Wallsendmag

*shrugs shoulders*

Everton never sell out their allocation here although last season was also midweek just after Xmas and the year before (Ryan Taylor wondergoal) was the Saturday dinner time kick off on Sky. They still usually bring decent numbers though. I'd actually forgotten about this match until an hour ago. Just can't get motivated about it at all. This has been without doubt the most tedious season since 90/91 when we seemed to draw 0-0 every week.

Suppose it could be the case. The cheapest possible price you could get for the Gallowgate this season was £450 but you had to pay £1,350 up front for the 3 year ticket and somebody just buying a 1 year season ticket without any discounts in the same stand for this season would have had to pay £602 so there's a £152 price difference which could be greater in more expensive parts of the ground.

Wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed the Championship. There were some decent away trips but at home most of our opponents just rolled over for us, a lot of games were won before half time and in general I found the overall quality of the league to be very poor and I was glad we only spent one season down there. Probably the best thing about it all was the way the fans stuck by the club and our 44,000 average that season was astonishing. Things will be different if Sunderland go down. I don't think you'll keep the nucleus of your team like we did and the fans certainly won't stick with the club in the way we did and I can't imagine it being very enjoyable watching your team at home to Bournemouth on a freezing January night in a stadium not even half full which will be the case. However I still don't think Sunderland will go down.

They've been given 2,800 but haven't quite sold out yet but apparently not many left. Good effort form them considering they only took 1,200 to sunderland last week. Clearly a trip up to Newcastle is a far more attractive proposition. Looks like it's going to be a complete sell out which is remarkable really. Shame we don't have a team to match the support. In fairness their fans have been a breath of fresh air in the prem this season. Some of the noisiest by a stretch. Probably my favourite set of fans from London. Always found Charlton pretty decent as well mind.

They've been given 2,800 but haven't quite sold out yet but apparently not many left. Good effort form them considering they only took 1,200 to sunderland last week. Clearly a trip up to Newcastle is a far more attractive proposition. Looks like it's going to be a complete sell out which is remarkable really.

They did the £10 a ticket deal for their last game v Crystal Palace and they're also doing it for their next 2 home games to try and get a crowd in. In their latest set of accounts for last season their total gate reciepts for league and cup were only £12.6m and that was despite almost 850,000 fans passing through the turnstiles meaning the average supporter paid less than £15 a ticket. However the cheapest adult season ticket cost £400 working out at £21 a game, the dearest £795 (£41 a game) and general sale admission prices were £25-£50 (£10-£15 for under 16s) which shows that they are literally giving away and heavily discounting 1000's of tickets every week to have such a small revenue/seat. They even had to do it when they played us. We all knew this anyway but when you look at the figures it hits home how many people they are letting in for nowt and practically nowt. Why anyone would buy a season ticket there I don't know.

I wrote our season off after the cup defeat to Cardiff. I couldn't give a toss whether we finish 8th or 9th. The only remaining thing that could happen this season to raise a smile from me is if the Mackems went down so us losing against Fulham and Palace wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

You are right, there have been no other events in the last 6 years that could affect peoples decision at all. Its entirely a case of this transfer...... It wasnt one or two individual straws that put the camel in traction Fair enough... so the Cabaye sale adds a straw to the camels back, when we signed Sissoko and Debuchy et al did that make you much more likely to renew? Obviously everyone is entitled to their own decision, I'm a bit biased because I would absolutely love to go to every home game. So signing a couple of players makes everything ok again, absolutely laughable. Is not even nearly what he said is it? It's a fair question. It's not though, it's borderline retarded. Did Gullit get sacked just because we lost to Sunderland? Gullit didn't get sacked, he resigned.

I agree that we can do better but with more a ambitious owner. I just don't think it's worth going for a new manager whilst Ashley still owns the club. Cool, we'll all just look forward to the mackems racking up another dozen derby victories and an unprecedented win streak that history shows is unbelievably difficult to reverse. Surely we can't sack our manager because he's lost the last 3 derbies. This is becoming pathetic. Of course we can. We can't win the league (fair enough) and don't want to win a cup or qualify for Europe under the current regime so as not to put our ultimate goal of mid table mediocrity under threat. As supporters, the Derby and local bragging rights is sadly all we have left to get remotely hyped up about nowadays and the last 3 have produced total non performances, 2 of them resulting in heavy defeats.

That was always going to be the gameplan and against a team like City, it's more likely than not going to work. Their more creative players need more time on the ball and the mackems' continual pressure off the ball will work a treat. It usually works for them against Man City. Don't see why it wouldn't work today.

That's sad. I hope if Newcastle ever get to a final we have a little more class than that. Anyway, I'm off to the pub today, I've got tomorrow off work, the sun is shining, and I'm going to have a party. I'll be back tomorrow, win or lose, and hopefully my hangover won't be too bad To the fans on here who have wished us the best, I salute your honesty. To the ones who want us to get hammered......Well, I understand that emotion too, as I know some Sunderland fans can be right arseholes. Give over man you daft tart. When we got relegated there were banners being draped over bridges and all sorts celebrating it from you lot. Don't think sunderland fans wouldn't be doing exactly the same if it were the other way round. It's just harmless fun, nobody gets hurt or owt.

I'd actually forgotten all about this game until a couple of hours ago. Hard to believe it's come to this as a former season ticket holder of 22 years and away match regular.

It's their first Cup Final for 22 years. I wonder how long it'll take for the first clearly audible anti Newcastle chant from the unwashed hordes tomorrow. I'll go for 2 minutes 19 seconds.

I would love to get the chance to ask him what has actually been the point of this season.

Problem with that bet though is they could draw after 90 minutes and then win in extra time or on penalties and they've won the Cup and you don't get a penny. That's why I took the 9/2 for them to win the trophy.

I've just stuck £40 on them at 9/2 to lift the trophy. Got this sickly feeling they're going to do it so £220 will numb the pain very slightly when it happens.

Never understood this fascination with 1992. Their crowds increased by a larger percentage in 1997 than ours did in 1992. Maybe we should make flags with 1892 not 1997 on them but then again maybe not....

Over 50,000 tickets sold so far according to NUFC.com.

I would happily take a defeat if it meant that would be the last we'd see of Pardew in our dugout. I hate the bloke the same way as I hate Souness and Allardyce. Win, lose or draw on Sunday, it matters not one bit. We'll either be 8th or 9th afterwards which is where we'll be in May after 38 games

Have to admit I am enthused by the Kinnear sacking, his managerial appointment seemed inevitable. I have turned into one of those mythical "would rather lose 4-3 than win 1-0" fans the media created years ago now. Just want to see us actually go for it in games rather than play it safe and pick up the necessary points to stay up. The thing is that we're only in February and there's literally nothing at stake now, we'll finish 8th or 9th, probably 9th, so the prick Pardew has no excuse not to go out and at least try to entertain all those people who bought season tickets for what has turned out to be an awful lot of games with nothing riding on them.

They give away literally 1000's of tickets for league games and discount many more. They even had to hand out loads of free tickets for the derby when it became apparent there was going to be 1000's of empty seats. For the Cup games such as yesterday they have to split the gate receipts between their opponents and the FA so they aren't allowed to dish freebies out so even when they're only charging £15/£5 they can't get a crowd in. If they stopped doing the free tickets and all the cheap offers for league games (I believe for their next 3 home league games season ticket holders can buy extra tickets for a tenner) and charged prices in line with other Premier League clubs they would struggle to average 25,000 for league games.

Fast becoming my most hated NUFC manager of all time and that takes some doing after Souness and Allardyce. Literally have to turn the telly over now whenever he's on.

Awful defender. No positional sense and can't tackle.

Spurs will bring 2k and I reckon there'll still be 45k home fans prepared to suffer it so I don't think your guess will be far wrong. 0-2