The kidda thinks aboot this and sez with a shrug, ‘futbaal boots?’
‘Nar, man, what d’yi want if yi cud have anything at aal?’
There’s only one thing the kid wants more than anything at aal an that’s to see Newcastle play. He’s reluctant to say it because his mam has said he cannit go coz it’s too bliddy dangerous for a young lad, and his da is too bliddy drunk most of the time to tek im, but he sez it anyway.
And then a few weeks later Uncle Jim cums roond to tek im ti the match. They catch the bus doon Sunland Road and doon Gateshead High Street and ower the bridge into toon. The kid can feel the excitement grow inside him. He sees the black ‘n’ white scarves ‘n’ hats, and he can hear the hum of match day in the conversations. It’s really hapnin! He’s ganni see the lads.
It meks niy difference to him that it’s a second division game; he naas the teym’ll cum when it’ll be a forst division game. That’s how the magic of the game works, man. Leyk a cauldron of boilin vegetables, the eddys force you up and then doon and up again. You cum 6th, then you cum 10th, then its 15th, 8th, 13th, 9th, 5th, 12th. Sometimes the fates are against you and you get relegated, but you aalwiz cum back up. At least Newcastle diy. It’s written in the history. He’s read it. Newcastle aren’t like Halifax or Exeter or Workington, places that must’ve been built to fill up the lower divisions.
They gerroff the bus and waak doon a cobbled street that the kid didn’t naa existed. Aye, he’d been to Newcastle before, leyk, but he’d never seen it on match day, and on match day ivrything seems diffrint. Somehow aal the buildings luk stately and prood, and he half expects to see Orl Grey wearing a black ‘n’ white scarf up there on his monument.
They join a queue and aal he can think aboot is beatin’ Derby. He luvs the chitchat, and when somebody says, ‘Whey aye, man, wi’ll gan up this year. Wa r’aalreddy top, yi naa,’ the kid cannit contain his emotions and he laughs oot loud. Uncle Jim gives him a weird look. ‘Aalreet, kidda?’
Thi kidda’s gob is too claggy to say owt.
‘His forst game,’ Uncle Jim sez to an auld gadgie, and that starts people taakin aboot Wor Jackie and the cups. Aye, the kid thinks, we’ll win one of them soon an aal.
They push through the tornstile and head to some steps. More steps than he thought there’d be. Up he gaans. He can hear the crowd now. Singing. He can smell the tab smoke. He can feel the atmosphere bubblin’ ower the Galagate waals and doon the steps.
Then he gets to the top and loses his breath when he sees the pitch. It glows. It’s like a big green mat that floats above the terraces. Aye, there’re broon patches left ower from other games, but even they shine like gold dust, well, gold mud – it’s been rainin’. Funny that, he thinks, he thought it’d been sunny aal day.
By the time he’s started breathin’ again, he’s standin’ near the front, but he can’t see much.
‘It’s aalreet, kidda, yill see the baal when it gans in the air,’ somebody says.
‘Y’aalreet, son,’ some other bloke says. ‘Yi wanna stand here? Yill git a berra view, leyk. Ahl stand behind yi. ‘Champion,’ Uncle Jim says.
The kid shuffles forward. He can smell the grass. His ears ring with New-cass-ell being called from the Leazes End. And he sings alang with the Blaydon Races when it happens. He wonders if he was born aalreddy naain the words. He luvs the Leazes crowd. That’s where he wants to be when he grows up. Ower there, singing his heart out for the lads.
The game passes in a blur of action. It didn’t seem this fast and physical on telly, and to see the lads in the flesh is something wonderful. Black ‘n’ white had nivver been more colourful. At half time his uncle tells him how to read the scoreboard, and a wave of anticipation rolls ower him as the big white numbers are placed next to yella letters by some unseen people. Sunland are losin. Get in!
The second half flies by as fast as the forst. Uncle Jim says, ‘Ten minutes left,’ and points to a flag pole in the corner. The kid hasn’t a clue what the hell he’s taakin aboot, but he doesn’t care; there’s futbaal gannin on, reet there, reet there in front of him.
Then it’s aal ower. Full time. How can ninety minutes pass so quickly? People head back yem.
‘Ah gorra gan ti the bog,’ the kid says. ‘Divvint droon,’ Uncle Jim says. ’Yi mam id kill iz.’
The kid goes to the toilet and steps into a puddle of ****. A guy pisses into a basin, another pisses against the waal coz there’s a queue five deep to get to the trough. The kid finally gets a chance to ****.
A bloke with a big kite and a cloth cap sees him and shuffles ower so the kid can get in. ‘Move ower, man,’ the gadgie says to the fella next to him. ‘ … the kid,’ he adds, and nods the kid’s way as if that explained ivrythin. A whole bunch of blokes shuffle doon a bit.
The place smells like beer and ****, and tabs float in the yellowish froth in the trough. The kid cannit hear anything in particular; it’s aal just a big droning noise … or has his lugs gone deef cos of the roar of the crood? The kid pisses on a tab end and it dances in yellow liquid. 2-2, he thinks, and he relives the moments when Newcastle scored – the jumpin up and doon, arms raised, clappin’ like a maniac, and then the groan of the crood when Derby scored, and how he almost felt like cryin’ then. He relives the other hundred emotions, of near misses, bad passes, missed opportunities, great tackles, the thud of boot on baal, the ripple of baal on net. F**king hell, man, he thinks, because he isn’t yet confident enough to swear oot lood when grown-ups were roond. Aal he really naas, tho, is that there’s nowt better in this world than actually being there and watchin’ the lads play.
He does his zip up and wades oot i the bog and into the dark November night.
Uncle Jim smiles an winks. ‘Y’aalreet?’ Aye, the kid’s champion, man.
The two of them traipse oot i St James’ Park. The kid vows he’ll be back as soon as he can. Nowt was ganni get in the way of him enjoying this again. Nowt. Absolutely nowt. And there’d be nowt anybody could diy or say that would stop him from supporting Newcastle United.
He’d just had the best experience of his ten years on the planet, and it would remain up there with best of them for the rest of his life.
By Brisvegas
Funky, where did you see that, I thought it was the opposite and he was too pally with the players 😕
kIMTOON(Quote)
Kim,
That is player power if they are on the level with the manager. Wasn’t it Nicky ****, Steve Harper, Kevin Nolan, etc who were pally and making the decisions?
Now we’ve got Colo, who is untouchable and infallible with Pardew and he’s guiding things. It’s the exact same.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Funky, aye it’s supposed to of been Colo and a few others who didn’t want Benny around the first team if you believe the press.
kIMTOON(Quote)
KIM Joey was a strange animal,IMO never quite grew up,they say he’s a brainy lad pity he never showed it and don’t forget he used to be Big Dave’s mate for a while until he beat him at golf 😆 😆
icedog(Quote)
It was said Benny fell out with players at his last club too,well so its said,maybe he’s a player that needs a arm round him,let’s see if Bruce gets him to play,he did score for Hull in mid-week like
icedog(Quote)
Ben Arfa could have been swinging a cricket bat at the players – it doesn’t matter, it should be the manager who makes the decision, not his best pal Colo who never gets dropped despite his form and wanting to leave the past 2 years.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Ice, I agree Joe’s a strange fruit alright, loves the Toon though, never fails to get a dig in at the expense of the Scum like. 😀
As for Benny I got a feeling he’ll do alright under Steve .
Funky , Agree whether it’s colo and others or Pards , they should of tried harder to sort it out imo.
kIMTOON(Quote)
Ice Joey has never beat me at golf 😉
Kim I think Benny will do a good job for Bruce, I agree with Rob Lee in tbat like Ginola he just needs a manager to put an arm around him and tell him how well he is doing
Big Dave(Quote)
Mike Ashley will not, under any circumstances, sell Newcastle United at any price.” 😥
although he said exactly the same thing to Pardew about Andy Carroll, 2 month later he was off 😀
fingers crossed
mark(Quote)
“I think we have goals in the team,” he said. “I think we’ve got enough goals in this team to win Premier League games, and I think we have enough in this group to have a good season. If I didn’t say that, you’d call me a madman, but I actually do think we have enough.” clueless madman more like..
So we didnt buy a decent forward due to prices being too high.. although we could of dipped into our TV money siting it fatmans pocket or the retail money sitting in fatmans pocket.
& now its going to be more difficult due to the TV rights being negotiated by the Prem league.. 😯 its not like we would sell a 29yr old for 12mil a midfielder for 20mil and a striker for 35mil 🙄 and we’re that skint we give a creative player and a defender away on loan.. 😆
We definitely had enough money to purchase a striker and a defender..Pardew reading Ashleys scripts again..
mark(Quote)
Mark, He has made his bed then, by making that statement he has to live or die by it. He didn’t have to say all that especially if he feels he hasn’t gotten all he needs. I t just looks like more sucking up to me .
kIMTOON(Quote)
Mark – he even expects US to believe his BS.
Mad indeed.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Mike Ashley will not, under any circumstances, sell Newcastle United at any price.” …….
While he’s suffering from – obsession with money disorder – he won’t.
So for anyone claiming he’s about to sell – Cash Cow United – deserves nothing less than being banned.
££££££££££££££££££££££££……..
Mr September(Quote)
looking forward to seeing pardews contain footy today. Pack the midfield with runners and defensive players hoping to stop S’ton / protect our vulnerable defence whilst nullifying out creative side and goal scoring opportunities by playing 1 up front.. 🙄
i agree, I can definitely see goals in this team 😆
hoping for a draw, head says 0-2
mark(Quote)
just remember, once S’ton score you may as well go home, we can’t and don’t win after conceding first FACT!
mark(Quote)
STUART
I know 100% that journalists sometimes make stories up and I know 100% that they often spin the headlines and the content in order to make it more sensationalist and sell more papers or get more hits.
I’d love it if we could actually believe things that we read. There should be separate sections for new (i.e. verified by a solid source) and gossip.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
TDS – haven’t you learned yet. Nobody believes a word written in newspapers. Seems like you expect the sensationalist bastards to be paragons of virtue. Up until the sixties The Times wouldn’t print anything unless they had 2 verifyable sources. That stopped and now the whole circus is riddled with rumour, lies and spin.
georgio(Quote)
Talk of some yanks buying Spurs in a Billion pound deal 😯 ,surely they cannot demand that sort of cash
icedog(Quote)
So much hatred 🙄
So negative. 🙄
Oh the accusers are now the accused. 😉
Troy Stavers(Quote)
I’m starting to take a keen dislike of Colo. He pissed and moaned for two years, and now that AP lets him go home whenever he wants he’s now become yet another soundbite for this poisonous regime. Pardew and his pals eh? I wouldn’t mind if he was playing well, but he’s been the central part of a defence that has let in close to 130 goals in two seasons. He’s also a shocking captain and seems to have been influential in both HBA and Mbiwa leaving. Get rid when AP goes and bring back. Yanga
Buddy(Quote)
1 all draw today in a dull game..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
MOTD’s Martin Fisher at St Mary’s Stadium
Southampton v Newcastle (15:00 BST)
“In 2014, 22 Premier League matches have brought 14 defeats and just five wins for Newcastle. That is relegation form.
“Within that run was a 4-0 drubbing at St Mary’s Stadium. The good news for manager Alan Pardew is that few of that Southampton team are still at the club, the bad news is that the new boys brought in by opposite number Ronald Koeman seem to have settled in quickly.”
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Aussie fella, I’ll take that, but I fear our top defence isn’t going to be up to it.
what we don’t need is to be 1-0 down after 25 secs again.
Howay the Lads
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Thrashing today our defence is cack. 🙁
kIMTOON(Quote)
Kim – howay lass at least try and be positive, before kick off.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Newcastle: Krul; Janmaat, Coloccini (c), Williamson, Haidara; Colback, Anita; Cabella, Sissoko, Gouffran; Riviere.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
4-2-3-1 👿
Intelligent line up and formation from Pardew.
There’s goals in this team 😛
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Substitutes: Rob Elliot, Steven Taylor, Cheick Tiote, Gabriel Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Adam Armstrong, Ayoze Perez
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
If we cant defend too well, then at least we can go on the attack…….. 😕
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
<<<<<<<<< be happy with a draw today our record is **** at there ground
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Riviere will be wondering exactly what he has signed up to.
Lone striker again.
He’ll be playing on the wing next
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
BB – where are you seeing goals in this team? Janmaat, Willo?
georgio(Quote)
Looking forward to our front foot football today 😆
Geordie Deb(Quote)
Containment the order of the day.
Can I enter the P45due excuse sweepstake.
“The international break came at the wrong time for us. We were playing well before the break but we’ll work hard for the Hull game next week. Losing 3-0 is never a nice experience”
Toby le rhone(Quote)
Beardsleys Boots
Riviere plays alot better with some1 up front with him same as cisse dos
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Debuchy just been stretchered off
kIMTOON(Quote)
why this stupid 1 up front has to be ditched
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Shame Aarons is out injured would of liked to see him start and I would of been tempted to put Arma in Siems position instead of Anita.
kIMTOON(Quote)
TAE @ 260 don’t tell me tell the clueless one
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
TAE, he’s too scared to go two up front.
kIMTOON(Quote)
TAE – there’s nothing wrong about 1 up front. He just has to be a good player 🙄
georgio(Quote)
Kim – I would have put Perez up top alongside Riviere.
Between the 2 of them I reckon we could score.
No doubt he will come on after 60 mins to replace Riviere
👿
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
I see Saints are starting Toby Alderweireld, will get to see if he’s any good.
kIMTOON(Quote)
georgio
you 5 cans short of a 6 pack if you think 1 up front a good idea
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
BB, Yep it couldn’t be any worse than whats gone before. When Aarons is fit I would like to see him and Arma start, both full of confidence and pace.
kIMTOON(Quote)
georgio
which part of 1 up front dos not suit our strikers which part of that dint ya understand bud 😯
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Anyone got a link?
Hope we can somehow get something today, be a nice Birthday pressie for Lewis . 😀
kIMTOON(Quote)
TAE – the same part that said it needs a good player. 🙄
georgio(Quote)
try this at kick off:
http://ifeed2all.eu/watch/281799/1/watch-southampton-fc-vs-newcastle-united.html
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
georgio
so are you saying even though it dont suit the strikers we got, we should carry on mr magoo style and keep playing 1 up front 😯
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
http://firstrows.biz/soccer/southampton-vs-newcastle-united-frsfcc5f
mark(Quote)
TAE – would it help if I said Pardew’s a **** manager?
georgio(Quote)
Well we have to score first today or it could be hard, hard work!
Stuart79(Quote)
the difference of chelsea 4-2-3-1 and ours…
says it all…
That 1 striker needs to be something similar to costa.. 😉
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
🙄 sloopy. wake up crusty..
mark(Quote)
was a defo pen
mark(Quote)
UTTER TRIPE
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
headless chickens
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
game over
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
ffs, been coming
kIMTOON(Quote)
Dear oh dear. We didn’t need a new centre half though did we…?
Stuart79(Quote)
there u go 5mins in and we won’t come back to win. best hope for a draw 👿
mark(Quote)
Colo ball watching YET AGAIN 👿
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
We had a better squad when we got relegated and every manager that season was smarter and brighter than P45due
Toby le rhone(Quote)
Fucking **** off Colo you useless ****!!. Drop the ***** and put one of the young uns in – the blokes been at fault for every goal we’ve conceded so far this season!!.
Send him back to Argie!! – and send Pardew with him!!
Sharpy17(Quote)
no ideas in the final third
utterly clueless
no ideas in defence
utterly clueless
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
can anyone see what we are trying to do ffs
all ower the place
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
route 1 long ball to willo
garbage
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Pardew out chants started already.
Stuart79(Quote)
come on the toon! we have goals in us!! the only goals we seem to have is the ones we concede
mark(Quote)
Very surprised Anita or Gouffran haven’t scored yet. Pardew picks them every week.
Toby le rhone(Quote)
HAHAHA we are fucking mint, canny set-up from the toon! 👿
mark(Quote)
Jesus Christ! Can anyone tell me we have a good side!!! Or a better team than last season?
It’s embarrassing!
Stuart79(Quote)
torn to shreds
2-0
PATHETIC and Embarrassing 😳 😳 😳
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Pards well done mate set us up great here ffs
kIMTOON(Quote)