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Official Newcastle United statement explains why yet another match has been moved

7 years ago
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Only days after four Newcastle fixtures were changed for live TV coverage, yet another has been moved for an altogether more bizarre reason.

The Newcastle United v Nottingham Forest fixture was scheduled for a 3pm kick-off on Saturday 31 December.

However, it will now take place on Friday 30 December with a 7.45pm kick-off.

The reason given by the club is that it will HELP supporters with their travel plans, as the end of the match clashes with one of these rubbish parades organised by the council on New Year’s Eve.

So moving from a 3pm Saturday kick-off when pretty much everybody is off work, to a Friday night kick-off when loads will have been at work, is meant to be a positive?

No doubt there is likely to have been pressure put on the club to comply but why can’t the council’s parade be moved further back?

It also raises the question of why was this not announced earlier when the fixtures were known some four months ago. If it was because they were waiting to see if the match would be moved for TV anyway, why not announce today’s news back when the latest TV live games were revealed last week?

No doubt some Newcastle fans have already booked travel/accommodation based on a belief the game being played on Sat 31st at 3pm was set in stone, once those latest TV matches were confirmed, taking us up to 2 January 2017.

You also of course have thousands of Newcastle fans who travel from outside the area who will now have the hassle of a Friday night match, plus of course 3,200 Nottingham Forest fans, as I’m pretty sure they will bring the full allocation.

Still, look on the bright side, at least now you will be able to see the Forest match AND the New Year’s Eve parade…

Official Newcastle United statement:

‘Newcastle United’s Sky Bet Championship fixture at home to Nottingham Forest has been moved forward to Friday 30th December (kick-off 7.45pm) in order to ease potential transport issues for supporters.

The match has been switched from New Year’s Eve, when thousands of supporters would have been leaving St. James’ Park at the same time as a significant public parade event at the city’s Civic Centre.

Five of the Magpies’ festive fixtures have now moved, with trips to Forest, Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers and a home clash with Sheffield Wednesday all selected for live broadcast by Sky Sports.

The home fixture with Nottingham Forest will not be shown live in the UK.’

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