True Faith article.

[Dr Venkman]

Absolutely f****** spot on, just wish this sort of things was able to reach the majority of dim witted tossers who read that s*** rag chronicle.

 

thats the difficult part like, speaking of which, can we start a petition to get anal sacked?

[Tom_NUFC]

spot on

[tmonkey]

Why does the writer expect Roy Keane to be under pressure from the media compared to Sam Allardyce?

 

Totally different scenarios. Keane has taken over what should have been guaranteed relegation fodder, a club that would probably struggle to attract a half decent player especially without Keane as manager, yet the money hes spent has made them into a half decent side that has a chance of staying up this time around, as opposed to a side that has the chance of challenging themselves for the title of worst team in the history of the Premiership.

 

Sam Allardyce on the other hand has taken over a squad with better players than your average lower mid table side, signed several players whilst spending around £25mill, and is supposedly a top class tactician, a manager with the potential to rival the likes of Mourinho and Benitez who was merely limited by Bolton's lack of ambition or resources - yet his teams in terms of tactics, selections, etc, look no better than those of Souness or Roeder, and has had us look worse than relegation candidate teams. It doesnt make things any better when this manager has spent the past few years moaning about not getting his chance at a bigger club - hes got his chance now, but hes doing nothing with it.

 

Rafa Benitez, Martin Jol, even Ferguson two seasons ago, plenty of other managers have been "unfairly" picked on by the media and their situations exaggerated, with constant speculation about them getting the sack, so its nothing new for the media in general to be picking up on poor results and quiet discontent and then blowing it out of proportion.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I agree with the article's jist, but it does completely gloss over how odd the tactics and selections have been so far.

 

But I suppose that's the definition of a long-term view right? You have to be prepared to put up with the transition period.

[Leazes1986]

Good article.

[UV]

even the most virulent of Allardyce sceptics will deny he hasn't a settled pool of players to pick from and too many of his current squad are well short of fitness and as a consequence not playing to their potential.

 

I wouldn't call myself a virulent Allardyce sceptic but seriously - "too many of his current squad are well short of fitness". What? How bloody long does it take to get players fit? He's had over 4 months FFS!

[Mick]

Another good read from the lads at True Faith

 

http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/tbawe.htm

 

 

BARBARISM BEGINS AT HOME

Monday 3rd December 2007

 

Bristol C h 3-0 (won)

Blackburn a 1-3 (lost)

Barnsley h 1-1

Port Vale a 1-0 (won)

Brighton h 0-1 (lost)

Cambridge a 2-0 (won)

Swindon h 3-1 (won)

Grimsby a 1-1

Sunderland h 1-0 (won)

Wolves a 2-6 (lost)

Tranmere h 2-3 (lost)

Ipswich a 2-3 (lost)

Millwall h 0-1(lost)

Derby a 1-4 (lost)

Portsmouth h 1-0 (won)

Leicester a 2-1 (won)

 

P 16 - W 7- D 2 - L 7

 

Anyone recognise that series of fixtures and results? No? Yes?

 

Well, they are the first 16 games after Ossie Ardiles was sacked and Kevin Keegan appointed until the end of the 91/92 season. KK's first 16 games. I don't know about you but as one who fretted, gnashed teeth and stotted my head off the concrete barriers in the Milburn Paddock in frustration at the time, I don't recall our new manager and players being slaughtered by supporters as they have been this season at SJP. It needs to be said that back then the quantity of our support on that last day at SJP when we faced Portsmouth (25,989) staring potential relegation to the old Division 3 and possible oblivion (Hall has told us he wouldn't have put any money in) in the face is less than 50% of the current attendances but I can't be the only one who rates those who attended that show-down at SJP as at least twice the quality of what we've had at SJP this season. At least twice.

 

After the Pompey game this season, I had the good fortune to have a bit craic with a Portsmouth lad. He was sound as a pound. He kept his delight at an excellent away win for them in check and just cracked on. The conversation turned to '92 and Portsmouth's visit to SJP, which he had attended. There was no holding him back as he waxed about the support from the stands. To paraphrase him he referred to the usual ends in grounds where the most vociferous gathered to give it big licks in support of their team. On that day in '92 every corner of SJP was bang up for it. Our Pompey pal recalled seeing old boys in the Milburn up and out of their seats and into the referee when he gave something against us, SJP's baader-meinhof wing in the mental benches just going off it at the drop of a hat - the East Stand starting off the singing, joined by the Milburn-Leazes Wing lads and the Gallowgate providing a relentless wall of sound Phil Spectir would have been proud to call his own, whilst our section of the Leazes howled down anything from the visitors. This isn't self referencing vanity from Mags about our support that day, it was one of the opposition. I recall Jim Smith and John Beresford later describing how they couldn't pass instructions to each other because of the noise.

 

Were we angry at where our club was languishing then (bottom of the old Division 2)? Of course we were, did we have misgivings about players on our books - bang right - were there some who wondered about KK's lack of managerial credentials? Of course. Did we believe in the just and righteous cause of Newcastle United? Well, only with every fibre of our being. We were united. Together. One Nation Under A Groove. Ya Bastards! Those in SJP that day shared a complete love for the club. Jesus, we've all cursed the B&W bastards down the years for letting us down and '92 was no different. We just didn't hear conversations about "lack of entertainment", "I never wanted this manager" -yap-yap-yap - we just knew the club 'kin well really needed us and if NUFC was going to go down it would go down with us, doing everything we could to give the players hope, encouragement and make life as unbearable as we could for the opposition and officials. Fifteen years later and the memory of that day is still with me but still with a lad who was in their end. He confesses to having realised what Newcastle United was all about at that match. Newcastle United is all about the supporters, our love for the club, our good humour, our defiance and our pride in our Geordie community, our city and our region. That's not Tory twat Sir John Hall Geordie Nation bullshit, its the real deal. Pure gold.

 

Have a look at those results 1-1 at Grimsby, losing 1-0 at Millwall, 4-1 at Derby, 6-2 at Wolves and 3-1 at Blackburn. I can remember how we all felt - desperate, heartbroken but at the same time absolutely committed to Newcastle United Football Club. Committed despite having never seen NUFC win a fucking spoon let alone a cup - nothing changes. I can't remember the players being booed off at HT in any of those games - home or away. Perhaps I'm wearing rose tinted geps.

 

And that spirit - the Portsmouth game where we took to the barricades - is still there. It's still there in the 6000 Mags who signed up for the trip to Ewood Park and gave a master class in how to support a football club. And its still there in the 50K+ attendances we pull in despite the mismanagement of our club over the last ten years which has brought our club near to its knees. For a club which has lost more than half a century of achievement, that has spent too long nowhere near the top of the game - those attendances are a perfect illustration of the devotion there is to Newcastle United Football Club - a club solely reliant on Tyneside and the North East for its support. We'll never be a day-tripper club. Never. The support, in terms of numbers is unprecedented. Manchester United has long been the club with the largest following in the UK but in the 80s when they were losing their way on the road to capturing an elusive Championship, they weren't getting 50K for all but the biggest games. When Liverpool went through a dip in the Souness-early 90s the gaps on The Kop opened up for midweek games when the day-trippers didn't fancy it. Celtic and Rangers - when nowhere near a bit of silverware have fallen well short of the full houses at Ibrox and Celtic Park.

 

But some of us have lost the plot. There has become too much of the "I've-lashed-out-for-my-season-ticket-and-I-demand-results" way of thinking. A misplaced pass will bring mass sighs and woe betide anyone who has a bad game. They will have the equivalent of a public disembowelling.

 

I think I know the reason. Disappointment. We've just been disappointed far too often. Premierships blown, Cup Finals lost and the piss taken by disinterested players (the Marcelinos, Luques, Viana et al) and charlatans in the dug-out (Graeme fucking Souness for fuck's sake) and directors just getting it wrong with managers time after time, but taking fortunes for themselves whilst we pay top dollar - bumbling from one balls up to another. That disappointment has curdled in some souls and its turned poisonous. At an ordinary club, supporters would stay away. But Newcastle United is no ordinary club. The punters keep coming and by and large we keep getting disappointed.

 

The burden of historic failure is placed on new managers, new players - so when a new man calls for time and patience, there is mass scowling and a bitter recanting of "50 odd fucking years of being patient" as though our new full-back is responsible for Lord Westwood, McKeag, Shepherd et al when he wasn't even born when Malcolm Dix was doing the rebel rousing, God bless him. Its a nonsense.

 

Does Allardyce deserve time? Of course he does. Will he fail with the current mood at SJP enveloping him and suffocating the life out of his players. Damned right, he will. And who then in their right mind would touch Newcastle United Football Club? Don't write in. We'd be the eternal poisoned chalice and only the seriously deranged would touch us. Fact.

 

Joey Barton is spot on about our support at SJP this season. He isn't the first to clock it - we've been saying the same thing for weeks online and in print and bemoaning the boo-ers and those flouncing off like spoilt children when things have gone wrong. We're not the only ones - The Mag and nufc.com have both been shifting about uncomfortably at the bad heads some of us have turned into. Joey Barton and the new players haven't had the benefit of a big bad Gallowgate crowd behind them. Joey Barton is right to wonder if all the rhetoric about our support is simply empty words. Right now, it looks like it is.

 

That said, although I'm not personally arsed either way that Barton expressed a few home-truths I do wonder at the wisdom of him expressing such views to the vermin in the football press which has clearly got the knives out and sharpened for everyone associated with NUFC and is all to ready to lie, distort and spin in order to destabilise our club. Had the comments came from someone with a bit more of a record at NUFC then I think it would have been more justifiable than from a lad I really rate but who is yet to have played well in our colours. And so it was entirely predictable that The Chronicle should populate its billboards with a hysterical and in my opinion misleading banner headline: "Barton attacks United fans!" on its hoardings and Wheyse Keyes Louise of The Guardian spin in her usual fashion as she glances longingly at a pic of her heartthrob Roy Keane and wipes the saliva from her chin.

 

The challenge however is obvious - get behind the lads and I'd suggest reminding those around you what they come to SJP for - to support Newcastle United - not to cry-arse on we aren't winning the league.

 

***

 

Blackburn was better but it still wasn't good enough. We are shipping far too many goals and look way short of being what a Sam Allardyce team is all about - well organised at the back (I'm sorry but although Bentley hit a nice free-kick, that wall was a shambles and maybe its time to consider someone on the line given Gerrard scored with almost an identical free-kick last week), strong from set-plays - our free-kicks and corners are woeful but Blackburn did feel a more ferocious level of competition from our players which was great to see. Where Sam is unfortunate is in his inability to put the same side out twice - particularly in defence. Our best defender is Faye and the challenge is to see who can get next to him and form a decent partnership. All of these new players, new to the league, in and out of the team due to niggles here and there isn't helping and we desperately need some stability throughout the spine of the side.

 

***

 

Anyway, John Gibson of The Chronicle gave us all a laugh this weekend as he wrote about the new players not understanding the intensity of Newcastle United. Hmm. Could he mean Mark Viduka with spells at Dinamo Zagreb, Celtic and Leeds behind him? Habib Beye from France's biggest and most passionately supported club, Marseille? Those in the Stade De Veledrome for the UEFA Cup SF might suggest it was a bit intense. David Rozenhal would have seen a bit from the Parisian radges at PSG and Alan Smith might have an opinion from his time at Leeds and Man Utd not to mention Geremi with experience of Real Madrid and the high expectations of Chelsea. Still, nice theory.

 

***

 

We have a big week upcoming. On Wednesday we pay hosts to Arsenal, who are without question one of the best sides in the world right now and coached by a genius. Newcastle United will need every hand on deck - and that includes in the stands - if we are going to have a chance against a dream of a football team. Saturday is no different with McLeish visiting with his new team and doubtless they will be on something of a high with a new face around the place and players looking to impress the new boss. A different challenge but we have to be up for it.

 

Newcastle United - Where Is The Love?

 

Keep On, Keepin' On ...

 

 

[Yorkie]

Aye really enjoyable read that.

[olliemort]

Wrote by a true fan!

[Mick]

I feel sorry for the fans that weren't around to understand just how good the atmosphere was even when we were really shite, it's a pity we couldn't work out how to get it back.  My guess is that it's either the shape of the ground although before we had the East Stand we had a bank where people stood so the noise could just go straight out of the ground.  If it's not the shape of the ground then it's the people now going or the lack of standing.

[ohmelads]

I feel sorry for the fans that weren't around to understand just how good the atmosphere was even when we were really s****, it's a pity we couldn't work out how to get it back.  My guess is that it's either the shape of the ground although before we had the East Stand we had a bank where people stood so the noise could just go straight out of the ground.  If it's not the shape of the ground then it's the people now going or the lack of standing.

 

It's more the lack of standing I think. In the terraces you were anonymous, all standing and squashed together, so even the shy ones would join in with the singing at the top of their voices. Now everyone is sat down and thousands of people can see you, so the shy fans who don't particularly like to sing won't be seen doing it unless everyone else is.

[Mick]

 

It's more the lack of standing I think. In the terraces you were anonymous, all standing and squashed together, so even the shy ones would join in with the singing at the top of their voices. Now everyone is sat down and thousands of people can see you, so the shy fans who don't particularly like to sing won't be seen doing it unless everyone else is.

 

I think I agree, I would love to see something done about it although we still had a good atmosphere before the ground was expanded to 52,000.

[Guest BooBoo]

A lot of the younger fans have been spoilt as all they have really known is Keegans years and onwards. Even then as the article spells out, KK nearly got it terribly wrong with a generally crap first half season in charge when we just avoided relegation. However the shows of support at the Baseball Ground (beaten 4-1 and three sent off) at St James for the POmpey game were incredible.

 

SJP really is a completely different place these days and in more ways than one.

[Guest sittingontheball]

It was already all-seater back then right?

[Guest BooBoo]

No, became all seater in 94-95 i think.

[NG32]

Its time for Newcastle fans to stand up and be counted.

 

 

 

 

 

Young and old.

[Mick]

A lot of the younger fans have been spoilt as all they have really known is Keegans years and onwards. Even then as the article spells out, KK nearly got it terribly wrong with a generally crap first half season in charge when we just avoided relegation. However the shows of support at the Baseball Ground (beaten 4-1 and three sent off) at St James for the POmpey game were incredible.

 

SJP really is a completely different place these days and in more ways than one.

 

OK, so how can we change it?  By that I mean the atmosphere.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

A lot of the younger fans have been spoilt as all they have really known is Keegans years and onwards. Even then as the article spells out, KK nearly got it terribly wrong with a generally crap first half season in charge when we just avoided relegation. However the shows of support at the Baseball Ground (beaten 4-1 and three sent off) at St James for the POmpey game were incredible.

 

SJP really is a completely different place these days and in more ways than one.

 

OK, so how can we change it?  By that I mean the atmosphere.

 

We need to get articles like the above out of print and into TV/Radio. As good as True Faith is it only reaches a small audience, even replicating it on here, Toontastic, .com only increases its range slghtly. Somehow getting it onto .cock might help (and it might be something that Mike/Mort would be open to).

 

But really people who were there and still have that burning inside them need to get onto the phone ins (local and national) and bang the drum about the positives of our support (Blackburn etc).

 

The media now have the Toon Army as a pack of baying wolves, well Wolves are very protective of their own packs and we need to start showing this.

 

Keegan showed what a postive momentum could do for this club, Keegan is gone but his spirit is still there, even if it is now a glowing ember. Lets get a positive outflow of Toon stories into the phone in domain, lets get the Ronnie to start a positive Spin campaign, lets get Ashley and Mort involved so we can include the match programmes and .cock, lets get all of the internet forums (fori?) together and push positive stories.

 

In the words of Eric Cartman, the Mirror, the Guradian, The Sun. They can all suck on my balls!

[NG32]

Lets have a metrosexual parade down Northumberland street.............oops wrong thread.

[Wullie]

New one's canny: http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/tbawe.htm

[garth]

Another good from the lads.

[NE5]

load of cack.

 

Interesting now they can't blame the fat bastard. But I'm sure now he's gone, we have a grand 5 year plan, we aren;t making trophy signings, and having some sort of warehouse somewhere we'll be well on the way to winning everything in sight by now.

 

 

[Shak]

Someone's in a mood.