Yesterday saw the start of the new Premier League season. On the pitch incidents involving every lazy journalist's favourite villain, Joey Barton, made the headlines. You do have to ask which other player would get stamped on and slapped and yet still come out as the wrongdoer, but then again, when it's Joey Barton on the receiving end you know that the handwringing press and other club's whiter-than-white fans will demand Barton to be strung up from the nearest lamp-post, despite him being the victim in this. Ok he shouldn't have pulled up Gervinho, but then again it was a yellow card offence and he got a yellow card. End of the story regarding Joey Barton for me!
What was more striking for me than any of the on-field antics was the goings on in the South-East "Strawberry" corner. I used to be in the Leazes corner, a part of the ground specifically given up to people who wanted to sing and make some noise in an ever quieter St James Park. At the end of last season Mike Ashley decided to disband the Leazes corner. Many speculated that this came about because of anti-Ashley chanting. The club put forward the point that they wanted to extend the away fans section, the family section and have a "Youth" area where young uns could congregate together.
Despite assurances from Simon Esland, the Head of Customer operations, that fans would be listened to, and groups such as United for Newcastle and another group fronted by Jordan Robinson, a lad who was behind the "Bring back the noise" campaign were given time to talk with Esland about the moves. We asked the club to consider moving everyone in a block to other areas of the stadium and the Level 4 corner was identified as the area which had the least season ticket holders, and therefore the ideal place to put those being moved.
However rumours came through at the Manchester United game that the previous thoughts of moving us to Level 4 were not going to happen, but that it wouldn't be announced until after the end of the season, leaving the fans affected no chance to voice their discontent at the end of the season. Sure enough, just after the West Brom game it was announced that fans from the Leazes corner would not be moved en masse to Level 4. I know that a lot of fans felt that Esland had strung us along, some going as far to say that they though that he had lied about the situation. What was clear was that the suspicion that Ashley was trying to split up the most vocal fans in the ground up, presumably to try and dissipate the anti-Ashley chanting.
I arrived at the ground at around about 5.10pm last night. After feeling like a total newbie trying to find my seat I finally made my way up into the Strawberry corner. It was obvious that the Leazes Level 4 corner had plenty of spare seats, which was bloody annoying! While Arsenal brought up extra fans, I can't wait to see empty blocks of seats up in Level 7 when the likes of Wigan and Fulham come to town.
There were already grumbles about people standing, before the match started. Once the game kicked off several scuffles broke out between the people who had been previous "corner" season ticket holders and the newcomers. Despite the majority of the newcomers being located in the back rows of the corner, there were some who are located further down.
People who wanted to sit were complaining about those standing impeding their views. People who were standing were complaining as, up in the Leazes corner we were allowed to stand. I saw an older couple who were in the block closest to the East stand get involved in a dispute and end up leaving their seats after about 10 minutes. In front of me, though, was the most shocking incident that I have seen in a long while in the stands of St James Park. A well built, middle aged man and his friends were sitting, two young lads, one aged only 16 stood up briefly as a free kick was taken. A comment was made by one of the men who was sitting and the young lad turned around to look at them. The well built bloke grabbed the young lad by the face and shook him, while his friends shouted horrendous abuse. These men had obviously been drinking, and their reaction to these young lads standing up was completely un-necessary.
Obviously I can understand that there are people who don't want to, or can't stand all match and that was why the Leazes corner was brought into existence. The stewarding up there was relaxed, the atmosphere was one where singing, chanting and (if you wanted to standing in front of your seat was, well not permitted, but tolerated).
There has got to be some give and take in the Strawberry corner, and I'm not talking about the standing really. We all know we are not supposed to stand, and it's against the club's licence, blah, blah, blah! People don't get hurt by standing in front of seats at a football match. They get hurt when fans are moved from areas of the stadium where standing was tolerated and put in to new areas where standing isn't. That isn't the fault of people who have been made to move, it's the fault of the man who orchestrated the move - Mike Ashley!
If the person behind me asked me to sit, I would sit down. Luckily the people behind me are people who have been relocated from the Leazes Corner who were standing too. But if someone behind you wants to sit, and asks you to sit down as they can't see I would say you have to sit too. What isn't acceptable is violence between fans of the same team. Whether it's middle ages fans, or young uns starting on the other it's just not on and it needs to stop.
Come on folks, it's going to take time for us all to get used to each other, but lets not see the kind of violence I saw yesterday. We are supposed to be supporting the same team, getting behind the lads, we are supposed to be Newcastle United!
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