maKems are human beings?

This was posted by Chris from RTG. I think It's quite good

Have we any memories of Sunderland encouneters to speak of?

Newcastle V Sunderland : Countdown #4 16 November, 2000 24th Februrary 1979 4-1 : St. James' Park (Division Two) by Chris Liddle I woke up on the Saturday morning of the game after hardly being able to sleep with excitement. This was in complete contrast to the previous fortnight, which had been a mixture of frustration and despair. My dad had seemingly exhausted all his ‘contacts’ whilst trying to get us tickets for the big match, and I was gutted. I had never been to St. James’ Park before, and was desperate to make my first trip at the tender age of 11. When all seemed lost however, dad came up trumps. He worked for Cowies at the time, and when all seemed lost, he produced a pair of tickets from a customer of his. The trouble was that this guy was a Mag-and his tickets were in the new stand (the one that looks like a cowshed opposite the main stand nowadays). Unbelievably, this guy couldn’t make the game, as he had already arranged to go shooting that weekend, (and you all thought that corporate fans were a thing of the nineties.) Dad tipped me the wink to keep my trap shut if mum asked where we were sitting: Mrs Liddle wouldn’t want her little cherub to be mixing amongst those nasty Geordie boys. So I kept my mouth firmly shut that morning, and we were soon on our way to the ground. We parked up in a side street not far from the Leazes end, and made our way passed the queues of Mackems waiting to get in, around to our turnstile in the ‘new’ stand. We were both wearing our scarves, tied in a knot around our necks. I remember getting a filthy look from the bloke on the gate-hardly surprising really. We were quite late, so we quickly made our way up to our seats. It was at this point that our presence as Mackems amongst Geordies first hit home. We must have been just about the only Sunderland supporters in the stand, and as we made our way to our seats, we were subjected to some relatively friendly banter. ‘Go on bugger off, yeys’ll get nowt here today’ was just one of the shouts directed at us as we sat down. Oh how attitudes were to change within the next hour or so. A few minutes later, the teams came out to their usual tumultuous welcome reserved especially for derby matches in the North-East. Sunderland were in their blue Umbro away strip, which I had just received as a Christmas present myself. I scanned the players for my favourite, Gary Rowell. Gary was my hero when I was a young lad, much in the same way as Kevin Phillips is for so many kids today. He was everything that I as young Sunderland fan wanted to be-a local lad doing well for the club he supported as a boy. Little did we both know what the next ninety minutes would do for him in the eyes of Sunderland fans for years to come. My greatest regret about the whole day is that I can’t remember very much about the game itself. We went two-nil up in the first half, with Sir Gary at his predatory best, but all I can remember about the first half was a suicidal throw-out by the Mag keeper, which nearly resulted in another goal for us. The half-time whistle was greeted by a mixture of boos (nothing much changes then) and cheers, from delirious Mackems in the Leazes end. Me and dad were feeling pretty smug ourselves. The mood amongst the Mags sitting around us was black indeed; much to both our amusement, one of them offered us his season ticket for a book of green shield stamps, a wise man indeed. We kindly refused his not-so-generous offer. The second half began, and things started to get a bit hairy, as the Mags pulled one back and started to make a game of it. Barry Siddall then had a mental block and threw the ball straight out to one of their forwards, but we managed to scramble the danger away. Then Mick Henderson went marauding down the right, and got brought down in the area by John Brownlie (I think). Sir Gary was calmness personified as he placed the ball on the spot at the Gallowgate end. A hat-trick was beaconing against our sworn enemy, and he proceeded to place his name high in Wearside folklore by burying the penalty, to the uncontrollable delight of me and dad. With the game all but over, and Mags cursing and screaming at their team as they left the ground early (the loyalist fans in the world?), Sir Gary decided that he was bored with scoring. The Seaham youngster went on a mazy run down the right side of the box, and delivered a peach of a cross onto the head of strike partner Wayne Entwhistle. The ‘punk-rocker’ (as dad called him) did the needful from less than six yards-cue delirium in the Leazes (and the new stand). Game over. As the final whistle blew, reality came firmly into view. We had just stuffed our arch?rivals on their own patch, and there were plenty of upset Neanderthals looking for a scapegoat to vent their frustrations on. As we left the stand, dad told me to hide my scarf under my parka for my own sake, and we made for the safety of the car. Things did ‘kick off’ a bit as we passed the Leazes, but we got through OK and were soon back in the car and on our way back to God’s country. It was a very happy father and son who tuned into Radio Newcastle for the short trip home. Many years later, I still go to the Stadium of Light with my dad (when I’m not on official RTG duty in ‘The Pub’ of course). When the ‘Sunderland legends’ pictures came out, I bought my dad the ‘Gary Rowell-There is a God’ photo, the one showing Sir Gary completing his hat-trick with that most famous spot-kick. The picture is signed by the great man himself, and hangs in my old room at home, in pride of place. A great memento of a great day, when a local lad made himself a permanent niche in the history of our great club-and me and dad were there to see it!

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000

Answers

sad,sad when the greatest day of your life involves winning a 2nd div. match and.... gary rowell??

i've never hated the mackems - i actually wanted them to win in 73- truth is they've never been serious foes. in the 80's they were regularly promoted and relegated in successive seasons. now they're a small town club enjoying a couple of years in the big league - a grim version of leicester city if you will-

i could go on about tommy cassidy in 1980 or beardsley's hat-trick in 84 when two of them got sent off, but truth is they just aren't that important.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000

Last fking tryHUGHES STOKES UP DERBY FLAMES

Newcastle defender Aaron Hughes has stoked the flames ahead of the weekend derby against Sunderland by claiming the Magpies are a far better footballing side. Compared to this time last season, the two clubs' fortunes are reversed, and with Bobby Robson in charge, Hughes believes that Newcastle can see off Sunderland with ease. And the centre-back is determined to get revenge for last season's home reverse.

He told the Newcastle Evening Chronicle: "Take away all the hype of it being a derby and the fact is we're a better footballing side. The match might be closer than it possibly ought to be because of the tension and the occasion, but we should win.

"We have to for many reasons - we're at home, there are three vital points at stake, and we want revenge for what happened last season. Losing at home to Sunderland was dreadful.

"Every Geordie would pick this game as the match of the season. Everyone at the club knows it and we're geared up for it, though relaxed as well in the build-up."

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000