"Just when the game needed it most, Tyneside has come up with a resounding reminder that a football crowd can provide a memorable experience for all the right reasons. There can be thunder without lightning, bedlam without menace, celebration without intimidation, passion without poison. And there can be an outpouring of collective joy spared from the madness of mass pitch invasions....Newcastle's pulsating victory over Leeds.. was carried out to the background accompaniment of deafening acclaim that took you back to the days when the game was a religion to the fanatics who gathered to see it.

The relatively small band of Leeds fans among more than 52000 at SJP played their part, too, in a rowdy, raucous, but impeccably-behaved audience whose respone sent a chill down the spine and set the hair on end....the entire stadium throbbed to the chant of "We are top pf the league" and the earsplitting chorus of Blaydon Races. If the game in this country was to receive true reassurance and confirmation that it can still generate a healthy, stimulating and secure environment, we might have guessed that Geordieland would soothe our concern and lift the gloom....for all that, it was the performance of the crowd that will linger longest in the memory. It is always a pleasure to watch football on Tyneside. This time more than most.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

Answers

We haven't been like this all season, but this is so true of Saturday.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

We're bloody great us, leyk!!

Nice accolade - and also accurate.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

Bloody a**e licker (Sadler, not you Dougs...although I have heard rumours ;-) )

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

He wasn't so complimentary about Craig Bellamy's gob...

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

Best atmosphere all season on Saturday, I still think it was better than the Man Utd game by quite a margin.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

"took you back to the days when the game was a religion to the fanatics"

I thought it still is a religion!?

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

Sorry, it wasn't the crowd's performance that will linger in my memory. It was the performance of the team. They were Magnificent in the face of significant intimidation, nay, thuggery.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

And that's exactly why some gentlemen of the press call us an old fashioned team.

-- Anonymous, January 14, 2002

"Gentlemen of the press" = oxywhatsit

-- Anonymous, January 15, 2002

oxy ... -moron ... and that's what they are!

-- Anonymous, January 15, 2002