Wallsendmag

Won't be next season!

Jeez.... I hope they don't forget that we're based in the North East of England and not West London!

They couldn't sell the first few rows in the East Stand in our first CL campaign in 97/98 (other 3 stands were ok but by the time we were in it again the East Stand had been modified and they could sell right to the bottom. However Champions League pitchside advertising boards appear to be much higher these days so there's a chance we could lose some capacity. Chelsea lose 2k seats for CL games (they won't have that problem next season).

Left on 70 minutes. Had to get 2 tubes from Wembley Park. First one to Westminster and had to change for Fulham Broadway. Still missed the first minute at Stamford Bridge as well due to a fire alert at West Ham Station which meant our 1st tube had to wait ages at every station as they were starting to get backed up as they couldn't go through there. Was gutted about missing the Extra time and a dramatic Penalty shoot out mind but it was a brilliant day overall. The train down was probably a 50/50 mix of Newcastle and Carlisle fans and the banter was brilliant. All really good natured with not a hint of trouble or hostility from either side. Just how it should be. Actually enjoyed the Wembley experience more than I did back in February for the League Cup Final. Crowd was only 34k so the ease of getting inside the stadium and being able to walk up to the bar and get served instantly rather than having to wait 45 minutes like I did at the LC Final was nice. Also I wasn't impresssed with our £26 seats. We were in Row 6 next to the corner flag and the view was poor so we simply identified a few empty seats in a far more expensive section and moved around to there! Also got to say 15k Carlisle fans made more noise than 33k Newcastle fans did back in February. They gave the team incredible backing. I know some people blamed the stadium acoustics after our appearance but that wasn't an issue on Sunday.

Don't mind Carlisle. Go across to watch them quite a bit when they're at home and NUFC are away/not playing, so hope he doesn't turn up there because that would put me off going.

Must be by a very small pocket of fans then cos I've been to pretty much every home game and a few aways and I've never heard it inside any ground for ages. Brought a smile to my face, and of course I joined in, when I heard it on the tube on Sunday but never heard it repeated inside the ground. Used to be one of our most prominent songs as well in the 80s and 90s.

They lapped the seat installation thing right up. They were full of it on RTG. I remember them saying how great it was that for a mere 8 hours of hard labour they were rewarded with a beefburger. Still to this day I'm not sure how he got around the obvious health and safety issue of allowing a load of unqualified yokels to be let loose on power tools to install seats in a large sporting arena but he did so fair play to him. They only started turning after Charlton beat them in the Play Off Final.

Heard it on the tube on Sunday but can't remember last time I heard it inside either SJP or an away ground. Shame really.

On the train home now. One of the best away ends I've been in for a very long time. The Anthony Gordon and Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall songs just went on and on, and on On the flip side the Chelsea fans were pathetic. If we turned into them we wound have something to moan about!

We usually go to watch them when NUFC aren't playing. Got to 7 games this season. Really good day out on the train and I'm always amazed at the amount of NUFC fans who jump on the train at Wylam, Prudhoe, Hexham etc doing exactly the same as we are! Think it's pretty much 50/50 for Sunday. Maybe Stockport very slight favourites.

Planning on leaving around 85 minutes to beat the crowds back to the tube. If we get caught up in all that we've no chance I reckon!

The data shows the average top flight attendance in 1990 was 20,757. Last season it was 40,416. The Keegan effect!

Going to this but also got tickets for Carlisle v Stockport in the League 2 Play Off Final at Wembley as well. That's a 13.30 KO and we are a 16.30 KO so it's going to be tight I reckon. Think we'll end up leaving the match at Wembley a bit before full time just to ensure we get to Stamford Bridge in time.

Reminded me of Titus Bramble on a bad day tonight.

He's a Chelsea fan. The Spurs connection was down to him being mates with Levy. A group of us bumped into him in a pub not long after he bought us and he told us then that he was actually a Chelsea supporter.

We were in Row T in the Gallowgate Upper in Monday night (2nd row from the back) and there's probably around 300/400 who stand continuously up there. Also noticed more people now appear to stand in the Strawberry Corner these days as well. The amount of people who now stand in the Gallowgate Upper combined with those who already stand in the SC could probably fill the entire corner as it is and that's before you consider the amount of people in other parts of the ground who would prefer to stand. Hopefully the corner is just the start of a bigger standing project.

I'm already stressing about getting tickets for next year's Champions League games. Ironically away games will be more accessible as I'll just use my dad's season ticket with over 160 points on it but home games are going to be chaotic. This stadium expansion needs to happen, and needs to happen fast. Whatever size it goes to still won't be anywhere near enough but it will make things marginally easier. The chances are with us being in pot 4, that we'll get 1 "super club" in our group and another very big club. Personally I'd love Real Madrid. Never seen us play them before and a trip out there would be unreal. I assume the Bernabeu would be fully completed by then as well. I think we'd take 10k+ there regardless of allocation. Just so excited man!

We'll see tomorrow I suppose. Still don't know why they would put a Liverpool supporting referee in this position. He's clearly going to be wanting Brighton to win which could clearly affect his judgement. There's a big pool of PL referees and only 1 game scheduled for tomorrow. It just feels so unnecessary.

Went to school with his dad. He was a thick charva as well so it figures.

I'm sure it'll already have been mentioned on this thread but we have a truly abysmal record in the PL v these. I remember beating them at home last season when we went 2-0 up early on but other than that I'm struggling.

Agree. It's not the missing out of Champions League that would bother me so much, it's more letting Liverpool in that would irritate me.

I hope we well and truely put these spineless bastards to the sword next week.

2nd goal looked offside? Frustrating when you think back to the Isak one they disallowed v Liverpool which looked far more onside than that.

This won't go down well.

They only had 25k season ticket holders back then, although they were capped at that number out of a 44k capacity. They had a few 35k crowds under Roy Hodgson for unattractive midweek games when they were in mid table.