Stevenage Remembered

Only in Newcastle could the drawing of a league two side in the third round of the FA Cup draw an audible groan from a packed pub of the club’s supporters. Though the groans that accompanied the draw in a packed Players Bar after a 1-1 draw against Chelsea, were not of fear but of recognition- even when Newcastle had finally seen the back of Stevanage in a replay in 1997, there was the lingering suspicion that that wasn’t quite the end of the chapter.

It was different in 1997, otherworldly. Fifteenth in the Vauxhall Conference back then, manager Paul Fairclough described the draw itself as “a dream come true,” so one can only imagine that when he labelled the tied first game “fantastic” he was underplaying it. You need not make similar leaps of imagination to deduce that Kenny Dalglish was not telling the entire story when declaring that “[his] players were delighted” with the draw.

By which point, the story was already well advanced. It began almost the moment the draw was made, Stevenage out first, and their chairman Victor Green contacting Newcastle to sound out the prospect of staging the game at St. James’ Park- a common practise given the much larger capacities of the league grounds and the fact that in the cup, clubs share ticket receipts. However, Stevenage suddenly felt this option undesirable when Sky got in touch with the offer to screen the game, only on the condition it was staged at Broadhill Way. Newcastle seemed hesitant.

Keith 'Razor' who contributes to the Stevenage fanzine The Boradhall Way claims there is still some bitterness over Newcastle's apparant protests at the venue: "there was a definite feeling that, as the Premier League club, Newcastle were throwing their weight around," he said.

The narrative of the tie had been decided, Newcastle suddenly looked like spoilsports when carrying out the perfectly reasonable safety checks must clubs conduct before playing a fixture at a new ground, Stevenage and Green in particular happy to encourage the view they were being disrespectful. What was largely forgotten was Kenny Dalglish’s own history- he had been Liverpool manager on the day of the Hillsborough disaster- which surely validated any concerns he was harbouring about supporter safety. As ever with Dalglish, though, he done himself few favours- wishing “they lose their next ten games” at the end of a scrappy replay ended the tie on a particularly sour note.

Newcastle 3 Liverpool 1

Christmas is coming and, with it, Dickens’ famous tale. But what is it Liverpool look at when they study Newcastle United, the ghost of Christmas future?

The parallels between the two are starker than you may have thought. Just six years ago, these two teams were competing on the final day for the last Champions’ League spot. Liverpool won it and a year later had won the competition itself. Up until recently a firmly established top four side, their supporters were one of many that enjoyed the Schadenfreude of Newcastle’s relegation- “stayed on the tele,” they sang at Alan Shearer as the side he was temporarily in charge of surrendered meekly at Anfield in the series of meek surrenders that ended in their relegation.

Since then, a resurgence of sorts for Newcastle, though one that has been thrown in to severe doubt by the events of the week. Meanwhile, at Liverpool, the old hated owners have been replaced by new owners making discouraging, Scrooge like noises about the amount of money to spend on luxury, an experienced English manager is in but struggling to build a rapport with the fans and with this latest defeat surely his prospect of holding on to the job past Christmas look about as dead as Marley. The season will not end in relegation for Liverpool as it did for Newcastle, but this was a surrender which spoke to a tentativeness from some, a lack of interest from others and the similarities with the Newcastle team of big name under-performers that made the plunge two years ago will make for discomforting viewing on Merseyside.

Now they’ll know how Martin Skrtel and Sotirios Kyrgiakos feel at least. Utterly dominated from first minute to last by an Andy Carroll, Liverpool’s centre backs were cowered and ran over long before the end- Carroll’s goal may have been the perfect way to cap Newcastle’s win from their point of view but he was allowed the opportunity to shoot by a pair of centre backs who had dropped off criminally. To be generous, you may say they were egging him to shoot and backing their keeper, in reality they just seemed ragged and waiting on the final whistle.

Accompanied by the eye catching Barton- who scored the crucial second with a committed charge and finish at the Gallowgate End- and the industrious Tiote, Carroll tore in to Liverpool like Tiny Tim at a Christmas ham. His power and aerial ability is well documented, his poise and balance deserves some notice too. Last week West Brom were able to nullify him, a strong physical performance from Scharner proving there is some chinks in his armour, Liverpool never got close. It’s no wonder he’s been named by new manager Pardew as the one imperative not to lose in the Janurary transfer window. As Stephen Brown, a season ticket holder in the Gallowgate End put it: "Liverpool's defenders looked genuinely terrified. Even when Shearer played for us, I've never seen that before."

And what of Pardew? He would have been happy that the crowd at least seemed receptive of him, if not warm, and his gracious praise of Hughton afterwards will have went some way to appease doubts about his integrity in taking the job on: “Chris Hughton is very, very unfortunate not to be sitting here discussing this win but this game is not easy and it can be cruel. I had a similar situation at Southampton. To get a win like this has hopefully earned a tiny bit of respect for myself and the group and we can grow and make that respect a lot stronger. I think the win had everything to do with the attitude of the players and staff,” he said.

Who To Trust?

It seems sadly typical of Newcastle United that a trust of supporters who had set their sights on one day buying the club have found themselves beset by the same sort of lack of organisation and miscommunication that has characterised the club they one day aim to run. The Newcastle United Supporters Trust have been noticeable by their absence in the fall out from Chris Hughton’s sacking last week, leading many to question its current role as a viable supporters’ group, let alone its longer term ambitious to assume ownership of Newcastle United.

One problem with the Supporters’ Trust is its origins and its aims as it stands, neither of which were ever sold convincingly to Newcastle fans. The group actually began as a supporters’ group, but its formation, in the immediate wake of Kevin Keegan’s departure from St. James’ Park, made it, for all intents and purposes, a protest group. A protest group cannot comfortably fulfil the remit of a supporter’s group, which, by necessity, must have close links to the club. Steve Kell, who runs the Arsenal Supporters’ group, argues that “politicising these things is asking for trouble. The club don’t want to see an agenda.” A group that had been formed in sole and direct opposition to a move by the club was never going to establish a working relationship with that club, particularly one as communication phobic as Newcastle.
But for whatever reason, those pushing the idea of the Supporters’ Club seemed keen to elevate their role even before properly explaining to others what it was.

There early days were marked by a series of crass statements. When asked what they would like to say to perspective new owners they responded “we can be nice, or we can be your worst enemy”. Given that another of their early statements criticised the teenagers that had been interviewed on Sky Sports News in the wake of Keegan’s exit- in a statement that struck another confused note; are these teenagers not Newcastle fans deserving of representation too?- they seemed awfully keen themselves to speak on behalf of others without first seeking a consensus.

Then very little. The flurry of protests died down, and though there was a series of events, very little appeared to be being decided. Protests were not organised, opinions not sought. Members, who paid ten pounds to register, were sent next to nothing in the way of communication. There was a bewildering incident when their website printed dubious financial information about Ashley’s investment in the club. When asked to clarify their figures by a member via email there was no response, and the page was quickly removed.

Their objectives became even further muddled when the idea to buy the club was mooted-in reality, it should have stayed mooted, a long term objective rather than an immediate must. Instead the newly elected chairman dedicated all his time to what always looked a pipe dream. Further, this idea clouded its role as a supporters’ club, many accusing the now trust of being fretful of alienating perspective investment business partners by showing discontent with any element of Ashley’s ownership. Again, to look at Arsenal, the trust and supporters’ club are kept separate.

Looking from afar is one thing, more worrying for the NUST must be the amount of internal problems they are being forced to deal with. Bill Corcoron, a highly respected member of the board who was there for the club’s inception left recently, citing the trust’s lack of communication with its members:

“At a recent training event, ran by James Mathie of Supporters Direct, he advocated regular members meetings, publication of Board agenda and minutes and a humble, listening attitude from the Board to our members. I completely agree, but others seem determined to avoid members questions describing some members as "rabble rousers".
Which speaks to a trust ill at ease with a proportion of the people they purport to represent. Corcoron also makes mention of people “leaving the trust in droves”.

And if that didn’t tell the trust they were losing support, surely the most damning verdict came from a poster on the toontastic message board, who, in response to the question ‘what could be worse than having Mike Ashley running our football club?’ answered, ‘having NUST running it’.

Joey Barton's Trial Will Not Be Televisied

Despite the fact that nowadays any goal scored in the Premiership can probably be downloaded, viewed and set as a screensaver before the Goalkeeper has fished the ball out of the net, managers of the league’s lower ranked clubs still have a tendency to get wounded about what they perceive as their placing lower down the highlight footage pecking order- a placing where, never mind your own chances of staying awake to watch it, you’re going to first want to make sure your Sky Plus box has plenty of strong coffee along with it for the journey.

These coaches always deliver their complaints wryly and on the back of a victory, which means that Gary Linekar can smile caustically and wave it off, but it’s clearly not an accusation that the BBC would welcome, particularly at a time when their right to operate as a funded independent media outlet is being scrutinised by several people with their own dubious agenda. How odd then that on Sunday night, when covering Newcastle United’s victory over Liverpool, Match of the Day 2 would be so open about their new policy on isolating incidents from particular matches, declaring no intention to show them, yet still going right ahead and condemning the player involved with smug assuredness in their own pretend outrage.

“Vulgar,” Colin Murray labelled Joey Barton scratching his crotch in the direction of the player who had just completed a forty yard sprint to confront him for no reason whatsoever (I’ve just remembered, you weren’t allowed to see it- the player was Torres, using the opportunity to double the amount of yards he's sprinted since Roy Hodgson joined Liverpool). He delivered his critique with such withered pomposity that I had initially thought he was joking. He does that a lot, I’ve noticed, Colin Murray, trys to tell jokes. And though you can mostly tell when other people are telling jokes because they’re making you laugh, there’s never any such luck with Colin Murray. But then Lee Dixon joined in and it became clear that the pair of them were being serious. Watching them in po-faced synchronisation felt like the sense of humour bypass equivalent of the famed Arsenal offside trap.

Something of a novelty on MotD2, being serious, given that the general mood of tends to be one of strained joviality, one that relishes the ‘lighter side’ of the game in much the same manner as loud people at work relish being thought of as characters. It certainly marked a jarring turn of pace to see them turn so puritanical on us without so much as the chilled silence that tends to precede such dark changes in the room’s mood (silence never being MotD2’s strongpoint- its every resolution seems to be accompanied by its own jaunty soundtrack). And it was an uplifting moment indeed, not to mention a relief, when the show rediscovered its mojo and moved on to 2good 2bad, a signature feature which usually features an elderly gentleman at Craven Cottage taking his teeth out to eat a pie and much faked laughter from back in the studio.

This week, Sunderland fans are singing ‘One Mike Ashley’, and how everybody laughed. Nobody is going to get defensive about that. But I would argue that MotD2 choosing to celebrate the chant- leaving aside its Wildean wit a second, and leaving aside the national media’s tendency to ruffle Sunderland’s hair and laugh along with them whenever their fans taunt Newcastle for reasons that, were they pointed out, would only upset their fans- places them in a rather precarious position. Who is doing more damage to English football, the talented and tee-totalling English footballer who speaks eruditely and honestly, or the dishonest club owner doing his best to strip a club dry and take it for all it has? And if it’s the latter why choose to jokingly indulge the celebration of him alongside taking umbrage at the former’s own, at worst, jokey indulgences? It couldn’t be because that player is Joey Barton could it?

As Kriss Knights, who writes for The Mag and has published two books on Newcastle United, puts it: "People who don’t like him see Barton as the very epitome of what is wrong with modern footballers, which is crap because Barton has shown more public contempt for the spoiled and over-rated within his profession than any other player in the league. If he is the epitome of anything – it’s as a reflection of how the world has treated Newcastle United."

The FA are not punishing Barton (stunning on Saturday night, by the way, the point was made afterwards that it was a shame Gerrard wasn’t on the pitch as he would have been thoroughly shown up by the type of focused, disciplined, selfless and dynamic performance his ego hasn’t allowed from him in years), though they “will be writing to him to remind him of his responsibilities”. As NUFC.COM notes, “Doubtless that will come as a great disappointment to the BBC, in particular the odious Colin Murray.”