An away day tale

A whirlwind of events during the weekend meant that I was able to fulfill another 2 of my football watching wishes, that of going to St James Park (Newcastle United's home ground) and going to an away game in the Manchester United end.

Friday night 8+ pm:
Read on the forum that 2 tickets for Newcastle vs Man United were available. 1 had already been taken. The Liverpool fan that I know is helping to collect the tickets. He said he might help to get rid of the other ticket.

Next 20 minutes:
Spent deliberating about whether to call up the guy and ask whether the ticket is still available. Didn't want to disturb someone I barely know.

9+ pm:
Heck, decided to sms him.

Anxious 15 minute wait later:
Beep beep, 1 message received: "The one this Saturday?"
Aberthen?

Another message: "If you can get it up to Newcastle then it is all yours mate"
Sweet music to my ears!!

And so the next hour or so was spent on arranging when to meet and collect the ticket and the travelling up to Newcastle. Caught up in the euphoria of getting the ticket, I overpaid 12.67 pounds for my coach ticket. Moral of the story: Always check the price again before you click 'book' over the internet.

Saturday:
Played football, generally just praying for time to pass by quickly.

Saturday 1015pm:



I got the ticket!!!!! And at face value too! What a bargain.

Saturday 1115pm:
Boarded coach to Newcastle. They really should have those frequent rider miles kind of thing. I am sure I am qualified to travel platinum class by now. Good luck always seem to come together. The coach was not full, I had 2 seats to myself entirely =)

Sunday 0530am:
God damn it, when you do not want the coach to arrive early, it does arrive early. 45 minutes earlier in fact. It is no fun to be wearing 3 layers but still shivering. My teeth were chattering too. Didn't even know where to go at that unearthly hour. Memories of Cardiff 2003 come flooding back to mind. Only difference is I had a ticket this time around. Would it all end in tears again at the end of the day?

0550am:
Finally decided to take the 10 minute walk to the train station in search for some warmth.


Newcastle Central Station

The station was devoid of any human beings at all. In total contrast to the stream of human beings at Euston Station pretty much all the time. I walked around the station in search for some warmth. Unfortunately the station is actually open so it was still pretty cold. Sat on the floor beside a pillar but my butt got too cold. Got up to go to the toilet. And it was in the toilet that I found warmth. Was seriously considering whether to stay in the toilet for 2 hours, it was that warm that the smell didn't matter. But decided it was too pathetic and came out again. Felt 100% like a homeless beggar on the streets. Began to have some new found respect for them. It's hard to stay on the streets everyday in the cold. But you want my spare change? Not a chance in the world.

0640am:
First signs of human activity. The ticket office was soon open, went inside to sit down to get warmth and eat sandwiches.

0800am:
Decided it was bright enough outside to walk around. Some pictures around town:


University of Newcastle compound. They have some students' Halls of Residences beside the stadium, how cool is that?


St Thomas Church near University of Newcastle



Old Eldon Square War Memorial. Would they one day add Iraq War 2003-20XX to it?



Castle Garth. The castle which gave Newcastle its name. Replaced the original castle and so aptly named New Castle.


Left: Tyne Bridge Right: Swing Bridge.


Me and Millenium Bridge. The Millenium Bridge was the first bridge over the Tyne River that was specially built for cyclists and pedestrians. When need be, the bridge can be tilted to allow bigger vessels in the river through.


Me and Tyne Bridge. The symbol of the city (the bridge, not me!!). Connects Newcastle-upon-Tyne to the north and Gateshead to the south.


Don't be fooled by the sun, its anything but warm.


Aptly named high level bridge. Over 100 years old now. First bridge in UK to allow pedestrians, road and rail traffic through.

0130pm:
Finally finished with the sights and got down to real business. Met the other guy to pass him the other ticket.


Sign outside the megastore at St James Park





I was quite impressed with the stadium. It is huge from the outside, even though its capacity is smaller than Old Trafford.


Leazes Park beside the stadium


St James Park as seen from Leazes Park


My view, was quite pleased with it.


A visibly apprehensive me.


I love stadiums with a view of the outside surroundings. But this time I wasn't going to be distracted by the scenery.

0400pm:
Match about to kickoff


Players lining up before the match.

Few interesting points:

1. You are searched before going into the stadium as an away fan. Things which are no no's include cans and glass bottles.
2. Unfortunately, away day travel is still pretty much exclusive to ang mohs. I looked around my section and there was just 1 other middle aged Chinese. There were no black guys or other races.
3. A camera holding Chinese man sitting in away stand = he paid ridiculous amount of money for his seat. An ang moh guy came over to ask me how much I paid for my ticket. When I told him 35 pounds he seemed genuinely surprised. Hmmm...
4. You pay 35 pounds to STAND and watch a match. My butt only got acquianted with the plastic seat at St James Park twice, before the match and during halftime. The rest of the time I was standing all the way. I even had to jostle with other people for space when some of them just came in and stood in front of me.
5. There was non-stop singing in the away stand throughout the whole match except for a 5 min spell before halftime when everyone had their hearts in their mouth as United continued to fuck themselves. Fantastic atmosphere throughout the match in the away end.
6. The famous atmosphere at St James Park is just a myth. Throughout the match, the only time when I heard the whole stadium cheering was after Alan Shearer scored. The so called best fans in the country are only like that after all. You can say I can't judge after one game but if you can't muster more than a murmur of noise when Man United comes visiting then something is wrong. Chants like "Where's your famous atmosphere?" and "Sunderland, Sunderland give us a song" showed what the United fans in the away end thought. This writer (link) summed it all up perfectly.
7. The Geordie night did not seem so cold after the game =)
   

Celebrating after Rooney's second goal, which killed off the game.


A visibly more relieved me after the game. Yeh! I was at an away game!


The Millenium Bridge at night.

There was still time to kill after the game. Had dinner at Chinatown which was so so and walked around town and along the river for a while. Glad that I did not wear my jersey or scarf to Newcastle as the bar code shirts were everywhere. :S

1110pm:
Coach left Newcastle

Monday morning 0515am:
Coach reached London

Monday 9am:
Woke up for my lecture at 9am. :S


After note: A pretty good article on Soccernet which partly explains the lack of atmosphere at some stadiums.

For article click here

It seems pretty true, especially from United's point of view. I myself have sometimes felt that games like Charlton, Blackburn were just another league game. The atmosphere at big matches like against Man City, Liverpool and Leeds had never failed to inspire, but the ones against so called small teams can be very poor at times. Its an increasing sign of the times that fans who are going for matches these days need to be quite well off and there is a negative correlation between how well off you are and how loud you sing generally. Hardly expect an investment banker in general to sing as loudly as say an electrician. Pretty worrying trend.