OCOCOL

Take her you get a free drink

The other Amanda took over from Keith - that’s very clever songwriting that!!

Aye that’s Keith

Yeah I know Priesty - assume you know Drew in the same profession and also the loon that is Ian McCallum!!

Yes great lad knew him well - was at his funeral. Been away with him for weekends away. Gone far too soon.

That’s spot on. You get older you shake your head at the laughing gas balloons and bags of toot / ket all over the shop, the overpriced clothes and youthful machismo / bravado but if you’re honest we were the same in the 80s/90s/00s .. there just wasn’t the preening and posturing for insta likes which does a lot of us middle aged old bastards heeds in

I’m fawdon but used to be in the Blackies every night when the other mike ashley ran it. Know Chopras cousins and him to nod hello too. He’s no solano tho who was a regular

Tell more mate?

does he kna gossy hi st Ladbrokes has closed .. used to see him in there all the time the staff used to watch his back cos the daft Shite would have )5k in cash on him and be getting it out in view of everyone. still set the 4-1 mackems win on its way then missed an open goal for them, helped various Tyneside families with cashflow injections so an all round canny kid! He’s actually alright tbf just never grew uo.

Agree to disagree mate but it’s easier for the younguns to go to OT than Dortmund and we’ve always had a drunken away following - Antwerp away in the KK days and Bilbao were something else. We’ve also had the oldest average age of season ticket holders in the PL. I’m not quite sure what point I’m trying to make but to misquote Homer Simpson “Never blame the drink”. For all regular attendees you can’t deny we have a different mix of people (rightly or wrongly) at aways compared to previous years.

* Clark you’ve been reading too much RTG they cannot spell for shit “Lee Clarke, Chris Houghton” etc

I think there’s definitely an element of that. I was at the second leg of Barcelona v Liverpool CL semi at anfiekd when Liverpool came back from 3-0 down in the Nou Camp to win 4-0 and go through. What struck me was how calm the crowd were when 1 goal from Barca would have sent them through on away goals . I put it down to being used to success - if that had been us at SJP the crowd wound have been whistling before the 90 mins were up and collectively shitting our pants.

It's embarrassing but that's happened anytime we've played in Germany tbf and even Switzerland (Basel - I remember a lot of No Surrender chants). You will always get dickheads I think there are just more forums where people can raise it / complain about it. The dickheads are often emboldened and their xenophobia heightened by travel so people who haven't been away in Europe may have not seen the uglier right wing side of our fanbase before. Having said that I heard younguns chanting an unrepeatable song about Peter Beardsley and the alleged reason for his dismissal at Wolves - I challenged them to be told it wasn't racist and just a "frisk". I shook my head and walked off - you can't reason with coke fuelled idiots in my experience.

Mebbes the toot in Germany is shitter than here... or their lager is stronger - knocking a few people out of kilter

There's no room for common sense in this debate!! Seriously think this is a great suggestion.

Be interesting to see what happens. Mebbes Brian Blessed or Charlotte have struggled to get a ticket and had a word Really the club should have an open debate on how to move forward and also be transparent about how ballots work and the number of tickets given to corporates / employees etc.

Aye the lads I met after who watched in bars around KGX had a better time that we did at Wembley.

Different strokes for different folks I agree. I actually drink less at games now because the football is actually enjoyable - if I am honest I went to games home and away under Fat Sam, Roeder, JFK, McLaren, Bruce etc. out of misplaced loyalty and valuing the times spent pre and post match with a group of lads that I didn't see much outside of attending Newcastle games. Away games for many have always been about showing support in numbers and voice even away from the ground - taking over pubs, town centres etc - I guess (crosses fingers) that as some of these games become more commonplace people will not just go for the sake of it - unfortunately one result of increased success is that we will have a larger number of people with deeper pockets and connections to the club that will take tickets from legacy regulars - but this is pretty unavoidable.

I was with my little brother and he hadn't been to any European aways at that point so me and my mate gave him and his pals our tickets - they had to endure a 4 mile round trip escorted by the police to the ground whilst we watched it with a crate of lager and about 2000 other ticketless fans in teh square - after that was drinking in basement bars and it was lights out. I think we got the better deal. On the subject of mortal fans - this has always been the case and you generally see more states at European games than Domestic away games due to the length of the session. I know its not for everyone but that pseudo Shakespeare at TF Sam Dalling was appalled at someone pissing in a pint glass - god knows what he would have made of the portal urinals at Bruges or being pelted with bottles of piss in the San Siro 20 years ago. Football as an experience for the supporter has improved immeasurably and no-one wnats to go back to the 1980s but being horrified at someone pissing in a pint glass might mean you'd be better off watching on the tele.

I bet the atmosphere in Dortmund away from the ground was better than in - not entirely a new thing it was in Bruges in November 2012.

Tbh I could have told you the atmosphere would be shite tonight - sane as Wembley in the CC final. - a lot of younger away travellers were in square or bars not ground - lots of corporate / tourist fans - aye a few ppl overindulged but thus usually improves atmosphere I couldn’t do Dortmund I’m doing psg which is less attractive as a day out and the atmosphere will be better - just like Chelsea away in cup will be better than wolves. We can whinge but a lot if it’s just the popularity of football now, the success of the team and gentrified away support

NUST are part of the problem in a lot of peoples eyes though.

Keown comes across as a nasty bastard imho bit like he was on the pitch.

just always been a nicer place to visit particularly in the Highbury sats than trying ti have a drink or walk down either the kings road or Seven Sisters