Wallsendmag

Watching it now on SSN. To be honest it doesn't seem too bad at all and from a fans perspective, extra European games and extra European away trips could even mean that mere members like myself could be in with a sniff of tickets for some of the away games as those who currently hoover up the tickets will have to be a bit more selective. Football sold out a long time ago so I'm not suddenly going to act all outraged now.

I was also at the 2nd 4-3 game and yes that was pretty good, as you'd expect from a 4-3 game. I was at the LC game when Steve Watson scored and we totally outsung them when we had the full end behind the goal. Same when we played them in the FA Cup a few years later. Probably done another 8 or 9 games at Anfield other than those I've mentioned and always came away totally underwhelmed with the place.

It's always been a myth. It was dead v Man Utd as well. First time I went there was in 1993 for Ronnie Whelans Testimonial. The place was completely silent but I remember thinking I suppose it's just a friendly it must be totally different for a league game. Went back there in 1994 for a league game. Kop was still a terrace at the time. It was the Hillsborough 5 year anniversary and emotions were running high. Remember going down on the old Armstrong Galley bus and being so excited for it. Guess what, it was completely dead again, save for the 3,000 away fans there. Kop sang at the very start and then stood in silence for the rest of the afternoon, apart from a very half arse rendition of YNWA right at the end.

Sat in the Miburn Paddocks yesterday near the Gallowgate and thought it was really good. The Strawberry Corner was excellent as usual and good noise from the NE Corner as well. Lots of people stood for the full 90 mins in the usual away area which had NUFC fans in it as Fulham returned 1,500 tickets. Had a lad come up to us in a NUFC top as we were walking to the ground and asked us where the Strawberry was (we were at the corner outside where Barker and Stonehouse used to be at the time so he was about 80 yards away from it). Had 2 Welsh lads sat to my left and a couple from Ireland sat behind me.

The daft sods have picked the 70th minute to do it as well, which is around the same time most of them start leaving anyway

1993/94 was much more fun than the present day, but that's probably because football was more fun in those days. Personally my all time favourite season was the 92/93 one. The first few home games of that season were just totally off the scale. We had season tickets so didn't have time get there too early to avoid being locked out and I remember we'd park up at the Dental Hospital around 1.45/2pm and as soon as we opened the car doors you could hear the crowd inside SJP already in full voice because the standing areas were already full. Walking down to the ground and hearing all the singing from inside was class. Loved those days!

Was a strange one. Originally they asked for 10k and their owner put the 10k in, so then they said actually we need 15k and once they'd raised 14k they came back and said they wanted 17k for it. Loads of mackems started accusing them of foul play after that. They're no Wor Flags that's for sure.

Don't think it's any coincidence that the 2 noisiest parts of the ground last night were the 2 safe standing areas. The SE Corner which would have been 90% season ticket holders and the 1,500 in the area that Milan returned (100% member occupied). More safe standing should be right at the top of the priorities list in the summer.

It's not an issue. Just the usual mackems blowing everything out of proportion because when they were in League One it happened a couple of times. Ironically most incidents of missile throwing at their place in recent years have come from the home end and they were all glorifying in throwing missiles down onto us at SJP the bunch of massive hypocrites.

If that's the case I'm assuming they'll have to turn in all their coins/lighters/vapes at the turnstiles like they make the away fans who usually sit up there do.

I was in Level 7 in the corner so had a perfect view of the 2nd goal as it was angled right towards me, and whilst I wouldn't blame him for conceding it, a good goalkeeper more than likely saves it. This probably sounds a bit sill but he doesn't seem to be able to dive properly.

Aye my dad moved there in 1994 as a 42 year old bloke. He's 72 now and is still there in the middle tier with him mate of the same age. There's loads like them in a similar age group. Tbf to him he had to fill a survey last season about safe standing and he did answer that he'd be happy to move seats to a different stand if they decided to make his area safe standing.

Was Gordon definitely injured? It's hard to tell from up in Level 7 sometimes, but I thought he was still playing well and was our biggest attacking threat. Also didn't look best pleased about being subbed.

Wouldn't blame him for any of the goals last night but he just seems like one of those goalkeepers where everything that gets hit at him seems to go straight past him. GK a priority position in January.

In that case he shouldn't have come on yesterday. If he is injured he's not going to recover by playing. Gordon didn't exactly looked best pleased to be subbed for him and our attacking intensity completely died after the change.

We were also in L7 and that's the best I've known it up there since the old singing corner days. Was good to see wbry supporter who'd managed to get hold of one of the 1,500 Milan returns in the safe standing section actually stand up for 90 minutes and the standing continued round well into the corner which always helps the atmosphere I think. For those 5 mins or so when word went around that Dortmund were winning it was spine tingling! Interestingly although the Scoreboard didn't show that Dortmund had taken the lead it was pretty quick to inform us that PSG had equalised and then that they were 2-1 up which flattened the place considerably. In fact I didn't even realise that their 2nd goal had been disallowed and that they had finished 1-1 until I got back home!

No doubt about it, just not recently.

Thought he wound the clock back last night and that I was watching Shola Ameobi the way he was disinterestingly ambling around the place. If he's crocked he shouldn't be playing because he's been a waste of a shirt the last few games, and if it's an attitude problem he needs a kick up the arse. There's a lot of them clearly running on empty atm but at least they're still putting the effort in.

We sometimes let the small NE club keep the receipts to help keep them afloat so maybe not. I remember last year we let Benfield keep all the gate money from the Northumberland Senior Cup match.

They'd have charged £10 against any other team, like they have for every FA Cup 3rd game since that stadium was built and there still would.have only been 8k there. Piggybacking on NUFC for a quick few quid.

Tbf their owner has chipped in the majority of money for this "fan funded" display so he's been fleeced the most.

I was there that day as a 14 year old and it was an eye opener. A totally surreal experience. They weren't confident of selling out even though Roker Park only held 29,000 at the time so as well as giving us the entire Roker End which held around 6,500 they also gave us half the Clockstand Paddocks which took our allocation past the 8,000 mark. Outside was carnage. Sunderland fans being chased everywhere. It genuinely felt like a home game for us, it was totally bizarre. There was me outside Roker Park in my Umbro NUFC top and I felt 6ft tall and as safe as houses. Remember a Newcastle fan running onto the pitch just before Kick off with a stray ball from the pre match warm up and dribbling the length of the pitch with it before smashing it into the Fulwell End goal and gesturing to the mackems stood behind it. Other NUFC fans were scaling the floodlight pylons! We scored first and pockets of NUFC fans were celebrating all over the ground. O'Brien scored the infamous winner and again pockest of NUFC fans celebrating all over the ground. It was brilliant! We came out after the match and walked back to the car and didn't see a single Sunderland fan throughout the 20 minute or so walk.

Would tend to agree with this. I think priority for season ticket holders to go to away games started in the early/mid 90s when the season ticket culture in the UK really started to take off. I remember when we first got our season tickets back in 1991 there were around 4k ST holders so probably around 20% of the crowd. All your season ticket guaranteed you then was 23 League games and first refusal on our own seat for any home cup games. Fast forward 3 years to 1994 and around 98% of the home crowd were season ticket holders and we all got extra books sent out with our new season tickets every summer which we'd have to fill in and send off for away tickets. Away games don't particularly interest me these days. Been there and done it so it doesn't affect me but they should be looking after a broader spectrum of supporters. Maybe 50% of tickets sold to season ticket holders, 30% to members and 20% general sale.

Can't see it being more than 5,000 like but would be hilarious if we got 7k

I mean generally. He flaps at corners and crosses into the box. Puts everyone else on edge.