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Newcastle United Will Never Be Defeated…On The Terraces

11 years ago
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I was at St. Mary’s yesterday for what was personally in my top three worst away days. The others both being trips to Derby, where Kenny Miller ensured Derby’s only win of an 11 point season, then before that a 2-0 defeat where Marcelino was our best player. Yes, exactly.

We seem to have no cohesion between defence, midfield and attack, meaning we resort to a long ball time and time again. Let’s be honest, it could’ve been five. I’m not writing to discuss the merits of a short passing game though, or the resulting riot if Cabaye is sold; I am writing to discuss our support.

I’ve been following Newcastle away for 21 years now and whilst our fortunes have been up and down, the support has rarely wavered. I have been at Chelsea, Reading and now Southampton away this season and whilst the performances are nowhere near the heights of last season, neither is our support.

Yes, there is an argument in football that the Team need to lift the fans but we are Newcastle United and that rule does not apply to us. It made me sad yesterday that the half time whistle was met with some boos from the away end. There were no boos when we were 4-0 at home to Arsenal. The crowd urged the team on that day and in the end we did the unimaginable. We’re Newcastle United, we don’t boo.

Yesterday’s second half was met with the kind of apathy that made us sound like any other team in the Premiership although we stopped short of complaining en masse. That was left to Arsenal this weekend as their fans attacked Wenger with chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ and I hope we don’t go back down this road.

I haven’t heard us personally attack a manager since Fat Sham took Viduka off at Wigan. That decision was met with ‘we’re sh*t and were sick of it’, which I’d put as one of my lowest moments in football. We were sh*t and I was sick of it. We’re not any more, it’s just a rough patch. Last February we found ourselves 5-0 down at White Hart Lane. I had taken a manyoo mate and as we played out the last 20 minutes to a constant chorus of ‘Demba Ba Ramadan’, he turned to me and said ‘that’s why you’re the best fans in the world’. Let’s get that back.

I was lucky enough to be in Argentina recently and went to a Boca Juniors game. The ground is 45,000 and three quarter sang and pogo’d from before kick-off, right through a rubbish 0-0 until 30 mins after when we were finally let out. They were proud to be there supporting their team.

I know season tickets and NUFC seating plans have quietened SJP but there is no excuse away. We said we just wanted a team to be proud of and now we have one and they need us.

So a tough visit to Stoke next and then Craven Cottage where we usually get beat; let’s get the noise levels back and sing regardless of what’s going on on the pitch. It might, just might make a difference and let’s be honest, we need all the help we can get at the minute.

Keep the faith

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