Wallsendmag

Got this awful feeling their 2 wingers are going to have a field day against 2 of the weakest fullbacks they'll face this season. Would snap your hand off for a draw but I think today might be the day our great run comes to an end and it will finish 1-3.

So know them well and obviously believe that they're capable of playing in the BQN.

The charges at Blyth have gone up gradually over the seasons, they didn't just whack it up from six quid to a tenner overnight. I think it might have gone from £7 to £9 for the first season in the Conference North, then another £1 after that. I think there is a mental barrier about the round ten- it was certainly robustly debated at the time- but with an underlying hardcore of around 400 at Blyth it probably worked out when it came to the bottom line. A lot of local floaters headed down to Whitley Bay because they were hammering Twobob Welfare week-in, week-out. I used to see a lot of them at Bedlington in the late 90s. They'll go where there are lots of goals for a few quid, the actual level of football is a secondary concern. Whitley Bay were one of the lowest scorers in the league at home last season with 29 goals from 21 games which sort of blows your theory out the water a bit and Blyth tried to sign half of Whitley Bays team in the summer is because they must have felt their players were good enough to play in the Blue Square North. In the end Blyth lost possibly their best player to Whitley Bay in Robbie Dale. There's a lot of quality sides in that league, yes there's some dross like Tow Law and Stokesley but in the main the standard is very good, probably the best Step 5 league in the country hence the reason Whitley have won the Vase 3 years in a row but not the league. For between £4-£6 to get in it's great value for money.

You're probably spot on with what you're saying there. Can only really think of Everton and Villa that would be given a Category B status and the category B price reflects what the season ticket holders are paying if you divide the cost of their ticket by 19.

Must admit i'd go to watch Gateshead when NUFC aren't playing if the prices were reasonable. Me and the missus often take in a local game, usually at our local team, Newcastle Benfield where it costs a fiver to get in, or North Shields where it costs £4 or £2 if you show a NUFC season ticket at the turnstile, or at Whitley Bay, who have a cracking side and they charge £6. If we went to watch Gateshead it would cost us £28 just to get in and by the time you factor in travelling costs a couple of pints and a burger or pie we've spent the best part of £50 to watch a Conference match, as opposed to £20 for admission, beers, food, programme and raffle tickets at a Northern League game. Obviously i'm aware that running costs at Gateshead are massive in comparison to any NL club and that's why they have to charge what they do but it will always be difficult to attract the floating fan who isn't really a Gateshead supporter but who just likes to watch grass roots football at those prices. Blyth Spartans started charging a tenner a couple of seasons ago and lost around 200 fans (or 33% of their average gate) overnight. Must be a struggle for clubs to get the balance right. Best of luck to Gateshead, hopefully last night was just a blip and they can get themselves back on track.

Just went onto the online Box Office to get a ticket for this off me dads season ticket to save on the booking fee and postage and the cheapest available I could find was £34!!! How come they've made this a Category A match when it's live on TV on a Sunday afternoon when last season they had Spurs (who were a Champions League side) as a Category B match and that was played at 3pm Sarurday? Needless to say i'll be watching on Sky now, as will a lot of others i'd imagine. As for my preferred starting XI: --------------Krul-------------- R.Taylor--Colo--S.Taylor--Santon Jonas--Tiote--Cabaye--Marveaux ------------Ben Arfa----------- ----------------Ba--------------- Think it'll finish 1-1 which i'll be quite happy with providing we beat Wigan the week after.

We've got a terrible record against these and last seasons home game when they beat us 2-1 was just plain torture to watch. Think he'll go with the team that started against Villa which I would have no complaints about and I fancy it to finish 1-1 which would be slightly disappointing but not the end of the world. Hopefully there'll be 45k+ there after our good start to the season.

I did warn people on here before the season started that Level 7 fans moving to the Strawberry Corner wouldn't be a great idea because of the high amount of season ticket holders already there. My suggestion was the Gallowgate Upper as it had/has a low season ticket occupancy (blocks R & V must be less than 15% s/t holders), already has fans standing and singing and there would have been plenty room for everyone from LC to have shifted over and congregate together. The low roof also makes it easy to generate lots of noise so hopefully people will move across there next season. Before then if there's anyone who has moved to Strawberry Corner and is having problems with their new neighbours you could just go up there anyway on Saturday. Loads of space at the back of the Upper tier v Fulham and even against Arsenal there were plenty of empty seats right at the back. Stewards don't really seem to bother going up there much either although i'm sure that would change if it became busier.

Question number 6 on the list of questions the Chronicle will be asking Derek Llambias; 6. Given that level 7 was deserted in some parts at the Fulham game, is there any reason why those who want to sing can't all be sat together rather than upsetting fans who don't want to sing, which appears to be the problem in the Strawberry corner? What has caused the club to fundamentally change its stance to standing in the stadium?

We definitely did. Probably around 10 years or more ago now and maybe only for a match or two but it did happen.

You can still make a right noise and be seated. I remember when we first got promoted back in 1993 and for the first 5 or so seasons nearly all of our away support sat throughout the matches but were far noisier than the current away support who stand throughout the match. Also, in the late 80's and early 90's you had that section of the Milburn Stand in the Leazes wing which was probably the noisiest part of the ground and they usually remained seated throughout which goes to show you can sing/shout and remain on your arse. I can see the argument for the lads who go to the game and would prefer to stand as well (i'd put myself in that category). We had a section where 3,000 or so likeminded people could stand for 90 mins but it was never going to last and sooner or later we would have had threats of the stadium safety certificate being withdrawn or the capacity reduced. I agree that it's a nonsense not to have standing areas. I went to watch Schalke v Nurnberg last season and was fortunate enough that a Schalke fan managed to get me a ticket (€13) in the Nordkurve. 13,000 of us packed in, and I mean packed in, behind the goal. Atmosphere was incredible but at no point did it not feel safe. People should remember it wasn't terracing that killed those people at Hillsborough but the fencing which trapped them inside. However rules are rules. The club have the power to withdraw season tickets of persitant standers. The council/safety commitee have the power to close certain parts of the stadium so until there's a satisfactory resolution people will just have to abide by them and if you don't like it there are plenty of Northern League clubs who would love your support, would be happy for you to stand, and even have a pint whilst watching the match providing you swap your glass for a plastic one!

80 year old women in the Gallowgate? WTF. No wonder the atmosphere is all but gone these days. In my day an 80 yr old woman, or man for that matter wouldn't have dared set foot inside the Leazes or Gallowgate End and would have been content with a nice seat, a blanket and a flask in the old west Stand or the East Stand leaving the younger lads to sing, shout and swear behind the goals. Over 65's get cheaper tickets anyway so should be forced into the East Stand or Milburn stands when they reach that age. No need for them to be taking up more category 2 priced tickets.

Boo hoo you spoiled child. They say it takes a bigger man to walk away. Dont see why anyone should be abused for not wanting to let Ashley rub s*** in his face each week under the pretence of 'supporting the team' I see absolutely nothing wrong with that stance. Ashley has quite cynically calculated that he could spend the bare minimum in the hope that fans will be deluded enough to keep buying season tickets. That attitude doesn't deserve to be rewarded. Even though I hate to see St James looking less than full it's perfectly understandable for people not to buy into his make do and mend crap. I came to this conclusion, via a different route, earlier in the summer: 1. There are just much, much better things I can be spending my time and money on - I would much rather spend some quality time with my kids, or play guitar with my band. 2. The only thing I can do which will in any way impact Mike Ashley is to not give him any more of my money. This is what i've decided to do as well. I'll probably crack for the sunderland match in March but other than that I won't be setting foot inside SJP again whilst these idiots are running the club.

It would make sense if the family enclosure was sold out all the time. More often than not the singing section was totally sold out last year and then the Milburn stand L7 had spaces all around. Family stand is sold out to season ticket holders. Doesn't mean every seat is taken every week for example on Sunday my kids were at a party so i was at the match by myself. Looked around 75% full at best on Sunday like. I don't disagree, but it is sold out to Season Ticket Holders. Also worth noting that the "youth" section of L7 Leazes is still quite lively and were singing throughout both the home games so far. Is it definitely sold out to season ticket holders? Noticed big gaps in there against Arsenal as well, too many for it to be put down to people not being able to make it. The online ticket system always greys out all of Level 7 even though the 18-21 section looks just over half full and definitely isn't sold out and they also grey out the entire North West corner (Levels 2 and 4) and they have only been around 60% full for both games so far. I thought the reason it was extended was because it was sold out? Again, Arsenal game i had no one sitting in the 5 seats to my right but the regular ST holders who sit in them were back for the Fulham game. Holidays, bank Holiday weekend, change of KO date and time were all factors this weekend just gone. Remember Llambias saying it was sold out but i'm not sure that wasn't just to give them another excuse for dispanding those in L7 because there were big gaps in there last season as well, although nowhere near as bad as this season. Their decision not to sell tickets for Levels 2 and 4 in the NW Corner and those seats directly below the away fans is also a bit strange.

It would make sense if the family enclosure was sold out all the time. More often than not the singing section was totally sold out last year and then the Milburn stand L7 had spaces all around. Family stand is sold out to season ticket holders. Doesn't mean every seat is taken every week for example on Sunday my kids were at a party so i was at the match by myself. Looked around 75% full at best on Sunday like. I don't disagree, but it is sold out to Season Ticket Holders. Also worth noting that the "youth" section of L7 Leazes is still quite lively and were singing throughout both the home games so far. Is it definitely sold out to season ticket holders? Noticed big gaps in there against Arsenal as well, too many for it to be put down to people not being able to make it. The online ticket system always greys out all of Level 7 even though the 18-21 section looks just over half full and definitely isn't sold out and they also grey out the entire North West corner (Levels 2 and 4) and they have only been around 60% full for both games so far.

It would make sense if the family enclosure was sold out all the time. More often than not the singing section was totally sold out last year and then the Milburn stand L7 had spaces all around. Family stand is sold out to season ticket holders. Doesn't mean every seat is taken every week for example on Sunday my kids were at a party so i was at the match by myself. Looked around 75% full at best on Sunday like.

Thought it was very loud at times on Sunday but also had long periods of silence which never really happened in Leazes Corner. Looked across there quite a bit during the first half as the match was quite boring (I sit Gallowgate middle block M) and their seems to be a them and us thing going on. The same people singing certain songs, then others that wouldn't join in singing different ones. Creates quite a din when they all sing together though and will have more of an impact on the overall atmosphere with them being much closer to the pitch. Think it'll take time as more people join and others move out over the next few seasons and hopefully as it grows more and more people in the Gallowgate will join in because the design of the stand is great for creating a loud atmosphere. Must also mention the lads at the very back of the Gallowgate. They were making plenty of noise on Sunday and it seems as if there's more and more of them every game which is encouraging.

Possibly less than 40k there today?

Sure does. I attend more Northern League football then I do Premier League football these days because it's more enjoyable. Fiver in, stand where you like, half time pint in a nice clubhouse in a proper glass for around £2.30, a pie for under £1.50 and then a bit crack with the players/managers back in the clubhouse afterwards compared to £36 for the cheapest adult ticket on Saturday, sit down or else you're liable to be ejected from the ground, crappy overpriced beer and food, players cheating, and overall a bloody boring game. It's a world apart compared to what it was like when I first started following NUFC in the 1980's and I don't like it.

Not for Arsenal, I think it's safe to say at this point. That's not certain.. I'm pretty sure that they've known for a while that Ernique is leaving, so they've probably worked towards finding a replacement simultaneously with Enrique's transfer negotiations. I think you're giving them too much credit tbh. And you're giving them too much discredit..When you know a player is leaving, you start finding alternatives asap..It's common sense, not rocket science.. It's also common sense to have a senior left back at the club. We don't. It would also have been common sense to have made Liverpool wait for Enrique until we had his replacement in the bag. We didn't. Now everyone knows we are desperate for a left back (we needed one even when Enrique was here) which doesn't put us in a very good bargaining position. Not much common sense there.

Not for Arsenal, I think it's safe to say at this point. That's not certain.. I'm pretty sure that they've known for a while that Ernique is leaving, so they've probably worked towards finding a replacement simultaneously with Enrique's transfer negotiations. I think you're giving them too much credit tbh.

Pardew was on Radio Newcastle an hour ago saying Perch was ready and available to slot in at left back should he be selected. To be honest, if Pardew told me it was raining, I'd put my shorts and t-shirt on. I just made that up anyway.

Pardew was on Radio Newcastle an hour ago saying Perch was ready and available to slot in at left back should he be selected.

Never understood posts like this. Firstly if the topic really doesn't interest you then why bother opening it and then to take the time to actually post on it? So you can only comment if youre part of the Anti Ashley brigade? If those who didnt care about it didnt post then it would give a pretty one sided view on the 'issue' Ok then. You tell me in your own words what imput lovejoys post has actually added to this thread then.