Voices in Football - Newcastle Utd v Derby County

Newcastle United v Derby County

Coca Cola League Championship

Monday 28th December 2009

St. James Park, Newcastle 5.20pm kick off

It will probably be another 10,000 years before the opportunity arrives to see two games kick off live within the space of two hours. This was meant to be the second part of a double header of matches on Christmas holiday Monday. Conference Premier league side Gateshead were due to play Wrexham at 3pm at the Gateshead International Stadium but with Britain stuck with its own version of the Ice Age the game was postponed due to a frozen pitch. On the train to Newcastle though there was a feeling there was an option number two as Conference North side Blyth Spartans were also at home against Farsley Celtic at 3pm. By 1pm though this game had also been cancelled due to the frozen temperatures all over Britain. There was no danger of the final game being off due to one thing, namely live television.

They say nowadays that television dominates football and stipulates what goes ahead and when. With the Newcastle United v Derby County match due to be screened live on Sky Sports at 5.15pm there was very little chance of the game going the same way as those at Gateshead and Blyth Spartans did. Even if the second ice age emerged and the Tyne river frosted over three times, Sky Sports would find some way to pick through the ice to get the game on.

Newcastle United are a strange case.   A club so massive in European terms both in terms of fans base and club infrastructure that has won so little but is so famously known. Unfortunately also, there are very few clubs in the United Kingdom that have been as badly run over a number of years than Newcastle United. A succession of owners and chairmen of the club have thrown unlimited funds at successive teams and million pound players over a number of years in an effort to appease success hungry fans but all have ultimately failed. Newcastle United have not won a trophy since 1969 when they triumphed in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup over Ferencvaros.   The club have won the FA Cup and the League but these successes were age old; as old as the ice age in fact and fans have to go back to 1927 since winning the league.

The 1980's for Newcastle saw a malaise surrounding the club as it lurked around the old English Second division. Despite this its home ground of St.James Park was still famous for its atmosphere and passion. Vast open terracing behind both goals created walls of noise and colour matched in very few places across England.    In the early 1990's the club picked itself up under the leadership of one time playing legend Kevin Keegan and came close to winning the Premiership on a number of occasions but they always seemed to fail just at the crucial stage of the season.   With the growth of St.James Park into one of the best all seater grounds in the country a series of top players found themselves at Newcastle and the club successfully competed in the Champions League beating Juventus and Barcelona, the latter memorably thanks to Columbian Faustino Asprilla.

In the later part of the 1990's the club twice reach the FA Cup Final at Wembley but lost both games 2-0 firstly to Arsenal and then the all conquering Manchester United team of 1999.    With this lack of success has come a train load of managers all sacked replaced or driven out.   The managers whom have tried, failed and been sacked from Newcastle United is almost innumerable. Big world names such as Ruud Gullit came in and alienated fans favourites such as Alan Shearer whilst the leadership of Bobby Robson brought Champions League football yet still ultimately ended in his sacking from a directionless boardroom.   Good cup runs in both the UEFA Cup (semi final and quarter finals) and the FA Cup semi-final saw the club teetering with success but almost always saw a manager's head being chopped rather than silverware.    The last five years have seen Graeme Souness, Sam Allardyce, Glenn Roeder, Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear, Alan Shearer and now Chris Houghton all try and fail to raise the club onwards and upwards. Houghton still survives but if the club is to progress he will surely disappear even if promotion is achieved.

Some managers whom have came and gone from the club have talked of a 'sickness' at the club; a club riddled with over inflated ambitions and crazy financial and executive strategies. The continual sacking of managers has seen massive pay off's as contracts were paid up through money the club could have used more effectively elsewhere. Where managers have not been sacked resignations have also led to court cases and financial settlements. The resignation of Kevin Keegan was reported to have cost the club £2 million with Keegan citing continual interference from boardroom and football director manager level as one of the reasons for him walking away.    Keegan chiefly pointed the finger at boardroom level and those managing the club citing corruption of possible football transfers and contract violations created by the then Director of Football Dennis Wise.

With Keegan's disappearance went almost any shred of hope Newcastle United fans had in current owner Mike Ashley and the backlash against his regime really began and went into overdrive.   Quickly the club was put up for sale but during October 2009, Ashley withdrew the sale of the club again reporting that he had been unsuccessful in finding a buyer to produce and ensure proof of funds, despite reducing his asking price for the club to £80 million.

Against this backdrop of mis-management it was really no surprise that Newcastle United were relegated from the Barclays Premiership in 2009. Overpaid players and prominent Internationals not doing much come match-day; no direction or leadership and a caretaker manager in Alan Shearer not too keen to work with those running the club meant a malaise of massive proportions.   This summer, as the club knuckled down and prepared for a season in the Championship, the club may as well have placed a large 'For Sale' sign over the main stand at its St.James Park ground.

One of the biggest mistakes Ashley has made was to enforce a bureaucratic modern business model or hierarchical managerial structure upon the club; or a 'cockney mafia' as Newcastle supporters called it. There were chief scouts; a managing director and a director of football operations in Dennis Wise. In short it was an ensemble of cronies and incompetent clowns who had no feeling or passion for the north east and the club. The story goes that Keegan discovered very quickly that he could not work productively with any of them; transfer matters were out of his hands as a small clique of business men and southern associates discussed the pros and cons of possible new squad additions.   Communication between the executive and coaching staff was strained and always destined for trouble.

As Ashley seeks to get some return on his investments in the club he took the unusual step of risking additional backlash when he re-branded the home ground St.James Park with the name of his sports wear chain SportsDirect.com. Essentially Ashley hopes to lease the naming rights to St James' Park in the hope of increasing revenue once the club get back into the Premiership.   With this though has come more protests and the club has taken steps to clarify that this would not involve the loss of the name St James Park altogether.   But there is a deep mistrust of the Ashley's intentions and motivations behind the renaming of the ground.

Pending the announcement of a long terms official sponsor the stadium has been temporarily renamed sportsdirect.com@St James' Park Stadium until the end of the 2009-10 season. This approach goes some way to showcasing the potential rights package to any future sponsor.    With shirt sponsor Northern Rock now almost a nationalised financial body, there may be the potential for massive sponsorship change at the club pending its promotion to the Premiership.

So to the game. Mike Ashley is clearly massively unpopular with a great many of the clubs supporters. With 10 minutes to go before kick off and it still being the season of goodwill to all men, the live Sky Sports game against Derby County meant the anti-Ashley chants could be heard loud and clear:

Get out of our club,
Get out of our club...
You fat Cockney bastard!...Get out of our club..

It would seem though that Ashley is not going anywhere fast, at least in the meantime. Eager to hold onto his purchase and sell it on further down the line he is still said to turn up at some Newcastle United games but now minus his family following police advice. It is unlikely that he shows much of a public persona in and around the stadium. As the teams arrive onto the field and the crowds escape from the inner stand areas where pints were sinking by the dozen, the stadium announcer plays the famous Blydon Races, a Geordie folk song:

Ah me lads, ye shud only seen us gannin',
We pass'd the foaks upon the road just as they was stannin';
Ther wes lots o' lads an' lasses there, all wi' smiling faces,
Gawn alang the Scotswood Road, to see the Blaydon Races

Newcastle start the game at a fast pace with midfield promptings from Kevin Nolan most noticeable. Frustrations seem to be all around however, particularly in the corner that has commonly became known as the singing area of the ground. Bringing back the noise to StJames Park has not taken off as much as was hoped but at least some are trying. Not ten minutes into the game and Newcastle fans in this area make there feelings known to Ashley as regards his sportswear chain. With his company name now emblazoned on top of the once atmospheric and legendary Gallowgate home end, the clubs fans do not feel the same way:

SportsDirect...sell a pile of shite..
SportDirect...a pile of shite...

Newcastle were coming up against a more than resolute Derby County as they fell short of victory for the first time in six home games and they were to see their league lead cut to six points.    Earlier wins for Nottingham Forest and West Brom against Barnsley on the same day had put pressure on the Magpies to get a win and sustain a six point lead but Derby cheered on by 1500 fans proved dogged in defence.

Early chances came the way of Newcastle United by way of a Ryan Taylor free-kick which hit the bar and Kevin Nolan who fluffed a one-on-one when clean through.    New centre forward, the tall gangling Carroll, headed a 15th-minute Jose Enrique cross wide and Peter Lovenkrands volleyed across the face of goal seconds later.

With goals thin on the ground I got thinking about Newcastle and its problems. The team shirt is sponsored by Northern Rock, a dysfunctional financial body bailed out by state money whilst the club is backed by a millionaire sports retail magnet who is hated by the clubs fans.   Part of the problem with SportDirect.com is that it is largely full of sport tat; a high street retail store piled high with cheap sports clothing and footwear. It is to tracksuits what Burberry is to baseball caps or Woolworths was to stationary and pick ‘n‘ mix. If Mike Ashley had made his money through a well known brand he may have got more respect and been able to keep a lower profile but his business is a tacky sportswear emporium that dominates the High Street.

Newcastle city centre meanwhile would appear to have more Sports Direct retail outlets than Newcastle United club shops. Moreover, apart from a small railing of home and away shirt almost every Sports Direct outlet has very little by the way of Newcastle United merchandise in it.     On the field even Derby County have had more recent success in terms of silverware than Newcastle have had all be it in the 1970’s. For a club so big and with massive potential, Newcastle United have messed up so may things.   If plastic surgery could be applied to a football club then NUFC would be prime for the knife.

The first half ends with Newcastle unable to find a way through. The supporters who have turned up to almost fill the stadium are left with little to cheer barring the fact that they currently sit top of the Championship.   The crowd has almost certainly been boosted by the returning of many ex-pat Geordies back on Tyneside for the Christmas holiday period. Its not lost on the stadium announcer who makes some acknowledgements to some fans who have came from Canada then plays Home Newcastle via the PA system:

I'm coming home Newcastle, I might as well be in jail
I'd walk the streets all day all night for a bottle of the old Brown Ale.
I'm coming home Newcastle, if you never win the cup again
I'll brave the dark at St James's Park at the Gallowgate End in the rain, I'm coming home...
And I'm proud to be a Geordie, and to live in Geordie land
Some people think we're bawdy and we're hard to understand
And they say it's just self pity, and we're not so very tough
But the people in the big fat city haven't had it half as rough.
I'm coming home Newcastle, you can keep your London wine
I'd walk the streets all day all night for a bottle of the river Tyne.
I'm coming home Newcastle, I wish I'd never been away,
I'd kiss the ground for the welcome sound of me mother saying hinny howay.
I'm coming home..

The second half starts in the same way as the first ended. Steven Taylor misses another fine chance before the hour mark when he headed Andy Carroll's cross straight at Derby County goalkeeper Steven Bywater. Loyal goalkeeper with over 10 years service Steve Harper was also busy though. Derby County prompted by the busy Robbie Savage pressed and missed a few chances most from long range. Led by Nigel Clough the son of the one time famous Derby manager Brian Clough, Derby never looked like losing. Survival is the name of the game for Derby County as this result saw Derby edge five points clear of the relegation zone.

Newcastle offers local and visiting fans a great day out. Pre match entertainment in Newcastle centre is amongst the best in the whole of the United Kingdom. Even better, visiting fans are also gladly welcomed to the venues offering dancers, songs, pre match DJ’s and cheap drinks.

Newcastle United is still coming through one of the most traumatic periods of on and off field catastrophe but still somehow the crowds keep turning up and the team seems to be doing alright in what is a notoriously difficult league. Season Ticket sales have declined considerably but the match day sales of tickets which have been reduced this season, still seem to keep the cash flow coming in through the turnstiles.

There is very little chance of Newcastle United winning the FA Cup this season or even next. Despite a team with Argentinean internationals and a host of other prominent players, the team look like one in transition. Should the club win the Championship its hard to see them surviving long in the Premiership. Newcastle United struggled against Derby County and the crowds were on the team's back very quickly.   A strong side, such as Arsenal or Chelsea, would blow the current Newcastle side away which shows just how much they have declined even if the crowds are still appearing.


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