the myth is exposed. Four goals and four sessions of raising the roof. That's it. Nowt else. Shame on you.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Answers

Sick of losing at SJP or something, LR?

Seeing as how we're into throwing stones - I wasn't too impressed with your lot yesterday either - nowhere near as good as they were last season, but there again you were behind for most of the game yesterday.

Interesting to note also that at the final whistle a good 60% of the "Red Army" had already left SJP Level 7 - especially as you were in with a chance of getting a draw right up to the final whistle. Very impressive.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Without getting into a slanging match, I do find it amazing that you can't just accept defeat without having to have a dig about how loud the home supporters sing. Given the atmosphere at OT, the pot calling the kettle comes to mind.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Were only "up" for the big games.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

"A lot of teams will find that coming up here, and the passion of the crowd helps them also." S** A*** F****son. ;-)

PS. Thanks for the call. Sorry you got into a "lock up".

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Clarky....a lot of yesterday's allocation went to twats....I had 5 in front of me. It was these twats that left but to suggest at the whistle we only had 40% of our support remaining is a bit of a piss take. Impressed or not we attempted to get behind our team at 3:1 down. You lot at 3:3 just sat with yer heads in yer hands.

BTW...Fuckin' annoyed at losing there again. :-)

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

But Lynda...aren't we the prawn sarnie glory hunting tossers that the whole world thinks we are while you lot are the famous indomitable Geordie nation that raises the roof EVERY time?

Hee hee......hurts eh?..the truth :-)

PS...I won't mention the day after tuesday :-)

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Screach...without a doubt when you all get it together it IS scary and impressive. I was impressed 4 times yesterday :-)

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

I agree LR - there were a lot of twats. They were riht behind me - about 3000 or so ;-)

As Clarky says, your support wasn;t as impressive as last year. It was just about the same as the Makems.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

I agree LR - there were some twats up in the away section. They were right behind me - about 3000 or so of them ;-)

As Clarky says, your support wasn;t as impressive as last year. It was just about the same as the Makems.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

The accoustics of the place distort things - in the Gallowgate End, you can't really hear away fans: however, they weren't as good as last year because last year, I could hear them, this year, they looked like a mural. Anyway, LR, it's not like you not to be more sporting about losing.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Football or Last night at the Proms , pay`s your money , 3 points are 3 points, gotta understand LR`s fixation about noise level people, he has been disciplined into Silent Running, grows on you, ping-ping.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

LR, there were three twats on the Metro on the way up. We decided to go direct to St James' for a change and three stupid Mancs decided it would be hilarious to press the emergency brake button. The train stopped dead for nearly ten minutes.

They are lucky they stopped it there, as the next stop was Wallsend where around 10 heavy looking Toon fans stepped on who would have surely made the £200 fine they should have got look tame.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Also LR, you are right about SJP being slightly quiet last year at times. However, at OT, you have players at their peak (supposedly) in every department, so if you're a fan it is easy to get excited about.

We, on the other hand, more often than not had very little to get excited about. However, so far this season it has been much better and the fans are up for it.

I'm sure the Man Utd fans wouldn't be raising the roof if they'd lost to Charlton and Everton at home.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Paul....we'll raise merry hell if we lost to Charlton at home...feck the roof :-)

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Bollix, LR, why would there be such a thing as Tier 2 Commandoes if everyone raised the roof. Say what you like, LR, but we have finished in the bottom half of the table for four years running and enduring some f.....g awful football at the same time: we'll see how much better your lot are when the sun sets on your empire (which won't happen yet a while).

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

"PS...I won't mention the day after tuesday"

You mean Wednesday when we won 4-1? Is that supposed to be a dig?

'Hey, you lot aren't very good, you win by a several goals...er...erm...' (Yes, I know it was AET...but does that not count? Oh, yeah...it does doesn't it?)

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

Douggie...don't you ever take penalties ok...you just missed by a country mile :-)

I WASN'T saying that United's home crowd raise the roof..I was actually jesting with Paul. Go see.

We keep hearing about how our support will be when "the sun sets on our Empire"....are you saying that we are consistently out-selling other clubs on the back of our success?

BTW...TTC's or VFC as we are now known were born to address the dismal atmosphere in our stadium. As far as I see it we are THE only Premiership club whos fans have "mobbed" up and attempted to swing this whole thing around. You know me Douggie and you know I swan around the various BBS's fdrom time to time to "check" in on the enemy. I KNOW we are not alone in having a duff atmosphere....but we ARE tryng to recover it.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

Snip for Skys report "Right from the kick off there was an intensity about the game. Helped by a slick St James' pitch and the deafening support 50,000 frenzied supporters, the Toon Army were on the march with less than 30 seconds on the clock."

They obviously weren't there eh LR?

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

That's a crappy piece of journalism repeating a myth. I can honestly say that the atmosphere was often brilliant on Saturday with occasional spells of all sides of the ground singing in unison - the first time this has happened - but we only really picked it up after their first equalizer whilst their second and third goals were not answered by anything like the same level of defiance. I'd say that we the crowd responded with same level of uncertainty and panic as our players when we looked to be throwing it away. The only credit we deserve is that every piece of forward momentum or quick tackling was greeted with a roar.

By my reckoning we made plenty of noise for 30 minutes in total but nothing co-ordinated or particularly impressive for a good hour. We've all experienced more prolonged support in Semi Finals, Finals and the like, but that was pretty good for a league game after last season's library-like stillness.

p.s. Lancy, I do remember you beating us 5-1 and you didn't even sing when you were winning :-)

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

Like I said Tony....4 times you freaked us out. As God is my witness the "Toon Army" to our left at 3:2 and 3:3 were NOT marching anywhere...lol. It's at times like this when you need to get behing the boys. Our attempts at a long rendition of The Calypso and Follow (Hello) surely boosted our lads.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

Acoustics Softie...it's down to acoustics :-)

Ok...a run-down of our ground. North Stand upper tier is filled with Norwegians and Irish and it's too far up. North Stand middle tier is filled with old time old established gimmers. My mate Sean (Judge on Red Issue site) was ATTACKED by fellow reds for standing up at times and singing at the Fulham game. I kid you not. You could not make it up. An old biddy twatted him with her handbag then a fully grown blokey jumped on his back, Scuffles the lot!

K-Stand still trys and the Scorboard paddock is still going strong. The South stand is and always will be a joke. West Stand (Stretford) is getting better week by week but all of us TTC's (VFC) are in the upper tier. FFS, even when we're LOUD, K-Stand can not hear us...and where do the away fans sit?...next to K-stand. The size of the ground is not an advantage let me tell you. It doesn't help either when you have a vast array of tunes. This is gonna sound feckin' silly but at times in the Stretford we can have thousands singing 3 different tunes at the same time...effect?...cancellation of effect :-)

Still...saying that I did have 4 turds in front of me at your place who did not opene their mouths once.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

LR,

I've got an archetypal "auld git" (could actually be Harry Enfield's nemesis) sitting right behind me at the back of the East Stand who p*sses & moans every time I involuntarily leap up to acknowledge a goal, appeal for a penalty, berate the Ref (or RK!) etc etc. From time to time he gets really uppity, and a couple of times he has pushed me almost over the seat in front. This guy is perhaps 80, and it takes him all his time to get up the stairs. I have to bite my lip every single game, and it's probably just as well he is so old.

We once had a 5 minute pre-KO 'stand up' protest in support of the SOS Campaign. When I refused to sit down he reported me to a Steward who advised me I could have my ST withdrawn if he forwarded the "auld git's" complaint. When I still refused to sit down until the appointed time, the Steward just winked and walked away. I really don't know why some people even bother to go.

However, at the Boro away game recently there was an auld biddy sitting right next to me - no, not you Softie! - who amazed me by really getting into the swing of it all, 'bawlin & shootin' like the rest of us. Takes all kinds I suppose!

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

Better watch yourself Clarky, there was an old fella like that behind me a few years back. When we played Chelsea in the Cup, the one where Gullit got the extra time winner, he got into a rage with me and my mate, Richie because we were standing and singing. Richie had a long argument with him, we sat down and and he shut up. 10 minutes later the lads behind start screaming for a steward. We look round and the old bloke's slumped in his seat and as grey as a battleship. He was lifted down the steps and never seen again. Heart attack. Poor old Richie was horrified. I've made a point of not arguing with anyone over 75 ever since.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

MAN U fans don't seem to friendly to one another. Why do you bother going to OT and put up with all the waring factions.

The occupants of SJP are virtually the same friendly type in all parts of the ground.

Hard pushed to think of any unfriendly fans in my vicinity, mind you Clarky we've got our auld git about 6 seats to the left of me. He gives you a nasty glare when you want to get past him, takes a good 30 seconds to get up move his brolley and mumble something or other about going the other way.

This season i've got rather an excitable and very load bloke behind me, which is fine until we score. He lauches himself headlong into the crowd in front. Put my back out on saturday, but it was worth it.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

I had an auld bloke next to me who used to get a shock everytime I joined in with the singing, it was really offputting, I didn't ask when his place was filled by a younger auld bloke.

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

Dread...that is so funny. It's a sad story mate but I'm pissing meslef :-)

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

Why bother Rik?...cos when we are shit I'll still be going.

Anyway.....Sean said he wasn't going again......he lied :-)

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001

Dread, that is a canny funny story.

Actually, it's not really, but LR is right, it's hard not to laugh at it :)

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001