I love my job; 99% of the time it is an honour and a privilege to do the work I do. I especially appreciate the hours I am required to work; having a Wednesday morning off affords me the perfect opportunity to scribble these few notes each week. This joyous happenstance occurs in return for working one evening a week. Originally it used to be a Tuesday, but since September 2007 it has been a Thursday evening; I’m happy to do this, secure in the knowledge that I’m highly unlikely to miss any football on that day, especially since Newcastle United opted out of UEFA competitions, having won our second major European trophy, the Inter Toto Cup in 2007. Anything less than 3 points against Norwich on Sunday and it’ll appear that our boycott is continuing next season as well, which will come in handy when planning for next year.
Obviously there are the occasional down sides to this working arrangement, especially as the Europa League throws up the odd gem of a game; arriving home at half time in the Spurs v Shamrock Rovers game last November was one such instance. Another occurred only last week, when Athletic Club went to Old Trafford and won 3-2 in a superb spectacle of attacking football. At some point UEFA has slipped in the fact that some Europa League games can kick off at 6pm, for television presumably, which is why I missed Manchester City’s defeat in Portugal.
Thankfully I was able to see the magnificent Bilbao side tear through the Manchester United defence at will, securing a thoroughly merited 3-2 victory. My respect at admiration for all things Basque, but especially the beautiful and vibrant city of Bilbao, made for the first piece I composed for this blog back in July 2010 and for another piece when Ben and I visited last summer, which makes me regret I was unable to be there back in 1994 with Newcastle in the UEFA Cup. It is my fondest hope that when Athletic Club move to the new San Mames in 2013 that Newcastle United are invited to be the opponents when it is time to open the ground. In the present time, I’m very disappointed the return leg kicks off at 6pm so I’ll miss the game.
With such a breath taking spectacle unfolding on free to air terrestrial TV last week, it is a wonder that any other game of football anywhere could have received any attention at all. However, good old Newcastle United managed to make front page headlines with the off field antics that surrounded the reserve encounter with the Great Unwashed the same night. It has been a bone of contention among the conspicuous uber ultra element in the fanbase that home reserve games are increasingly being played behind closed doors at the club’s Darsley Park training ground. Obviously those of us with a reasonable knowledge of cycle tracks in the North Tyneside area are aware of the fact it is possible to peek between gorse bushes and leylandii hedges athwart the East Coast mainline and the Inland Revenue’s Tyneview Park complex on random midweek afternoons in order to see these games, but frankly why would you bother?
The 4 prior games in 2011/2012 that were accessible to the public, attracted crowds of 197 (6-0 v Norwich), 582 (3-2 v Liverpool), 317 (2-0 v Ashington in the Northumberland Senior Cup) and 186 (5-1 v Bedlington Terriers in the same competition) to West Allotment Celtic’s home ground Whitley Park, aka Blue Flames. Considering the latter 2 games will have seen about 50% of the crowd supporting the non-league sides, it’s clear a fairly tiny percentage of NUFC’s support have been bothered to stir from their fireside to see these games; undoubtedly though, there are those who bemoan the lack of access to stellar contests against the shadow squads of Everton, Bolton and Wigan that were played out away from the prying eyes of the general public. Presumably these zealous complaints will be at the Blackburn Rovers game that takes place tomorrow afternoon at 1pm. Fair play to them if they are.
After the previous Sunday’s emotionally charged kickboxing inspired Derby game, it was of no surprise to anyone that the return of the mackems to Tyneside, even if it was only their stiffs, would be met with the consequent, predictable increase in testosterone levels across both sides of the divide. Hence, the contest at St. James’ Park attracted a crowd of 2,995, which more than doubled the aggregate attendance of all home reserve fixtures this season that have previously seen an average gate of 320. I think it is fair to say the extras weren’t persuaded to show up because Obertan and Gosling were getting starts in this one.
From all I’ve read, the game was a bit of a cracker; Obertan scored a belter, our keeper had a meltdown and presented them with 2, before Gosling levelled and was subsequently sent off for “scoring” with a punch after they’d regained the lead, before Ryan Donaldson levelled things up in the last 5 minutes to make the final score 3-3. All well and good; sure there had been a non-stop exchange of profane, witless banter between the two sets of adolescent hotheads and there were numerous tales of depressing Mackem aggression towards NUFC supporting youngsters inside and outside of the ground by bullies twice the age of their intended victims, whose only “crimes” were to have been born close to a different river, speak with a different accent and opting to follow the local rivals of these brave men in expensive footwear.
However, that can all be put to one side, apparently, because of the “riot” that Donaldson’s game sparked, which caused the referee to stop the game, even though he didn’t. Play had already been halted because of an injury, but as I remarked last week, a lie placed on the internet becomes the truth once it has been repeated enough times, especially if you’re a Mackem. In short, this alleged mass act of civil disobedience was a gang of young lads who always stand in the top rows of the East Stand at reserve games and sing their hearts out for the whole 90 minutes, who were in the same position for the Blackburn youth cup game a fortnight previously, getting carried away with the atmosphere on the night and tearing down the large cardboard Sports Direct adverts from the back wall of the stand, though as the joke said, they weren’t fully successful, only managing to get 70% off. These were bits of cardboard, not boulders or Molotov cocktails; they didn’t hurt anyone and it gave the stewards something to do when the ripped remnants fluttered down to the pitch side.
As I say, I wasn’t there; I’d imagine if I had been I’d have found this conduct partly amusing and partly irritating. Let’s have some perspective here; this wasn’t a recreation of the 1990 play off a generation later, it was a bunch of daft teenagers sticking their tongue out to Ashley and Llambias; it reminds me of an unruly Year 10 class cheeking a supply teacher on a Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, things didn’t end at that point; whipped up by this minor result and feeling the flush of nascent masculinity in their loins, these pustular stormy petrels raced down to Eldon Square and attempted to break the windows of Sports Direct. They failed in this, but the very act was enough to afford a Northumbria Police spokesperson time on the local news the next day to speak in sombre and shallow tones about wanton vandalism, lawlessness and the destruction of private property, as well as providing another stick for the on-line and print enemies of Newcastle United with a stick to beat the support with. Meanwhile Twitter became the Monday Club in 140 characters as more and more Newcastle fans condemned this lot in increasingly intemperate tones that fought marginally shy of reintroducing National Service, while a dogged minority vainly and increasingly unconvincingly argued that this evening marked the start of a spontaneous popular uprising against the Ashley regime.
Here’s a controversial thought; what if the events of March 8th 2012 were neither of those things? What if they were just an example of a frustrated section of our support incorrectly channelling their righteous indignation against the particularly galling issue of the supposed renaming of the ground at the end of an emotionally charged week that had seen their club twice face bitter local rivals in games where late equalisers had lifted the roof off the home ends? Undoubtedly these youngsters are angry, marginalised and frustrated by the conduct of the club “owners” and wanted to vent their feelings; sadly it came out not in a constructive way but as a folie de plusiers at the main entrance to a cheap and tawdry discount sports outfitter. However, in the continued absence of any truly effective, large scale fans’ organisation, following the virtual disintegration of NUST and despite the sterling, tireless efforts of Utd4NUFC, whose work seems to attract the scorn and approbation of self-appointed keyboard cultural gauleiters, generally on the basis that these analysts of the predominant Tyneside Weltanschauung don’t approve of anything they didn’t think of first, the frustrations of sections of our support will manifest themselves in minor acts of destructive behaviour that are doomed to fail and will be seized on by those whose agenda it is to discredit sections of the support as incontrovertible evidence of the uncivilised and unruly nature of the club and the support, no doubt removing the regional magnifying glass from the barbarians on Wearside.
No doubt the events of last Thursday evening will eventually see banning orders and police cautions for those involved, as a predictably disproportionate response to youthful exuberance rather than any premeditated criminality. Consequently, it is beholden on those of us who see the ownership of the club by the fans as the only convincing way to stop Newcastle United being used as a vehicle for profiteering or self-aggrandisement (especially in view of the supposedly wonderful end of year accounts that butter no parsnips for the supporters, but show Ashley’s protection of his own financial interests becoming ever more central to the future viability and success of Newcastle United) to offer conditional support to those targeted by forces of repression, with the idea of growing the movement in favour of fan ownership by including these fans in our midst; the ideal will be the organisation of a disorganised but passionate subset of support among the corpus of Utd4NUFC. To condemn, to dismiss or to ignore these youthful fans is to miss a cast-iron opportunity to expand and develop the fans’ movement at our club, as they are the future. As Malcolm X observed in 1963 after the Reverend James Bevell led a march of High School students through Birmingham, Alabama, only to be met by firehoses and ferocious police dogs; "Real men don't put their children on the firing line.” Let us learn from Thursday March 8th; it should mark the date when despair ended and tactics began.
Clearly tactics were lacking in the last moments of injury time at the Emirates on Monday. While Danny Simpson is no doubt aware he made a poor decision with that final throw in, the abuse he received on Twitter was disproportionate and completely unnecessary; as unnecessary as Tim Krul’s artless tantrum to Van Persie it has to be said. Let’s try and get some perspective on this game; while it is galling to lose in the final seconds, we’ve done that before and we’ll do it again. I doubt anyone could make a convincing case that we deserved anything out of the game as both Van Persie and Gervinho ought to have put the game beyond us in the second half. However, looking at the positives, we’re still in 6th place with 10 games to go. While we must beat Norwich and avoid defeat at West Brom as a minimum requirement, if the season is not risk dribbling out in to dispiriting mediocrity, this is not the time to point fingers at individuals in the team; it is time to stand united. Let’s get behind the players and off their backs; support the club and support the fans that care.
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