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Pride Park is a superb stadium, and theyr’e talking about increasing capacity if England gets the World Cup as it’s one of the stadiums that will be used. We’ve actually been passing our Newcastle season tickets on for the past couple of years, as we didn’t want to have to go on a waiting list to replace them, but no bother with that now! As for them bringing the price down, I don’t think football clubs have the foresight to do that, whatever the circumstances are. I used to get an occasional cheap ticket for Derby County, but that doesn’t seem to happen any more. Feel free to stop off for a cup of tea if you do venture south..we’re just off the motorway on the A6.

Very kind of you to offer Moehat, but I wouldn’t dream of imposing my slightly beery matchday self on anyone other than a publican’s hospitality

I might trouble you for ideas about a safe pre-match pub nearer the day though, should I end up going. Never been to Derby.

On a sidenote, glad to see Burnley go up. Every time I’ve seen them this season they’ve been good value.

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Excellent bumping Gerald

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I’ve a feeling quite a few are not renewing Moehat. A lot of those who don’t will still go regularly, but the days of needing to have an ST in order to ensure you got to see the match are gone for the foreseeable future. Factor in the economic climate and it all adds up to a shock for Mr Ashley when he sees this summer’s ST take-up. My seat is over £600 per season, with the cheapest being around the £400 mark I think, a lot of money really. I imagine they’ll have to reduce prices, though I paid three years in advance last summer so I’ll not benefit if they do.

My guess is we’ll average 30-35,000 next season, which might rise if a promotion push is on. But a few seasons in the doldrums would see a gradual decline, though I doubt attendances would fall as far as they did for a couple of seasons in the dark days of the ’80s, when the ground was a building site and the board were even worse than the current lot.

I don’t often do aways these days but I might get to Pride Park next season I reckon. Looks a good stadium to me from what I’ve seen of it on the telly.

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You’re right about Given Yeats. He did

seek

a move of course, but was driven to it by the horrors unfolding around him and I can’t blame the bloke. I couldn’t agree more with the general view that we deserved relegation this season. Utter garbage on the pitch and a shambles off it. I doubt the people responsible for making decisions at the club could have made a better job of it if they’d deliberately planned to take the club down.

Que sera, sera. Third relegation I’ve witnessed. It took us six seasons to get back up the first time and three the second, when the club came close to folding. So Christ knows what the future holds.

*exits thread, emitting a long, loud, lingering and lethal fart in the general direction of the haters*

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*Hopes the fickle whore Dame Fortune smiles on us today*

*Doesn’t expect her too though, the cow*

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Hi Steerforth,
Thanks for conjuring up the memory. I don’t suppose you’re old enough to recall hearing any of Stanley Holloway’s monologues – the boy and the lion springs to mind as well as …pick up thy musket, Sam.

Good wishes, all the same.
K

Slightly before my time so I don’t know the monologues Ken but I liked Stanley Holloway. I’ve a thing for old British films and watched him in Passport To Pimlico for the nth time only the other day. I’ve just had a quick shufty at his Wiki page and he had roles in about fifteen of my favourite old films.

Lived to 91, acting until he was 84 in a career spanning nearly 70 years

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Famous Name – 2pts win

Luminous Eyes – 1pt e/w

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Apologies for the digression but this thread reminded me of Cyril Fletcher, whose That’s Life cameos I quite liked. Did a bit of googling and found a link to him reciting some of his ‘odd odes’.

So for anyone remotely interested, Pin back your lug’oles!

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Irish 2000 is doing my head in.

Rayeni – 2pts win.

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Only newspaper tipster I ever followed was Richard Baerlein. Two a day he gave plus ante-post recommendations from time to time if I remember it right. I don’t know if he showed a level stakes profit or not but I loved his Guardian column and usually had a few shillings on his suggestions.

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I feel bad for poor old Alan Shearer. Just when it looks like there was a light at the end of the tunnel, it turns out to be a train . Still, it’s still possible for him to turn it around with the final game. Seems a bit unlikely to me though, and I’d quite like Hull to stay up to be honest.

There is anger up here about Ashley’s running of the club, but I doubt you’d find a single Newcastle fan who wouldn’t accept we deserve to be relegated based on the football we’ve played. It would almost be an injustice if we avoided relegation. We’ve played well twice: at Old Trafford first game, and at Portsmouth, but they were awful under Adams. The rest of the time we’ve been mediocre or worse.

We’ve been here before – twenty years ago we were on the very brink of division 3 and close to folding. As a fan I just hope Mike Ashley accepts that he hasn’t got what it takes to run a football club, cuts his losses and sells to someone with a clue. Newcastle remains a club with a lot of potential. I wouldn’t bet on us finding an owner with the wherewithal to realise it but we live in hope.

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The ‘keeper Harper was on the ground behind the scoring player was he not? Which means Taylor on the line was the only player ahead of him when he received the ball (which is offside).

That’s based on watching it in real time mind – not seen a replay, so I don’t argue it strongly.

Edit: just seen a replay, not offside as you say.

Still that might be a very expensive point come next Sunday.

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I was there. Their goal was offside, ours should have stood. But that’s football and when you need the breaks the chances are you don’t get them. There was nothing wrong with Shearer/Dowie’s tactics yesterday, but you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear – our players aren’t good enough and Shearer is well aware of it. No useful purpose would be served by him slagging them off publicly though. We were slightly unlucky on the day but we’re where we deserve to be after a shambles of a season. We’ve been shyte.

I don’t see us getting anything at Villa as there’s very little quality in this side and even less fight. We’re gone, and Ashley deserves it. We’ve had some bad boards down the decades but this bloke has made an art form out of incompetence. I don’t bet against my own team but if I did I’d say Villa to win to nil is a good bet, despite their iffy recent form. O’Neil is a Sunderland fan and he’ll do us no favours at all.

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Perhaps the worst thing about all of this is that, I suspect, many people are not even surprised – angry, obviously but is anyone particularly shocked by it? I know I’m not at any rate.

Watching them squirm has at least been satisfying; some of them could squirm for England.

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Virtual – 1pt e/w

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Some of the race-reading on here blows me away: some great insights for a bits-and-pieces casual punter like myself. But yes, the lighthearted stuff can be very entertaining.

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Surely it was Ethan’s meticulous and cutting dissection that did the real damage as far as Caledon goes Ken?

Most entertaining it was at any rate. It was possibly even better than the EDDIEWOODS affair, as amusing as that was (‘I’m sunk to the bottom’ ) Are such episodes common?

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