Wallsendmag

It was better than the Palace game. The Gallowgate got a good rendition of Eddie Howes black and white army going for a good 5-10 mins at the start of the 2nd half which most of the ground seemed to join in with and there was pockets of singing around the Gallowgate but we just have to accept that these games will see loads of kids and families there (which is a good thing) and with the best will in the world they won't replicate the usual league atmosphere. If we get a home draw next with a place in the Semis at stake it'll be completely different.

The referee and linesman were both happy with the goal originally. Linesman didn't flag and it looked like the ref gave it. Bournemouth players surrounded him and he went over to speak to the linesman who then decided to flag for offside. Was pretty bizarre to be honest and goes against the famous old saying that you should never argue with the referee because he's not going to change his decision.

Was there last night. Thought we did OK all things considered, going so long without a competitive game and playing against a team that had just came to spoil the game and time waste. Nowhere near our best but still managed to control things with just a couple of scares in the 2nd half and Pope once again showing how important he is, being a virtual spectator for the most part but making a couple of quality saves when needed. Obviously being there I didn't have the benefit of commentary but there were 2 big controversial decisions both went against us and it was difficult to see why. The disallowed goal looked fine (I was in the Gallowgate), the linesman didn't flag for anything and the ref seemed happy enough with it. Then a couple of Bournemouth players complain, he walks over to the linesman amd he flags for offside when it was clear he literally didn't have a clue and was clearly told to do it! Then we had what looked like a clear penalty turned down for a handball. Granted I was down the other end of the ground but even from where I was sat it looked like a blatant penalty. Summed up a pretty odd display from the referee and I never thought I'd say this but I'll be glad of VAR making its return on Boxing Day. I don't think enough of our referees these days can be trusted to make the right calls without it. Anyway we're into the Quarters in a competition we have a hideous record in, and that's what's most important.

Starting to worry about ASM. Whether it's injuries, loss of form, a lack of confidence, it's just not working out for him at the minute. Probably the only player Howe has failed to improve. He just doesn't seem to fit in any more. It's a shame because I do like him, and he's clearly a very talented and exciting player but I do think we look a better team without him in it right now.

Difference is that it's individuals coming out with racism on that forum and individuals are easy to track down, especially on a public forum. You'll now need to register on the site to see the racism on the scale it is as it' behind a padlock, and I have a funny feeling it'll be a lot harder to register an account on there these days.

They like to keep their racism behind a padlock.

One of them was collared by Dark Justice and the video was all over the internet.

That place has got form for it. There's been 3 convicted nonces on there that I know of.

He played 4 games in 11 days starting with Crystal Palace on 21st Dec, Man Utd Boxing Day, Everton on the 28th and Leicester NYD.

Used to be part of County Durham marra so everyone who lives there should be MLFs.

They didn't need to close any parts of the Milburn or Leazes when we extended back in 1999/2000 and I reckon building technology has probably advanced these past 20 odd years.

I love that like! Not too dissimilar to the San Siro with 3, 3 tiered stands and a 2 tiered stand down one side. Would take capacity to over 65k as well.

They only have the upper tier closed off. The capacity is 35k plus whatever the away team bring.

You'd need to take 15k off that to be near the true figure and I don't believe 15k ticket holders didn't show up because it was too cold! Clearly plucking figures out of thin air

Don't think so. We'd still drink in our usual pre match pubs and just leave 10 mins earlier. I reckon most people would do the same (old habits die hard and all that). The only time you'd likely to get huge numbers in and around the stadium would be within 30 mins of kick off by which time almost everybody would be in town. People have a routine for the match. Concerts are different. Different people with differing habits going on sporadic occasions, and they tend to be at night time when a lot of concert goers are arriving at the same time as rush hour. The matchday operation would be like a well oiled machine fairly quickly I reckon.

34,195 there yesterday

Bit of a pisser this mind. Was really looking forward to this. I break up for 2 weeks on Wednesday so I was looking forward to finishing graft, getting over to the town for a few pints, match, then 2 weeks off work. Now I've got a 6am start to look forward to the following day which is never much fun after a midweek match.

They'll be closing down parts of the lower bowl as well as the already closed down upper section if this carries on. 20k there at the very most.

They'll have about 20k there tonight but will still try to claim 35k. Just watch! It's just a massive sign of insecurity having to pretend there's 10k-15k more there than there is.

This is true. I said a couple of pages ago that a big % of the crowd only carried on going during the Ashley/Bruce shitshow because they enjoyed their day on the drink in town. Lost count of the amount of people who said "the match gets in the way of a good session" or "I'm not giving up my day on the drink with my mates" when the whole keep your season ticket v pack ypur ticket in debate was in full flow. Newcastle United is probably more synonymous to the city they play in than any other club in the country. When you say Newcastle, people automatically think Newcastle United and a big part of that is due to the location of SJP and the support. The club would lose a huge part of its identity by moving out of the city boundaries. I'm all for a move to a new stadium btw. SJP is outdated compared to many of the modern stadiums but it could only be to another site within the city boundary. If that wasn't possible we'd be just as well staying put even if we couldn't extend and with the reality that it could ultimately hold us back.

Wow. No words other than the bloke is seriously unhinged. I get that the takeover has hurt a lot of them as the dawning realisation that they'll never be close to us again hits, but this bloke has serious issues.

The moveable dividers were still in place back then the only difference being that the away fans were in the corner and therefore had home fans either side. They would shift one of the dividers along if a small away support was expected and the demand was there from home fans. We still had 52k+ v Bolton for a midweek game in January around that time and they brought next to nobody that night. For the vast majority of games though outwith Man Utd, Liverpool and Mackems, you could walk up to the ticket office in the week leading up to the game and pick up tickets pretty easily. I had mates who used to do this as they couldn't get hold of season tickets. The season we finished 4th only 49k turned up against Leicester. It's been touched on a bit further up but for whatever reason there just wasn't that sense of excitement during that period compared to when Keegan was here or how it is now. Even big Champions League nights v Juventus and Inter weren't full and Feyenoord was only 40k and that included 2k from Holland.

Looking back quite probably. Personally I never look back on those days with the same fondness as the Keegan years and that's no slight on Sir Bobby Robson who I also adored. I like to read the "on this day in....." section on NUFC.com and a couple of weeks ago it was from a home game v Derby County on 2001. I think if we'd won 6-0 we would have gone top on goal difference and would have went into December on top of the league (we won 1-0 in the end). The attandance was 50,070 so over 2k empty seats to see us potentially hit the top of the table. Mental when you think what it's like now. More interest in a 3rd Round League Cup match these days than potentially topping the table back then.

I suppose the obvious thing to do when you've had to close down part of your ground for years because it's too big is to make it even bigger. Mackem logic.

Moving outside the city centre would be the biggest own goal imaginable. I reckon loads of people would stop going. I'm convinced that under the darkest days of Ashley when gates were still 45k+ a good 15/20k of them only carried on going so that they wouldn't lose their day out on the drink in town!