As your bog standard and average badger keeps pointing out mackems/safc fans are inferior to geordies/nufc fans ,can i ask why? Give me the reasons .Of course it will be easy to say"'cos we are" but come on rise to the challenge.Oh and if you can convince yourself that your reasons are real could you tell me why you hate us so much.After all i as a human being am far better then say for arguements sake a giraffe but i don't hate them.So again if you are so superior,why do you hate sunderland,why not pity them?

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Answers

Don't hate you. I envy you for your Crowtree leasure centre. Has it still got that wave machine? Nearest I ever came to death was that wave machine.
Seriously (I was being serious), your fans arn't any worse than us. In fact, I admire any fans that support a team other than a top 6 team. It's so easy these days to cop out and support Liverpool, Arse, Scum or Chewsee. I do, however, think you winge too much. Always trying to prove your team is better than ours. Sometimes it is / most times it's not. Right now we're about even. Next season should be good.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Bliddy hell Nick was that really you posting ? Been reading my Victor Mature biography or something and suddenly become the voice of reason have ya ??

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Macbeth can you check the address of the person posting above as Nick Raphael?

It is clearly an impostor. When I met him I was abused for wearing a red shirt as my skin was white!

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Mrs Raphael is clearly holding out on him til he cleans up his act...

:-)

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

Tiz me. Can't believe you're taking the piss. I spill my heart out about the terror of the wave machine and you take the piss. I've been repressing the memory all these years. Coming up for breath and getting a face full of wave. This happened three times and I was about to drown. But why am I telling you guys? You'll only take the piss.

Not an ounce of feeling in the lot of ya!

nurse...

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2001

The easy answwer to the question is to just turn it around.

If NUFC fans aren't superior, which I guess is what you believe, then why are they inferior. I'm sure Hartlepol fans believe they are the best. SK if you start us off with some clues on how to answer the question then I'm sure we can try and think of some answers too.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

I've always said that Geordies/Mackems are basically the same people with the same economic, cultural and social background. Both are passionate supporters of 2 badly underperforming clubs.

If we want to look for enemies there are plenty outside the region rather than scrapping amongst ourselves. Aggro (as opposed to friendly rivalry) between Newcastle & Sunderland fans lowers us all as human beings.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

I don't HATE maKems. I like to take the piss out of them when things aren't ging too well for them as do most Newcastle fans. But generally we don't think we are better fans than they are. In recent years our tea was far superior to Sunderlands but we have to admit that the two teams are now fairly even on most fronts.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Was that because you were serving Ringtons instead of PG Rik?

*puzzled ML3*

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

he, he ,

I wish someone would buy me a spill chicker.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

In recent years our tea was far superior to Sunderlands

RikBR> That one's worth an entry in that 'Missing consonants' feature.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

RikBR>

Stop telling everyone who I realy am Pit Bill, it was our little secret my boy.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

I don't hate Sunderland supporters, it would be bad if I did, seeing as I married one ;-) There is always a lot of banter when the two famlies get together, however most of it is good humoured, and although I'd like to think I supported the superior team, recently that hasn't been the case.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Oops. Sorry Rik. Thought you'd already outed. :-))

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

This question is starting to get on my nerves a bit. Football is about passion which raises additional emotions some of which are good, some of which are bad. I detest the Makems as a collective but know some top Makem lads and lasses. We do share economic and cultural roots with the Makems but we do with the Man Utd supporter from a high rise in the Isle of Dogs and I can't imagine anyone trying to put a "let's all love the Man U supporter" spin on it. I wouldn't condone Mags and Makems kicking the shit out of each other but equally think that tribalism is the cornerstone of football and trying to put a Geneva Convention spin on it is absurd.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

In all honesty superkev - I believe most of us would accept that the general support for SFAC is outstanding, both home and away. No question.
I think the whole "inferior/superior" thing is just meaningless banter, nothing more or less, which probably refers to the perceived superiority or inferiority of the respective teams. However, I have to say I have noticed that many mackems appear to have an inferiority complex regarding the Toon. I've always put this down to several years of suffering as SAFC slipped into the old 3rd Division while we enjoyed nationwide acclaim as 'The Entertainers' - a period now sadly long gone.

Undoubtedly you've had slightly the better of things over the last two seasons, but I don't think there is that much between the sides.

Looking to the future, I feel which team now stablishes 'superiority' will depend to a large degree on who invests most wisely during the close season.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Sorry to say I feel you're competely wrong on this one dougal. The reality of the present situation is that a great many mackems and mags would indeed "kick the shit out of each other" if they got half a chance. Surely you would agree that this kind of partisan hatred is a hideous monster and entirely wrong? FCS dougal - this is football, this is supposed to be sport.

OK, I'm sure you will agree that it is wrong, and highly undesirable. So, how we we change the status quo? Indeed, do WE have any responsibility to try to change it?

Answering the 2nd question first, I would say of course we do. The people who contribute on here are rational, intelligent people - we at least have a responsibility to send out the right signals to those more impressionable who will simply follow the herd.

Surely in the year 2001 we have at least a moral responsibility to say "it's wrong" and try, even in small way, to begin to break down the blind unadulterated hatred, and start the process of replacing it with a friendly rivalry that is more in line with our status as neighbours and sporting rivals?

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

It's not a hate thing, just opposites. We love our lot they love their's simple, just an avenue to vent our own frustrations due to our respective teams lack of success. We feel we need to have something that we are better at so we choose our nearest and dearest rivals, since it is only us and them that get wound up about it. Lets face it, although we feel both are the most important things in the world no one really gives a toss outside the northeast.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

nope, can't get past the bliddy red shirts......

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Clarky - I think we are talking at cross purposes. Some people hate all other supporters and they have fights in carparks every Saturday in the season. They are called hooligans. They are a world away from those of us who just don't like the Makems as a collective. I stress that I dislike them only in the abstract and when we play them - most of the Makems I know individually are top lads and lasses. I have top class banter with a Makem at work. What I don't think is possible or even desirable is a North East group hug or bonding session.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

PS. Clarky, of course it's only football, but that logic won't penetrate the thought processes of your hoolie neanderthal any more than the good example set by rational and intelligent people. It's an appalling shame and something that comes to haunt us every time England play abroad and is condemned by you, me and most other decent supporters but what we think doesn't matter to these people. If it did, they wouldn't go around confusing patriotism with hooliganism.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

pps. Clarky , I do largely agree with you.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Syme,

With respect, what I'm deploring truly is hate: nothing less.

Last time I stood on the terraces at Joker Park, among the allowed contingent of 3,000 Toon fans, what I saw in the contorted faces of both the closest Mackems and the Mags around me was absolute total, utter hatred of the very worst and very scary kind.

This, at first hand, was social warfare, make no mistake about it. These people would have gladly torn each other to pieces if they had been given half a chance - at least those who didn't run away when denied the bravery afforded by being surrounded by their mates.

That is what I'm suggesting has no place in football, including between the fans of NUFC & SAFC. That is what I'm suggesting we as responsible people should not be condoning, and should not be fostering by entering into hate mail with rival fans.

I am suggesting we should be moderating our language in discussions, and doing just a little to begin to break down the barriers constructed by the langauge and actions of hatred. Our words and our behaviour are important, and can begin to make a difference. They really can.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Actually Clarky, you're bang on there.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

You get my vote Clarky! Right behind you on that one! (:o)

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

I deplore hate toooooooooo. Clarky, I am with you on every point you make. I was merely taking a broader, rather ambiguous view of this whole scenario. Behind the clouds the sun is always shining, I think this approach should be taken more often.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

Glenn Strömberg who now lives in Bergamo, Italy, after playing many years for Atalanta and the Swedish national team is now every week talking about some subject in a weekly swedish football program. Last time he talked about fans who hate the other teams so much they forget to love and support their one. Look at Lazio with all their racist fans, its tearing the club apart.

So lets start to only love our team and dont care about the makems...ok we can hate them a little bit.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

I've said before - hatred leads to Bosnia, Ulster, Rwanda, the Holocaust, racism etc etc ad infinitum.

An exaggeration? I think not. I've read in recent years of at least one murder of a Magpie killed after walking home from the pub after seeing a televised Toon match. And weren't there some kids at an ice rink in Sunderland last year assaulted because they were Toon fans? (The fact that the victims were Mags in both of my examples is not important - it could easily happen the other way round I'm sure.) It is NOT enough to say "Well I don't condone that sort of thing but I still hate those inbred Red & White bastards". The fact is that the mackems are amongst the best fans in the country - they hail from the same stock as us so that must be true.

I'm not advocating supporting Sunderland or any heresy of that ilk, but friendly rivalry should be the order of the day. And I'll go so far as to say that it should be possible to share pubs on a derby day as well as at any other time, indeed, it would be more important to be able to enjoy banter (as opposed to in your face goading) on a derby day as well as at any other time.

As long as we are unable to achieve this, we kid ourselves to think we are civilised.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

I think we are fighting a losing battle when the likes of metro radio have a quiz in the morning called KNOW YOUR ENEMY in which maKems and geordies slag each other off.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

I don't HATE Mackems in the true sense of the word. I just HATE Tyneside Mackems. Oh and people who begin the name of the team they support with a small s.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001