoid nonsense? That Delaney prick from the Independent didn't seem very bothered. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/manchester-united-sale-saudi-arabia-interest-reports-latest-buy-club-mohammad-bin-salman-a8586866.html The difference in the tone of this article, compared to what he has said in the last week is quite remarkable.

Perfect.

I was at a big family do that night and the first person I bumped into at the bar was my cousin David, a Newcastle fan, so we had a beer and a good laugh at the makems misfortunes. His son, however, is a red and whiter and was late turning up to the meal because he'd been at the Burton match. We sat down and some time later David shouted to me "tell numb-nuts here that the makems have been relegated!" His son, a man in his thirties, had blissfully spent the last three hours or so thinking they had avoided the drop and no amount of explaining would change his mind -"nar nar, we're not down, you're just trying to wind us up". Later on he looked at his phone said "bugger" and he and his lass flounced out - I've never seen him since. Beautiful. But how the fuck did he end up with a Sunlun supporting son? All of my mam's side of the family bar big David are red and white Me fathas side, however

I was at a big family do that night and the first person I bumped into at the bar was my cousin David, a Newcastle fan, so we had a beer and a good laugh at the makems misfortunes. His son, however, is a red and whiter and was late turning up to the meal because he'd been at the Burton match. We sat down and some time later David shouted to me "tell numb-nuts here that the makems have been relegated!" His son, a man in his thirties, had blissfully spent the last three hours or so thinking they had avoided the drop and no amount of explaining would change his mind -"nar nar, we're not down, you're just trying to wind us up". Later on he looked at his phone said "bugger" and he and his lass flounced out - I've never seen him since.

If we were going to do things properly rather than tack on to the existing this is by far and away the best option. It was only the impatience of SJH&Co who prevented really. If they’d played the long game they’d of got their way. Those that stood in his way were very few locally. Pretty sure they went to Sunderland for most of their signatures. I was (am) a Freeman at the time and they were fully behind it and I’d imagine still would be. Was a trip down memory lane seeing the plans for the new ground as I remember getting a copy in a meeting at the time. The area as a whole would’ve been much nicer but a few old shortsighted few (who are probably dead now) shouted the loudest. Just didn’t think they would’ve had the stomach to shout the longest. Should’ve probably sent KK round their houses TBH. He’d of had them laying the foundations the next morning I reckon if the same plans were put forward tomorrow, they would be rushed through, no questions asked. Tory government now innit.

Absolute tosh to say we won't need a new stadium if this takeover is successful. The Ashley years have seen thousands of previously die-hard fans abandon the club (including me) and the average attendances to watch absolute garbage have still been around 50,000. I reckon new ownership will bring most back on board and any success will mean you'll attract a fair few thousand glory-hunters as well. Going forward, a 70,000 minimum capacity (which you'll never achieve on the current site) would be required IMHO.

Nah, green spaces need protecting. Green spaces can also be created Exactly. The late nineties plans for Castle Leazes had most of the present land the ground stands on being returned to greenery. I believe any new developments could be planned along these lines, even improved upon if money is no object. A new 80,000 capacity stadium wouldn't necessarily have to have much more of a footprint than the present ground and demolishing it would open up the view of the listed Leazes Terrace buildings; much more pleasant for the occupants, surely than having the East Stand looming over your house.