Wallsendmag

Went to watch them play Derby County the other week. They looked really poor. I think it'll be touch and go whether they can stay up. We're doing a double header next weekend. Borussia Monchengladbach v Heidenheim on the Saturday and PSV v Ajax on the Sunday. Monchengladbach is a new ground/city for us so looking forward to that.

If they're throwing a load of cash our way I'd be more than happy with that. It'd still be St James' Park to me anyway.

It's a huge step up for him really. MK Dons have a 30,000 seater stadium and as recently as 2016 were playing in the Championship averaging over 13k crowds. Gateshead will forever be hampered by being so close to Newcastle amd playing in that hideous athletics stadium with only 1 stand open unless there's a big away following. They'll never be able to pull the punters in to enable them to be a sustainable Football League club. I think the Conference is definitely their ceiling.

Applied for the Arsenal ballot (category 2). My ticket was £41 and my 10 year old bairns was free which was a nice touch I thought, or more likely another fuck up!

Depending on how old your daughter is, applying for the family section gives you the best chance if you don't mind L7. Theoretically as @SteVsays applying for Cat2 should give you the next best chance of securing tickets as it covers in excess of 20k seats and a decent % of those seats aren't taken by ST holders, mainly the Gallowgate Upper, Leazes L4, L7 near to the away fans but I've had no success applying for Cat 2 so far and I've only got tickets in either the Family section and Cat 3 which is only the corner underneath the TV studios and the very front of the Leazes which probably covers less than 2k seats in total when you deduct ST Holders seats, so who knows?

Probably 0. It was mind numbing stuff it really was.

My mate Fergie was managing them for the last few seasons and was doing very well with virtually no budget but left to take up a full time role at Morecambe as head of Academy recruitment.

That American bloke who bought them not long after (Rob Rich?) didn't do them much good either I recall. Bought them a great big scoreboard which they couldn't afford to use, and little else.

I wouldn't go and watch North Shields if it was for free. Their mackem chairman has a massive chip on his shoulder and couldn't lie straight in bed. If he took me it was Sunday today I'd consult my calander. That club has had ridiculous amounts of money going through it from their Vase winning season onwards amd where has that money gone? Nothing at all spend on ground improvements (club house was paid for by lottery grants) and whichever manager has been in the dugout has had a comparatively modest budget at best. Most the fans have had enough. They were regularly getting 400/500 not so long ago. They had 185 there the other week and it'll go lower than that the worse the weather gets. Point blank refusing to accept any payment other than cash in this day and age is suspicious at best.

Felt like more tbh! Just about every home match seemed to be a tedious 0-0 draw! There was clearly a massive hangover on and off the pitch to losing to the mackems in the Play Offs the season before. The ground was completely dead as well. Just an awful time.

1 of my mates is on 1/6 off the ballet. Fortunately for him the 1 was PSG. He's openly said that if he's unsuccessful for every match from now till the end of the season that £37 membership fee was the best money he's ever spent to get that ticket!

I'd have to disagree. Looked completely dead in that 90/91 season and for parts of the 91/92 season. I'm too young to remember the really early 80s, I started going in 83/84. https://youtu.be/XzP_aZu2w74?si=1iSsBUto5fJ5lJli

We had loads of sub 15k crowds in the 90/91 season. I was stood in all them. Crowds picked up in 91/92 but still remember a game v Cambridge where the crowd was 13k and 14k v Southend. They didn't even bother opening the Leazes End v Southend! Edited: Just checked and we had 8 sub 15k crowds in the 90/91 season.

Leazes was called the Sir John Hall Stand when it was rebuilt in 1993 and the Gallowgate End was called the Exhibition Stand when it was rebuild in 1994 before both being renamed back to their original names in years to come. Wouldn't object to the East Stand being renamed after Keegan. He deserves it imo. As has been mentioned he, above all, shaped the club into what it is today. All of us who were watching pre 1992 with 13/14,000 others will vouch for that. He literally changed everything.

SBR came in during September with 32 games left to play and a more than capable squad at his disposal. It's ridiculous to suggest we were certain to be relegated.

Used to always get a discount for row F but as I say they stopped it many years ago.

Not classed as restricted anymore. When L7 was first build they warned that row F was partially restricted but they took that warning away a good 10+ years ago.

Tell that to my 10 year old son who was sat to my left who couldn't see the Leazes End goal! Obviously we swapped seats so he could have a slightly better view!

I had a restricted view seat v Burnley. https://twitter.com/jak19178/status/1712812203038986511?t=yvdORbi0TRMf6Qv8dlOViw&s=19

Think they were generally spread out but congregated together to celebrate after the Final whistle when the home fans had departed. Certainly from the photo's I've seen it appears the Turkish fans were dotted around in 2s and 3s.

Think at present safe standing in this Country is at a 1:1 ratio. Obviously the other issue would be that the East Stand offers some of the most expensive areas to view the game from so no chance of that going to safe standing. That's why it's always behind the goals or in the corners as theyres traditionally the cheapest areas to watch the match from so tend to attract a younger, more energetic fan!

Villa Park will be at 52,000 by the time the tournament starts.

Will get 20+ goals no problem this season if he stays fit.

I've been to umpteen matches at both venues and for regular run of the mill matches the atmosphere is truely dreadful. At Celtic especially theres usually 1000s of empty seats as ST holders give many of these games a miss. The Old Firm used to be good and I've been to a few of those, although not as good as made out, but even that is fairly poor these days due to the away fan ban. I was at Rangers v Man Utd which was deafening pre match and for the first 5 mins until Man Utd scored and Celtic V Milan which was very good as well but again I wouldn't say any better than the very best atmospheres I've heard at SJP over the years. Personally find Ibrox the better of the 2 venues. It's design gives it the edge for atmosphere.

I think the general consensus is that the ticketing changes have been detrimental. In my 40 years of going to SJP I've never seen queues outside beforehand like I did that Burnley game. 30 mins standing in a queue to get in is just ridiculous when it used to be less than 5. And nobody, but nobody can argue to me with a straight face that sending fans around the country with "fake" tickets designed to fail at the turnstile and making them walk around to the home ticket office for a replacement, often decked out in their black and white is a good idea either. It's downright irresponsible.