The Official Site has dropped possibly it's biggest bollock yet by publishing a list of pubs in Sunderland in which Newcastle fans may wish to go drinking before the match, in it's Rough Guide section.

The Official Site has posted an apology but this is now on the ESPN site and will probably appear in most press by the end of today. Heads should roll.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

Answers

That apology in full. They obviously know they've scored an own goal (Brian) but - dumbly or spinelessly - have apologised for completely the wrong thing. If they genuinely don't want to promote "excessive drinking" then they wouldn't have commissioned a pubs guide in the first place. 'Apologising' only for a Sunderland pub listing and not for other grounds around the country is a joke. No, their real cockup is in letting mackem thugs get an idea where best they can target the unwary. We can only hope none who actually have tickets would be naive enough to go to there for their laughable travel info.

AN APOLOGY As most of you who use the site regularly are aware we have a section called "A Rough Guide To…". In this section we try and give useful information to our fans when travelling to away matches. The brief is to cover things like possible modes of travel, available fanzines and website addresses as well as possible places of refreshment which includes cafes, restaurants and pubs where away fans may be welcome.

PTV, who run the site infrastructure, source this to an outside agency. They compile this section for us using writers who will make the material both entertaining and informative. However, they would like to apologise for the recent Rough Guide for the Sunderland match, which contained information about public houses in Sunderland.

Under no circumstances does this club or the writer of the piece condone excessive drinking prior to matches. For this game in particular this information should not have been present on the site.

Newcastle United recommend that people only travel to the game if they have a ticket and that they use the free transport laid on by the club.

As stated, the Rough Guide section is designed to be of use to fans. If you feel either that this section is of no use to you, or useful, please let us know and we will act accordingly.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

Surely this is the opportunity to end the hilarious mess thatis the Official Site and get someone in who can do a proper job. How about mass e-mailing of the site?

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

There is a slight problem here DeB - the site is run by NTL as part of their Services Agreement with the Toon. The Toon of course, received a £25 million convertible loan as part of said Agreement.

So, their ability to "throw them out" is somewhat limited! Having said that a braver and more forward looking management would do precisely that, and damn the consequences. However, they still just don't appear to realise how important this 'public interface' for the Company really is.

Considering the personal reassurances I received from David Stonehouse on this matter last October (ie. 6 monthsago), I find this lastest fiasco extremely disappointing. I may write to him again, if I can be @rsed - but to be honest I just feel I'm wasting my time.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

A more forward thinking management would have insisted on some form of club control of the site's content. At the very least someone working for NUFC keeping constant contact with those putting the site together to make sure the content reflects what the club want the public to know. Even feeding that company content for the site....press releases, etc. I mean, HELLO??!!!, this site is supposed to be the official representation of NUFC!! I didn't think it took a rocket scientist to figure that out in this day and age.

Actually it might not be a bad idea for folks to email their displeasure to whoever posted that apology. Did they give an email address for comments? If Stonehouse is serious about wanting something done about the site, he'd probably have more power with the corporate monster NTL if he can provide them a stack of user complaints. Of course, this could be asking for rocket science yet again. Ohhhh...I despair. :-(

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

Am I missing something here?...what's the problem?

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

It's on a couple of other threads as well, just the orrifical site dropping a bollock by giving a pub guide to nufc fans for tomorrows match when they shouldn't be doing any such thing cos the club are trying to discourage people travelling over to monkeyville and drinking....

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

According to them they used contractors for the information. NTL are not actually running it just paying for it I assume.

I take it you will all be bollocking the .com site as well for their refernces to getting hammered before the game?

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

Clarky, just another for the "In the Summer" file.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001