Yesterday’s unspectacular but crucial 2-1 win at St. James’ Park saw Newcastle take a big step towards promotion, seeing second bottom Wigan slip closer to relegation from the Championship after another defeat.
We took to Twitter following yesterday’s game to get some of the best post-match reactions from the visiting Wigan fans.
It must be said, we found a real mixture of comments. Some fair, some complimentary, some bitter and some rather biased, but an interesting read none the less.
Here’s what the travelling Latics fans had to say:
What an great day out @LaticsOfficial #WAFC pic.twitter.com/bzzajfppeh
— Jay-Jay Babb (@jayjaybabb1999) April 1, 2017
Not disgraced at all, Newcastle nowt special #wafc #NUFC
— Deb C (@chapman_deborah) April 1, 2017
Lot of compliments from Geordies on my train about the #wafc performance today. Nice to hear but I'd have preferred the points.
— SJL (@livesey99) April 1, 2017
FT Newcastle 2 Latics 1. Another loss but unlike most of the others this term. Real grounds for hope. Too late? Maybe. But a start. #wafc
— Paul Kendrick (@PKendrickWIG) April 1, 2017
I thought Man United had the worst support I've ever seen, then I went to Newcastle. #wafc
— Adam Stott (@AdamStott94) April 1, 2017
Have to say b4 I leave what a classy club #nufc @NUFC are…from top to bottom all the staff been top-drawer and ultra-courteous. #wafc ???
— Paul Kendrick (@PKendrickWIG) April 1, 2017
One of #wafc's better away performances & we lost 2-1! Really does say a lot about our season.
— WiganSte (@SteFromWigan) April 1, 2017
£80 million pounds worth of mid table prem team couldn't beat us by more than one goal. What a club we are. #wafc
— No Perkins, No Party (@majesticjxcobs) April 1, 2017
Strange ref today #nufc v #wafc Shelvey and Ritchie go flying, no foul, but no booking for diving. (They were fouls).Burn shirt pulling…..
— Giles Phrase (@GilesPhrase) April 1, 2017
Not bagging any of them after that. They gave it everything. And pushed arguably the best squad in Championship history all the way. #wafc pic.twitter.com/QOLTjvvWTc
— Paul Kendrick (@PKendrickWIG) April 1, 2017
Fair play to Wigan and the 1,200 who made the trip to Tyneside yesterday. They made a good scrap of it and in general, appear to have took the defeat well.
Unfortunately for them, they look set for relegation to League one, being 7 points adrift from safety with just 7 games to play, but it seems they won’t go down without a fight.
Good luck for the future lads & lasses!
This is not working. 2 comments on last thread, not a lot of original content. No match thread. Twitter stuff as a main thread. No link to new threads.. The balance here is shifting to the catagory of ‘tat’.
It’s all getting a long way from the debate and discussion we used to have Shamrock. I did mention to Andy that people don’t go to blogs to read articles but they keep rolling off Olly’s fingers. I made a comment about 3 hours ago that is now buried history two articles ago. Can’t see the point if something isn’t up long enough for anyone to read or join in. And honestly I don’t give a **** what Wigan’s twitter users think.
I totally agree with Shamrock and Georgio that this is getting a bit silly with you opening up all of the threads to comment. They should be exclusive for at least 24 to 48 hours to allow people to get involved in a discussion. You are going to alienate people and, in fact, I think that has already started judging by some of the comments recently. For example, Sharpy yesterday.
Again, I agree on the fact that twitter comments don’t belong in the “featured articles” section. I wasn’t going to read the twitter comments but I thought I should just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Sure enough, they were as bland and inconsequential as usual. Click bait, but you will alienate the regulars on here if you continue.
Why don’t you emulate the Daily Mail and put Kardasians, WAGS and cleavage in every article if you really want to do click bait nonsense.
i have just gave up on this site to hell with it
I know I write some rubbish but it is in the comments section and people are free to concentrate on the real article and skip what I say. However, when the article is just a few meaningless tweets what are people supposed to say? How will that further conversation and drive traffic to your Blog?
It is sometimes entertaining to see people lose it on twitter when something controversial happens but this banality is just boring.
was stuck on a thread 2 threads back with Dubai Toon before realising we’d moved on to two new threads 😕 Can we please have a heads up when new threads go up. I tend to leave the thread up and return on and off so don’t always realise a new one is up. Also what was wrong with previous thread? only 2 comments on it .
great point mate, don’t see much chat on here now or debate , just comments that are hard to debate about when the thread isn’t up for long. 🙁
Andy, I thought you were gonna keep blog articles up all day for folk on different time zones to converse, and still have news articles running alongside for the ad hits ?
So many regular posters disappearing from here it’s sad .
Alone then?
Great
Kim honestly I’m not convinced they actually care about those of us posting comments. This could be solved with 3 very simple processes;
1) Put a link to new threads into old threads. It has been repeatedly asked but not done all too often. I k ow the writers etc are not always around, but they should make the time to check in close to when articles go up in order to make sure the link is in.
2) Be selective about which threads go up as featured and comment enabled. This was done previously, but not any more. Why? Laziness or just don’t care?
3) Take the adds out once the ‘traffic rush’ has slowed down, to increase load times and leave us regulars to enjoy a healthy debate.
3 simple steps. It should not take months to get this right. Any new person granted Administrator access should, that posts threads should be expected to do the above as a condition of having enhanced access. Either that, or the main person responsible for the site should make the time to come in once or twice a day and ensure it’s all ticking over properly.
These are my suggestions and expectations. If it is not implemented as standard asap then I really am done here because I’m not going to feed traffic into a site for people that do not value the loyal long term visitors’ opinions.
can only second that mate, I miss the way it was .
Well I caught up again, but bed time now in Malaysia… how many threads will go up before I have a chance to read again..? Hmmmm
Sham and Kimtoon: I am guessing there is a disconnect between writer and editor as Andy has agreed in the past that it is a good idea not to open up all articles to comments and allow some time for a discussion to occur. It seems Olly is just belting out his articles and might not be aware of the previous conclusions on this matter.
DT: you must like the heat mate, you are going from a furnace to a sauna.
Arsenal are weak. As soon as they score and City put their foot back on the gas, Arsenal wilt.
Hey guys,
Pretty much this. I’ve been away all weekend so not caught up with everything. I agree Twitter reacts pieces shouldn’t be in the featured discussion section.
So yeah, apologies it’s been a bit all over the shop this weekend. Back to ‘normality’ as of now.
From the news-thread: part of me wants not to revel in Sissoko’s misery but another part wants to gloat in a “told you so” sort of way. He was bought on the back of a good performance against Spurs and a couple of good games at the Euros. But we had seen him week in, week out and we knew his weaknesses – no final ball and not enough goals for an attacking midfielder. To see someone who thought that they were better than they are get their comeuppance gives a certain satisfaction.
(200 quid for a taxi across London is a bit steep though))
The same goes for Pards and Ugly John. Remember Carver said he was the best manager in the league so he was not exactly modest. Now he is in the Cyprus League which is about his level.
A bit more on Sissoko – a lot of the plaudits he got at the Euros was because their presumed new superstar was so bad. Sissoko still had no final ball and even his one assist was a mishit. He was good in comparison to Pogba though.
sissy deserves all he gets, might teach him some humility, though loyalty will be a lost cause I suspect.
Hope this blog gets sorted soon, really enjoy the banter with the old punters on here, not how it used to be for sure.
Pity really Olly seems to post some good articlss, its just the site is difficult to navigate.
I quite like Olly’s stuff. But, at the risk of being a cynical old git ( I am not THAT old) he obviously wants a career in journalism, and to put on his CV that he wrote 1000 articles for a top football site is a goal of his.
I don’t think I am wrong. Cynical, but not wrong.
It is not that difficult. If I write 4 or 5 articles a day for a month, I will reach 150 articles after only 30 days . Translate that to a year and you are at 1800.
That looks like a substantial body of work. But, is it? I don’t know? If it includes Wigan fans’ tweets?
Told you I was being cynical Olly.
Hi folks,
I am sorry to here your frustrations regarding some of the recent changes to the site.
I have appreciated some of the positive feedback on my articles but have been disappointed to hear some of the negative comments given my efforts. I understand there has been some changes, but please rest assured that I am committed to provide you all with original, insightful and enjoyable articles.
I am a devoted Newcastle United fan and it is a dream of mine to make a career of this and develop this site into one of the leading NUFC fan pages.
With this in mind, as we look to develop the site, it is only right that we produce more articles, giving you the latest news and views on all things NUFC. We aim to provide 1 or 2 featured articles per day and moving forward I will be more mindful of what sort of article appears in the ‘discussion’ section of the site. I am still relatively new to the site and in hindsight, I agree that the ‘twitter reacts’ article was not suitable for the discussion section.
I have several original and opinionated pieces that I plan to write and will make sure I put a link to new threads into old threads to keep you all updated.
Hope this sounds ok to you all.
Thanks
lol I’m ok with the heat mate but not much choice. Here in KL on business for few days then Shanghai for a few days, then home to Dubai on Sat. ?
Olly thank you for your reply and ongoing efforts. I’m going to be honest with you, because that is what is required if you want to take this road and actually make an impact.
There are many football bloggers out there . many can write threads. Many can write very good threads and they are not paid journalists. I have seen little from you that makes you stand out from the crowd.
You need to worry less about volume and more about quality content. Really put yourself out there and try to get exclusive interviews with ex pro’s or important club related figures of the past. In the meantime, don’t worry about ‘twitter reacts’ copy and paste nonsense and instead provoke thought from your readers. Spend some time doing some proper research and give the readers some solid facts that no rag or social media site has picked up on.
Don’t copy print from other sites. Andy for example does opinion pieces, but he does the very well. Your writing is nowhere near his level on opinion pieces. Take advice from him for opinion stuff, but don’t treat that as your bread and butter because after all, it’s just an opinion and anybody can write down their take on a subject to an extent.
Research material and get the facts/insights that nobody else has covered.
Put up a bleeding link from old threads to new threads too!
All of the above is just an opinion mate, but it’s a crowded arena you are trying to step inside and you need to be unique if you want to make an impact.
I think you’ve clearly missed some of the opinion pieces / original articles I have written in the past few weeks…
‘put yourself out there and try to get exclusive interviews’ you say. I got in touch with a French league journalist to bring you an exclusive interview about the curious case of Florian Thauvin did I not? https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2017/03/16/exclusive-interview-ligue-1-journalist-talks-thauvin-as-12m-nufc-flop-earns-french-call-up/
“Spend some time doing some proper research and give the readers some solid facts” you also said. I can only presume you missed this article – https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2017/03/30/nufc-hope-to-achieve-something-theyve-failed-to-do-since-2013-over-the-next-week/
“don’t worry about ‘twitter reacts’ copy and paste nonsense and instead provoke thought from your readers” – I have come to understand the latest ‘twitter reacts’ post had no place in the ‘discussion’ section however you’re acting as if this style of article is all i’ve been producing. I’ve written in-depth, insightful pieces on the St. James’ Park atmoshphere, challenged tactics/formations, gave in depth assessments of current players NUFC careers, created an alternate team of the season, looked ahead to the defining moments of our season, kept tabs on how the international break could have impacted certain players, made judgements on the individuals who must up their game and just recenlty, wrote a rallying call to fans highlighting the importance of a positive atmosphere at St. James’ Park
Whilst I appreciate honesty, I feel a lot of what you’ve said has not been very well thought through, completely disregarding what I have explained above.
I don’t expect you to worship everything I do, but in doing this, you’ve discredited a lot of what I have done over the past few weeks and that I don’t appreciate.
Opinions are opinions but a lot of yours in the above comment appear to be ill informed i’m afraid.
Olly i’m not misinformed at all. Look I’ll show you how easy it is to do a 5 things opinion piece aka Lee Ryder and Olly Hawkins;
1) The threads you have pumped out with any form of research and thought have been too few and far between. You have drowned the site in dross on the whole and that is why the regulars are drifting away.
2) The above 2 articles that you evidenced are nice, more of the same and you will do well no doubt but pump out click bait and you will suffer for it in the long run.
3) Look at your last few featured articles; a clickbait twitter thread, a post Wigan game thrown together in 5 minutes with no actual stats/tactical analysis, no match thread on match day, no traditional pre game thread (published one the day after the game?), just an opinion piece knocking fans for voicing their discontent when its deserved, a cheap dig at Sissoko again thrown together in 5 minutes with no actual research gone into his form etc…
4) You have smashed out close to a hundred articles in the short time you have been here and I commend your efforts, but the vast majority of it is forgettable tripe, outshone by the hoards of adverts in between paragraphs and with no link to the next thread.
5) Another lesson for you; try not to get into public spats with your readers, even if you think they are wrong. There are cracks to be found in everybody’s armour and yours will be exposed if you bite and show weakness. ?
Time to do a piece on how readers should all pull together and support the new writers no matter what tosh they serve up, just in case we upset them and the pressure to deliver decent writing gets too much.
Actual scrap that, just covered it in 3 seconds – and it’s patronising ballix, so forget it. Another forgettable article with no link to add to the list, just without the 6 thousand adverts ?
Ooh Betty, The cat’s done a whoopsy in my beret.
I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a c@nt. But really, it is an observation and not a criticism. It just seems that at every football match now there is a minute/moments silence/applause. Just about every match I watch has it. When I used to go 20/30 years ago I don’t remember this happening all of the time, at almost every game. Every PL player wore a black armband in memory of the tragedy at Westminster. I am not saying this is wrong, I am just saying I don’t remember so many tributes to so many people in days gone by.
Back to the subject of Olly. I understand the need to do a few “filler” pieces. Every article does not need to be up for a Pulitzer Prize. As long as a few are researched, insightful, interesting or original. I think he will be doing a better job that 90% of the writers out there. I know I gave him a hard time about click-bait earlier but that was more about just having too many threads open for comment and doing the bloody twitter comments thing, which is almost as inane as the comments themselves tend to be.
What bothers me about Ryder is that he is chief sports writer and has access and resources that people like Olly could only dream of. And yet, AND YET, he NEVER does anything that is researched, insightful, interesting or original.
It occurs to me that it will be difficult to do right either way. I have a whole host of original, opinion pieces in mind to write for you all, but if I produced 2 or 3 of these per day there would be complaints that too many featured ‘discussion’ threads are being published.
The main reason I toned down how many of these I was writing was due to the demand for less of these posts, as it seems the readers couldn’t keep on top of it all – hence why I’ve wrote the odd opinion piece but tended to focus on bringing the latest news.
I don’t want to hear anymore about the twitter reacts piece – that style of article may be quick and simple but they do in fact gain interest from several fans, who are keen to hear what some of the away fans think. I have admitted my mistake in making that a featured thread but I don’t think it’s fair to have that scrutinised in the way it has been.
And Shamrock, with regards to me showing weakness and interacting with readers. Would you prefer I said nothing? I have the right to defend myself when I believe harsh and ill informed criticism is being voiced. You made some comments that I clearly proved to be false. I can take criticism and constructive comments but you have disregarded a lot of what I have done.
No i have disregarded most of what you have done. You have evidenced 2 pieces out of 80 that are any good. There will be other decent ones there too but too far and few between imo.
However Eric makes a good point that filler pieces are required so it makes sense to have a few in there. Just need a better ratio.
You are passionate and full of conviction in defending your corner though and that is commendable.
The jury is out on whether you will prove to be good at this gig, but I wish you all the best in achieving it. In the meantime, i’ll critique you from time to time in order to keep you on the straight and narrow ?
Olly – I don’t think anyone is criticising your efforts and your genuine love of the toon. Just make your efforts a tad more original in a way that will provoke discussion and debate. A few days back you did a long piece telling us all it’s our duty to get behind the team. Not sure we need that mate. Concentrate on quality not quantity.
It’s the discussion we come for in general. If I want to read well informed, well written, well researched, insightful pieces about NUFC there are better places to go than a fan blog.
Olly, You have written some nice articles mate, but Shamrock does have a point. If you will allow me to explain, It is far better to write one good opinion piece that provokes debate per day than a host of rushed articles that no one can be arsed with. The regulars on here are used to the former type of article, many of us have done articles like that. I myself was terrified when I posted my first article that it wouldn’t be good enough. Truth is people will love it if it provokes debate, it doesn’t have to be top quality just informed and well researched or well thought out. As I said to Andy the news articles can be banged out for folk to read if they wish and for the Ads sake. The blog section needs an opinion to provoke reaction really, else there is nothing to chat about. If you have lots of opinion pieces than put them up , that’ll be great. Do take a minute to read some previous threads by Toonsy, Shamrock, Aussie mag, Big Dave et al all previous and regular posters, it will show you what we are used to reading. I am not saying you don’t do good articles , you do mate, but it can only help to look at some previous threads. By the way try and look at some of Prems stats threads too, excellent stuff.
Kim – nice to see you back on form. A couple of years ago I dreamt I was on a sofa watching a match with you on a giant tv and seconds later we were together at the sink looking out the window as you washed dishes and I dried. Nothing was said but this really spooked me. So much in fact I kept off the blog for a couple of weeks. What I was spooked about was someone else turning up in my dreams in his boots and cape! 😛
Well 😯 that knocks my dream about Alan Pardew into a cocked hat 😀
By the way who did the drying?
Oh you did, just re read it. sounds about right I never dry 😉
Troy gets everywhere mate
It was really really odd mate. It must have been your house too. Your TV was the size of the wall and nothing at all was said like many long married couples. Hasn’t happened since but I don’t know if I could handle Troy prancing around my dreams.
Enough of that though. Win on Wednesday which I fancy we’ll do convincingly we’ll be as good as up. Ritchie and Gayle look back to close to their best while Anita had a great game.
@Shamrock
a bit harsh on Olly there m8. he seems to be the only one writing at the minute. some of his pieces have been good, no need to shoot him down by saying he doesnt stand out or his articles are dross 😳
I’d image its hard to write during the international week with nothing happen with the Toon. give the guy a break. I’m sure the owners are trying to find a balance between paid pieces and commented articles.
Theres been a steady decline for a long time, well before Olly arrived. largely due to blogs appearing on facebook etc.
I dont see many new posters joining in the future tbh. times are changing, not just on here but many football blogs
Think a lot of people are drifting away from the game, too much money involved nowadays with the Premier League being the be all and end all. It’s the same with England, I remember being an avid watcher of all England games but I’m not that fussed now. Too many average players participating for what they can earn off the back of it rather than the glory of pulling on the shirt.
Social media means no one can escape criticism too, players are having spats with followers and trolls and their every move or mistake often captured on film. We are all becoming much less naïve about what really goes on in the world in general now it’s all out there on social media. We live in a world where folk will film a disaster or accident on their phone before thinking of dialing 999 .
This is how football journalism is now. It’s all about advertising. All you need to do is look at the Chronicle for an example. Smash out as many articles as possible, laced with adverts. The more articles there are the more you can charge for advertising. The content doesn’t matter anymore, all the site needs you to do is click on the article, they’re not bothered if you finish it or not. In fact they’d probably prefer you didn’t, they’d rather you click on the next article. I’ve never been a massive contributor, maybe a couple of comments here and there but it is sad to see this site follow the same path as all other modern sites. Just take a look at news now, that’ll give you an idea as to how much ***** is pumped out these days. There’s one particular site (Transfer Tavern i think), every article they write is just a copy and paste of tweets they find relating to the subject matter. Literally every article. Running a Footy website or blog these days is all about keeping advertising streams happy, they dictate what goes on.
Another example is this ‘5 things we know about this’ or ’10 things we’ve learned about that.’ It’s not reader friendly or infromative, it’s just 5 pages to click through rather than one.
Georgio: Troy was on on Friday night mate. He posted a comment in the news section asking me where to post after I had already been on there by mistake. He then disappeared again. It is quite funny really and shows up a few of the issues currently with this site 🙂
It is quite ironic that the most heated discussion in a while has come on a topic and article that everybody agrees should probably not have been open in the featured discussion area.
I agree with Gashley that Olly should be commended on writing NUFC related articles during the international break. The Daily Mail makes up their quota by showing pictures of an injured player on a beach with his bikini clad WAG. Said photos will be one of the player on a sun lounger and 20 of the WAG’s **** and cleavage. Or now that Rooney has been left out it will be him and Coleen out shopping.
Just for the hell of it I will name the team that will beat Burton on Wednesday. I think Rafa will get back to a bit of rotation and play Murphy. Listening to the radio there seem to be quite a few sighs when Colback gives away a foul at the edge of the area now. I think Hayden will be back to give him a break and also that Atsu might come in for Gouffy.
Darlow
Anita Lascelles Hanley Dummett
Ritchie Shelvey Hayden Atsu
Murphy
Gayle
I thought Murphy was injured Eric…
You could be right DT. I thought I saw he was held out as a precaution on Saturday. I don’t think Rafa trusts Mitro so I think he would stick with Diame if Murphy is injured.
I see Moysey is in trouble about some comments made to a female reporter. He was obviously joking but there is a furore about it because violence towards women is no joking matter. I can’t decide if it is a valid criticism or too PC. Would he have said it to a man, probably, isn’t he from Glasgow 🙂
One thing I do know is that Sunderland could do without this after the Adam Johnson fiasco. Also, Moyes himself is under a lot of pressure and this will only add a few more furrows to that freshly plowed field of a brow of his.
(and I do know the Johnson coverup is a million times worse)
Afternoon folks,
We have a new featured piece:
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2017/04/03/matt-ritchie-the-heartbeat-of-this-newcastle-united-side/
If you could give it a read, share your thoughts and move all discussion to this page.
Cheers