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Dear Roker Report,
I’ve just read the opinions on people leaving early — and it’s not just at full time.
From thirty five minutes onwards, people head down below for their half time refreshments. It drives me mad and it looks absolutely ridiculous on the TV. Remember Leeds at home last season? We were 1-2 down and the place was emptying out on eighty five minutes, live on TV for the world to see.
The cameras were focused on the fans leaving and the commentators spoke about it, yet we scored a late equaliser so those
who were desperate to beat the traffic and get home at 10:30pm rather than 10:45pm missed an absolute thunderbolt from Alan Browne; a perfectly-struck first touch that gave the goalkeeper no chance as the ball trickled towards him.
One solution for those who head down early before the break would be to maybe not show it on the screens in the concourse. That way, people might prefer to stay in their seats.
This doesn’t happen twelve miles down the road, so why are we so different? One thing people may say is “location”.
With Sid James’ Park in a perfect location right in the city centre, it’s a piece of piss for most people to get to and from, but it’s not like the Stadium of Light is miles outside the city centre — it’s hardly Stoke City, where the best way to get to the ground from the town centre is via helicopter.
There’ll be a few people that have legitimate reasons to exit early — maybe a few hundred, but not thousands. If we’re 0-3 down with time running out, it’s totally understandable and in those situations, I’ve been known to leave early in my own form of personal protest at the performance.
The atmosphere inside the stadium is generally crap. It was alright earlier in the season but the majority of the time, it’s silent. I even heard Dan Ballard shout for a header against Brighton — I shouldn’t be able to hear the players when I’m sitting in the stand!
I don’t know why some people go to games, because it’s certainly not to show their support.
The amount of people I heard whinging on Saturday was incredible, as we only climbed out of League One four years ago after finishing fifth in the table.
At half time, I overheard a bloke saying how awful we were. I didn’t think we were awful. I thought we were alright and the bloke sat next to him said Chris Rigg was man of the match so far, and he said “What game are you watching?”
“This is clearly your first ever season attending the Stadium Of Light, because let me tell you: that was far from awful and Chris Rigg was excellent, particularly in the first half. He was working hard, getting at people, taking on the full back and having success.”
I think people go just to look for an opportunity to dump all over the team.
Brighton are a well-established and good Premier League side and at no point did we look out of our depth or outplayed. It was probably a 0-0 game all day; we had a goal disallowed and they scored a goal that was never meant to be a shot.
Yes, we create far too little and when eight minutes went up for stoppage time, there was no sense of excitement, I knew we wouldn’t create a single thing and we didn’t — but maybe if half the ground hadn’t left already, we would’ve been able to push the team on.
I’m not panicking about the Mags on Sunday, and I think we’re more than capable of getting something.
It’ll be very tough as the place will be rocking early on, but that’s another myth in football: the atmosphere at St James’. Ask any self-respecting Newcastle fan — if you can find one — and they’ll tell you that the atmosphere in there is actually garbage most of the time.
I think we’ll probably have to weather a storm early on but if we can come through that, hopefully they’ll run out of steam after a tough couple of weeks of football and we can sneak it 0-6 or 0-7.
Haway the lads!
Dom Walsh
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Dom. Thank you for your letter.
The subject of early leavers and the fluctuating atmosphere inside the Stadium of Light makes for a discussion that, in one hundred years’ time when we’re all long gone and the players are arriving at the stadium on hover-buses, the fans will still be holding.
It’s not going away and it always makes for lively debates, but fundamentally, I just don’t think there are any practical and enforceable steps or measures that can be put into place in order to force people to remain in their seats until full time.
This week, I’ve seen suggestions as amusing as giving those who stay until the end a lollipop (an opportunity to strike a sponsorship agreement with Chupa Chups, perhaps?) and for Jimmy Montgomery to walk around the stadium, patting those who stay on the head in a complimentary manner.
All good fun, of course, but if anyone can think of any realistic measures that could be taken to solve the problem without alienating swathes of the fan base, I’d love to hear them!
As for the Newcastle game? It’s a huge fixture for both sides.
With the Lads coming off the back of a disappointing loss to Brighton — a game during which we actually played very well until we conceded the opener — and the Mags still reeling from a scudding at the hands of Barcelona, it could be a tense and nervy affair, but a challenge that the players should relish at the same time.
Dear Roker Report,
I was more worried about Sunday until I saw the Mags being dismantled by Barcelona.
We’re no Barcelona but their defence looks very weak, so if we can get at them and get at that goalkeeper, I reckon we have a good chance.
It’s made to say it made me feel more confident — but it did. Reckon Régis Le Bris will have taken any inspiration?
Ian Hughes
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Ian. Thank you for getting in touch.
Given Le Bris’ studious approach to football, I’m sure he’ll have been watching Newcastle’s clash with Barcelona with a keen eye, eager to pick up on any potential weaknesses in their armoury that we could look to exploit on Sunday.
For me, it’s a question of confidence.
If the likes of Enzo Le Fée are deemed fit enough to play a role and we can back ourselves to play in a positive and attack-minded fashion, perhaps that’s an approach that’ll pay off. On the other hand, will anyone complain if we spend the majority of the game defending ferociously, nab a goal from a set piece and go on to win? I don’t think so, personally.
Much intrigue awaits!
