Ton Tons Black & White Macoutes!!

0-1 v Arsenal, 0-2 v citeh, 0-3 v Mackems; I was only being half serious when I confidently predicted 0-4 v Spurs the other week. Sometimes I hate being right; this was one of them. I wasn’t just right about the score but, seeing his atrocious performance that night, but my regular comments about the awful all-round game of Tim Krul were shown to be accurate as well. Responsible for 3 of the goals, his errors were thrown into sharp relief by Fraser Forster breaking the all-time record for clean sheets in Scotch football. The more time passes, the more obvious it becomes that Newcastle United made the wrong decision about which keeper to keep and which to sell.

Still, one positive for me was that I wasn’t at the Spurs debacle, on account of needing to work. If I had been able to go, I could have taken my pick from about a dozen free tickets I was offered by text, by Twitter, by email and via Facebook. Watching the last 30 minutes on a live feed, it appeared that the crowd was still well above 40,000 though nowhere near the claimed 48,000. Well done to all the Free Ticket Mags who declined to put money in Ashley’s pocket by buying tickets from the club.

The reason for the gaps in the crowd is no mystery; the toxic disaster that is Ashley’s ownership of the club is continuing to destroy the collective esprit de corps of the NUFC support. Pardew’s smug stupidity and tactical incompetence, welded to an unfeeling, asset stripping regime, has imbued a sense of either despair or indifference in almost every sentient Newcastle fan, where “habit” or “the chance of a few pints with the lads” are about the only reasons offered by lifelong match going Mags for their continued attendance at SJP, not to mention the utterly baffling situation whereby seemingly sane and rational people stump up the thick end of £200 for away games. While it is palpable nonsense to claim we’ve got anything other than a decent top 8 squad, even if all bets are off for next season, the whole ambience surrounding the club is at its lowest ebb since the death agonies of the Jim Smith regime in 1990/1991. Apathy is the key word. Why else could FTM and SAFC graffiti remain unchecked on a billboard on Grey Street in North Shields for upwards of a fortnight? Yes, that’s right; unblemished Mackem graffiti in North Shields. You couldn’t make this sort of stuff up.

The players’ reward for the Spurs performance was the free weekend occasioned by the FA Cup fifth round; obviously Newcastle United don’t do cup football.  Consequently, the gap in fixtures allowed the support to brood on the situation and, being frank, optimism was in distinctly short supply. The postponement of Heaton Stan’s home game against Chester Le Street allowed me the honour of attending the latest NUFC Fans United meeting on Tuesday 18^th February at the Irish Club. As Karl Marx so sagely pointed out; "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness." This is why the attendance was triple the previous one, which I found to be greatly encouraging.

It was also particularly encouraging to see that so many Fans’ Forum representatives were in attendance; having been relentlessly denigrated by True Faith, these fine, upstanding ordinary fans clearly see that NUFC Fans United remain the best way of holding meaningful dialogue with fans, especially with the unwelcome news that Lee Marshall screens all emails sent to Fans’ Forum members, though this questionable practise may change in the foreseeable future. It has to, if a spirit of transparent honesty is to be maintained; at the present time, the Fans’ Forum and NUFC Fans United are the only practical ways in which ordinary day to day dialogue between fans and the club can be conducted. Whatever we think of the club hierarchy, the fact remains there will continue to be ordinary matters of housekeeping that need to be attended to on a daily basis. The present mechanism offers a way for this to happen and I would question the motives of anyone seeking to destroy such lines of communication.

The evening began with an account from the coaches of Newcastle United Women’s Football Club of their financial difficulties and the lack of support they’d had from the club. As a lover of the amateur game, I found this to be an appalling state of affairs, but so did Supporters’ Liaison Officer Lee Marshall, who seemed genuinely disturbed by what he heard. I don’t know if he can make a difference in the future, but if his concern had a monetary value, NUWFC will be on a sounder footing in the future.

Next up a representative from that dynastic haven for resting Trotskyists, the Football Supporters’ Federation, a Mackem called Michael Brunskill whose mother is a sometime comrade of the absent FSF ruler Kevin “Air” Miles, who was unavoidably detained sipping Caipirinhas on the Copocabana, turned up to provide a hagiographic oration as to the unending perfection of True Faith magazine. Perhaps young Michael ought to have checked his audience before opening his big gob, as in attendance were several members of the Newcastle United Fans’ Forum, who have been on the end of unending on-line obloquy from that publication of late, much to their chagrin it has to be said. Indeed, with 2 possible exceptions of those present in that room, it would have to be said that True Faith’s stance has had the effect of alienating many of Newcastle United’s most loyal supporters. However, parking that thought for the moment, Kim Jong-Brunskill did make the excellent point that the Football Supporters Federation is free to join and doing so in no way endorses their partnership with bookmakers William Hill, who sponsored their awards last year, where Stand AMF, for whom I write, won the Fanzine of the Year award. Go to http://www.fsf.org.uk/join/ and give some of the Shachmanite soccerphiles some of their entrist medicine.

Talking of entrism, the day before the NUFC Fans United meeting, NUST had announced the results of their elections. It had been my stated intention to stand in this process but, as many of you are aware, the on-going situation with my mother’s ill health (she has been in North Tyneside General Hospital for over a month now with delirium associated with vascular dementia and, as yet, we have no indication of when she will be allowed home and what her future home life will consist of) means that I have neither the time nor the energy to devote sufficient attention to saving both my club and the reputation of NUST among the wider supporter base, as well as the current membership of approximately 771. Consequently, the election was uncontested; Peter Fanning, the person whose name was put to the appalling breach of protocol that saw NUST excluded from the Fans Forum by posting the minutes of that initial meeting before the club did, and Colin Whittle were re-elected. As yet I’m unaware of which 3 of the previous board have stood down, but they have been replaced by Mike Ashley Out Campaign leader Graeme Cansdale, NUFC Daily Blog author Ciaran Donaghy and Michael Martin, editor of the Baltic Publications magazine True Faith.

Considering the fraught nature of NUFC fan politics, it was wonderful to see two of the newly elected NUST board members Graeme and Ciaran at the NUFC Fans United meeting. From chats with both of them, I can happily state they are lifelong Mags and are the kind of quiet, sincere grafters NUST needs on its board if they are going to keep the promise made at their AGM and attempt to engage meaningfully with ordinary members of the Trust. Sadly, because of NUST’s conduct after the first Fans’ Forum meeting, they have proved themselves to be currently unfit for the purpose of representing ordinary non NUST members among the support, because of their intransigence in refusing to apologise for their breach of protocol in posting the minutes of the first meeting before the agreed embargo had expired. As an ordinary member of NUST’s rank and file, I remain appalled by this error, either of tactics or judgement, and feel that until such time as NUST gets its act together, then NUFC Fans United will remain the only legitimate voice of NUFC’s supporter base; out ballot box outgunning NUST’s decommissioned Armalite, as it were.However, I do still hold a residual belief in the potential of NUST to effect positive change. It was interesting to see a young intern in attendance who is doing some work for the NUST Board on supporter engagement; better late than never I suppose.

I came away from the NUFC Fans United meeting utterly energised by the positivity in the room, especially by the enthusiasm and integrity displayed by Graeme and Ciaran. I let both of them know, as an ordinary NUST member, that I feel they are charged with the responsibility of making NUST relevant among our support again. In my opinion, as an organisation, NUST has been dormant to the point of anonymity since the previous elections in 2010. I find it bitterly ironic that they have been unable to respond to the shifting tectonic plates of fan outrage during this time; last October’s Time 4 Change march offered them the perfect opportunity to reanimate themselves, but nothing happened other than the woeful mismanagement of the offer of a place at the Fans’ Forum. Now, with Graeme and Ciaran on the board, there is a chance for new blood to step up to the plate and really make a difference. However, I made it clear to both Ciaran and Graeme that as an ordinary member of NUST; I had some serious questions to ask of the Trust. While it could be argued that NUST deserve one last clean slate, lessons must be drawn from the errors of the past.

Unfortunately, as NUST has opted over the past few years only to meet with members at its AGM, it is very difficult to ask questions of the Trust in a meaningful, public way. Consequently, I posted my proposed questions on Twitter to the accounts of @nufctrust, as well as the personal accounts of @Mike_Ashley_Out, @CiaranD1892and @tfeditor1892 as I felt this was a way of opening up public discussion. I also emailed the Trust with my three questions, in the hope of eliciting a response.

I was somewhat taken aback a few days later to receive an invite to attend the next NUST board meeting on Tuesday 11^th March, in order that I could ask my questions in person. Clearly, I had to decline their offer as I feel it rather undermines the promise made at their AGM that NUST will become more transparent and less distant from ordinary members, by organising public meetings which will allow NUST rank and file to interact with Board Members.  The fact is this; I am an ordinary member of NUST and do not require any special treatment from the Board, flattering though the offer was. However, I did congratulate the NUST board on their decision to become more accountable and outward facing. Certainly I look forward to being informed of the date of NUST’s next public meeting, when I can ask my questions in person. Clearly, if the promised meeting takes place, then my first question, namely what measures will the NUST board be taking to directly engage with NUST membership? will have been answered. The other questions will keep until this meeting as I believe they are in the wider interest of ordinary NUST members and NUFC fans as a whole and need to be given a public airing.

Hopefully, the meeting will include more dialogue than the eerie, resigned silence that permeated much of the opening 75 minutes of the Aston Villa game. Before the game I’d seen Graeme Cansdale distributing his Mike Ashley Out Campaign leaflets outside Shearer’s, while True Faith writer Chris Betts was inside, drinking a pint of Coors, which he described as “nothing to write home about.” Let me make it abundantly clear, I wasn’t spending my money in there; I’d nipped into Shearer’s to use the toilet and was astonished to see a collection of SV Salzburg fans, on a fact finding tour of the north east in relation to their on-going campaign for wider  fan ownership in game, occasioned by Red Bull’s destruction of their club and the need to form a new one (see http://www.austria-salzburg.at/en/history/a-bitter-end-and-a-new-beginning/ for a full explanation) supping within. As a result, I spent much of the game musing on the bitter irony of such people giving their money to Mike Ashley. Incredible isn’t it?

Attending this match with my son Ben and my Hibee mate, Graham who edits Mass Hibsteria and who is also a Newcastle fan, I had an existential crisis at half time. After 45 banal minutes of disengaged players phoning in an abject non-performance in front of tetchy, fraught, disenfranchised fans, enlivened only by Cisse’s ludicrous miss in injury time, I asked myself; what am I doing here? Honestly, it’s gone; Heaton Stannington is where my heart is. My desperate sadness is that, aged 18, Ben appears to have wearied of the whole charade.

But we must never give up; the lifting of everyone’s spirits when honest Mike Williamson cut out Benteke’s chance of giving Villa a goal woke the stadium up. Even when Remy hit the inside of the post on 88 minutes, we didn’t waver and the winner, when it came, was rapturously received, even if there was a sense of disappointment we didn’t win by 2 goals which would have entitled us all to half price Papa Doc Duvalier pizzas, as NUFC’s transfat takeaway partner of choice.

Let’s be serious though, the deafening noise when Remy scored is precisely why NUFC still matter; this is why we have to fight for our club. The solemn, silent march away from the ground proved this to me even more; the support realises that the 3 points, however welcome, are currently meaningless, whatever tedious waffle Pards relates to this game, which may well have been my third and final visit to SJP in 2013/2014.

The fact is this; where the club finishes, as well as who plays for or who manages us, while Ashley remains the owner, is utterly meaningless. We need Ashley OUT and 100% Fan Ownership IN, though 51% Fan Ownership as a transitional demand is acceptable. I would hope NUST are the organisation to energise the support towards a successful campaign for this end, but this really is their last chance to prove they have the heart to lead the fight. If they prove themselves unwilling or unable to do so, the loose amalgam of NUFC Fans United will always be there to provide fans with a voice. Comrades, seize the day.