The reason supporters still go | Vital Football

The reason supporters still go

Finn_the_Dog

Vital Squad Member
Despite everything that has been thrown at NUFC including a semi-permanent (that is turning to concrete) split in the supporter-base, deliberately engineered by one fat man, this is a brilliant piece about what it means to supporters who go and does take you back to the days before Ashley/politics/all the shit. This is why you will never see a full boycott. This is why we all, at some time, went and lost ourselves - pushing all the crap in our own lives as well as the club itself completely aside for one brief time.

Forget- for 5 minutes- about all the shite and indulge yourself in this excellent read and let it take you away in its vivid brightly coloured description of what it’s like being a Newcastle supporter. Allow it to take you to a place where and when we all shared happier times. The simple pleasure of following your team with your chosen family.

Oh - and mercilessly sticking it to a mackem twat.

Enjoy.

https://theathletic.com/1553133/2020/01/22/newcastle-everton-away-fans/
 
Brilliant.....

I'm sure all of us who have enjoyed the true love affair with the club will relate to it

Its the very reason I cant abuse or accuse the current attendees just because they haven't made the same decision I did
 
Caulkin's the best journalist on the North East beat by a country mile.

I understand the pull of the club and the moments in life it gives you. Everybody on this forum will have had their special nights and days supporting Newcastle United. Usually with people they love and perhaps with people where the only real common ground is the football club.

That being said for a long time now I've held the belief that for the greater good people should boycott and the fact they don't is inherently selfish. Especially when we can see that boycotting does work. The closest we've come to being sold under Ashley is the same season that he had to give away 10'000 tickets to paper the crowd. Post Keegan, Ashley was terrified. He didn't know he could wait it out or throw a striker into the mix to calm the ripples down. If we'd made a united sustained effort that season I don't believe he'd here now.
 
I don't know if this is the case for anyone else but thinking about it - it was actually the fans who I fell in love with first

I didn't start going to the games until I was almost left school as my dad wasn't a fan and I played for various teams most Saturdays and week nights

So it was early 80's when I went to my first game. It certainly wasn't the football that attracted me - it was the atmosphere and sheer passion of the crowd that got me hooked

We were shite, everybody knew we were shite but the fans were massively respected around the country for doing exactly what they are doing now - sticking by their club through thin and thin
 
I will never understand why anyone would fund Ashleys business plan for the club by buying tickets and tat. But each to their own.

Why do people pay taxes they know have no say where their money goes? Well apart from the fact modern day taxes are taken out automatically. People are brainwashed the world over and ignorance is bliss. As well as the fact government and media in general have turned society into a bunch of self obsessed fucking zombies.
 
I gave up my season ticket in protest at Ashley, but even if he goes i wont be back. The whole structure of football in England is rotten to the core, we have lower league clubs going to the wall and the PL do fuck all to help them. They wanted clubs to give 250k last year for a leaving present, that would keep a division 3 team in business for months. We have players earning 300k per week ( i dont blame the players) and clubs are now laying low paid staff off due to the Covid crisis. Its all about how much money they can rake in. I have invested in a season ticket for my local team who are semi-professional, the players are playing for the love of the game as are the fans who attend out of love for football. I will always keep an eye out for the Newcastle result but i will never have the feeling for them that i once had, Mike Ashley ended my love affair but current set up has made me despise the PL and all it stands for.
 
Take the title of the thread for what it is,a succinct humourous piece of writing that most on here felt during our teens or a bit older for others,it's not meant as a political anecdote,just something we've all endured & been elated by,mostly the fkn lows but the odd high.
It's that what keeps us hopeful.
 
I was never good at football. In fact I’m not good at any sports. Which is a bit of a killer for me cos I love most of them. This is why I relate to Mc’s post about falling in love with the supporters. I was actually a little late in going to away games on my own - 1983 (first home game being in ‘74) and I was 17. It was Boro away. There was hell on. It was terrifying yet exhilarating all at the same time. I couldn’t get enough from then on in. And that was all through the Fat Stan/McKeag days - another era completely devoid of ambition. I was never one for bother or fighting but I loved being part of the away fans. The excitement level of going off to Barnsley on a bus or off to Manchester on a train on my own or whatever. Coventry; Derby wherever - made no difference whatsoever who they were playing or where or, indeed, what division. Proudly holding my Thatcher-inspired football I/D card (the photo of which I still have when I hadn’t shaved for a month and tried to look as hard as fuck by staring into the camera as if I’d just been banged up for a stretch) studying my ticket - the name of the stand you were to be penned in burning in your mind. Osmaston Road; Spion Kop; Platt Lane - these names took on mythical proportions. And off I’d go - at the crack of sparrows - to some far off land. It was more than an adventure - it was like an expedition - a sortie - like a black and white Chindit - behind enemy lines. The constant thought of “fuck! I’m gonna get my head kicked in here” nagging at you, praying on your mind and bringing you out in a sweat (particularly if you got yourself a bit paranoid on overdoing the old juice of guave on the way down). But still you went. I needed it. It got to the stage when I was a bit disappointed when we had back to back home games from time to time. Shit - at least 3 weeks to Sheff Wed or whatever. The adrenaline buzz of the game - last gasp winners or levellers - late sickeners. Hoarse beyond belief at the shouting you’d done. Lathered and knackered at all the effort you‘d put in getting behind them.

I’ve “liked“ a lot of the contributions in this thread
despite the conflicting views. Supporting NUFC is all about managing conflict in so many ways. It’s nothing new. And this is meant to be a pleasure?!

Yes - a concerted effort from the onset to rid Newcastle of the parasite would have done the trick I think. But we allowed the bloodsucker to get a foothold and continue to pay the price of that failure.

Yes, the game is shit now for all sorts of reasons and, as we’ve seen, it’s corrupt to the high heavens. I doubt I’ll be back either. I agree with what everyone is saying.

But for the young lads of today - going to away games in particular - is that so different to my day? They’re not all thick. They’re not all sheep. They hate Ashley. They know the score. Just as I did with McKeag and Fat Stan and the pirate before him. But at that age - it’s just noise. Yes - it’s about belonging and identity definitely - but above all it’s all about the fix. And, at that age, away games is the crack cocaine of football as far as a young supporter is concerned.
 
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1st game for me was with mi Mam & her mate,I was 6.Blades against the Owls.Can't remember anything apart from how green the grass was & how much I loved her,then the early teens & the Martins & Crombies.
Left Sheffield at 16,there was fuck all going on.
1st visit to Newcastle 1973 as an 18 yr old thought then I could live here when I'm older.I did about 1975 met a pretty Geordie lass.
2 sons & 4 grand bairns later know of goalposts & the name of their river,their team,their memories.
 
I was never good at football. In fact I’m not good at any sports. Which is a bit of a killer for me cos I love most of them. This is why I relate to Mc’s post about falling in love with the supporters. I was actually a little late in going to away games on my own - 1983 (first home game being in ‘74) and I was 17. It was Boro away. There was hell on. It was terrifying yet exhilarating all at the same time. I couldn’t get enough from then on in. And that was all through the Fat Stan/McKeag days - another era completely devoid of ambition. I was never one for bother or fighting but I loved being part of the away fans. The excitement level of going off to Barnsley on a bus or off to Manchester on a train on my own or whatever. Coventry; Derby wherever - made no difference whatsoever who they were playing or where or, indeed, what division. Proudly holding my Thatcher-inspired football I/D card (the photo of which I still have when I hadn’t shaved for a month and tried to look as hard as fuck by staring into the camera as if I’d just been banged up for a stretch) studying my ticket - the name of the stand you were to be penned in burning in your mind. Osmaston Road; Spion Kop; Platt Lane - these names took on mythical proportions. And off I’d go - at the crack of sparrows - to some far off land. It was more than an adventure - it was like an expedition - a sortie - like a black and white Chindit - behind enemy lines. The constant thought of “fuck! I’m gonna get my head kicked in here” nagging at you, praying on your mind and bringing you out in a sweat (particularly if you got yourself a bit paranoid on overdoing the old juice of guave on the way down). But still you went. I needed it. It got to the stage when I was a bit disappointed when we had back to back home games from time to time. Shit - at least 3 weeks to Sheff Wed or whatever. The adrenaline buzz of the game - last gasp winners or levellers - late sickeners. Hoarse beyond belief at the shouting you’d done. Lathered and knackered at all the effort you‘d put in getting behind them.

I’ve “liked“ a lot of the contributions in this thread
despite the conflicting views. Supporting NUFC is all about managing conflict in so many ways. It’s nothing new. And this is meant to be a pleasure?!

Yes - a concerted effort from the onset to rid Newcastle of the parasite would have done the trick I think. But we allowed the bloodsucker to get a foothold and continue to pay the price of that failure.

Yes, the game is shit now for all sorts of reasons and, as we’ve seen, it’s corrupt to the high heavens. I doubt I’ll be back either. I agree with what everyone is saying.

But for the young lads of today - going to away games in particular - is that so different to my day? They’re not all thick. They’re not all sheep. They hate Ashley. They know the score. Just as I did with McKeag and Fat Stan and the pirate before him. But at that age - it’s just noise. Yes - it’s about belonging and identity definitely - but above all it’s all about the fix. And, at that age, away games is the crack cocaine of football as far as a young supporter is concerned.


You've captured it brilliantly mate - reading that brought so many memories back for me

When I think back, I struggle to remember results, who scored, who had a good game, who had a bad game - Its the things like taking over Huddersfield town centre one year, wishing I had the balls to climb a floodlight, being proud as fuck to be part of an 80 coach convoy on the way back from Hillsbrough, getting chased through Stanley Park on my own after an Everton game, the jokes, the characters, the friends you made for life cos you sat next to a stranger on a coach one time

the current attendees aren't spineless ***** or sheep - it wasn't a brave decision deciding not to go anymore - it's a decision based purely on your thinking at the time

These lads (even under Ashley) are creating memories that will stay with them for a lifetime
 
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Cheers Mc. Yeah going everywhere in the 80s - mostly second division - when your local derby was at Oakwell. Thumped there 0-3 by halftime once. Fuck me - imagine that?! Did it stop me going? Was I a sheep? Was anything different then to what it is now? “Why you wasting your money and time on that crap?!?! It’s not like in my day (the ‘50s) when they had a team- they’re shit now! Why are you putting your money into McKeag?!”

Answer: “awwww fuck off granda! Yeah - I know all that but I’m having the time of my life!!!”

The only thing that changes Is your age when you succumb to reality and downright misery. Fuck it - let them crack on!
 
Are the people who go these days really having the time of their lives though? They look bored as fuck most of the time, apart from when they're on Tinder chatting up the bloke in the aisle behind them. Even when they do appear to be interested, they're recording the whole thing rather than watching with their own eyes.

Same can be said about the majority of twats at concerts these days.
 
Much better going to away matches. The SJP experience is not like it used to be. I like the drinking bit before and after the game. To be totally honest I rarely go to Newcastle games at all these days,even before the pandemic although I do watch my local team,they are in the Ryman Premier League not a bad standard only £49 a year season ticket old gits price!God knows when they will start competitively again and when spectators will be allowed back in. Easy to social distance as not many attend.
 
Some great stories and I'm not gonna pretend I know about away games, especially in the 80s. However I imagine a lot of things have changed since then, going away to someone like Barnsley in the 80s is hardly the same as going away to someone in the premier league nowadays. Apart from the stands being changed to seating etc I can't imagine an old division 2 game being the same as a modern premier league game. Money, sky and the premier league have killed the passion.
 
10 YEAR gone May since i walked away after 25 year of addiction.Pleased to say i now have the all clear and free to get on with my life once again.Though i cant help switching the radio on everytime we play.Once an addict always an addict i suppose.
 
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Caulkin's the best journalist on the North East beat by a country mile.

I understand the pull of the club and the moments in life it gives you. Everybody on this forum will have had their special nights and days supporting Newcastle United. Usually with people they love and perhaps with people where the only real common ground is the football club.

That being said for a long time now I've held the belief that for the greater good people should boycott and the fact they don't is inherently selfish. Especially when we can see that boycotting does work. The closest we've come to being sold under Ashley is the same season that he had to give away 10'000 tickets to paper the crowd. Post Keegan, Ashley was terrified. He didn't know he could wait it out or throw a striker into the mix to calm the ripples down. If we'd made a united sustained effort that season I don't believe he'd here now.

Hull protest fucked us when they all rocked up to the ground after the protest.The writing was on the wall for me that day when my best mates went into the ground.