After the defeat to Aston Villa match at St James’ Park we had a family do arranged back at our house with Newcastle United fans of all different ages, different generations.
There was of course one or two oddballs who aren’t into football but we left them to their own devices.
When two or more Newcastle United fans gather together, what else are you going to talk about?
Actually, what do these other people talk about? Soap operas, Formula 1, house prices?
Whatever they do talk about it must be a bit of a miserable empty existence if you don’t have football in your life.
Speaking of miserable…naturally we were all (the Newcastle United fans in our house, not the Formula 1 fans talking about Eastenders) a bit down about the performance and result.
However, the conversation moved on to back in the day, what it was like at St James’ Park and other grounds in the 1970s and 1980s compared to now.
When a few of us more ‘mature’ fans started to compare notes about how it was back then, the younger Newcastle United fans reacted with a mixture of laughter and disbelief.
Things you would be arrested for now inside St James’ Park but back in the day nobody would have raised an eyebrow…
Imagine the next time you are at St James’ Park and during the game the bloke next to you stands up, unzips himself and starts having a wee, the urine flowing down the steps in front of him, down through the rows of seats.
A number of things would then happen.
There would be outrage from those in front, in the direction of the flow, they’d be wanting to lynch the bloke who had unzipped, with the stewards and police rushing to the scene to remove the offender, no doubt arrested and facing one or more charges in court.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s in the old Leazes end under the roof and then the Gallowgate end when that became the place to be, the most packed, somebody having a wee was a normal match hazard. You relied on getting enough advance notice from those behind you, to get out of the way yourself, not to have the wee soak your socks and shoes, or your trousers if you had somebody directly behind you who was too drunk to care, or looking for mischief.
This was normal match behaviour on the terraces. These days it is a two minute trip there and back but in the days of packed terraces, it could take you a seriously long time to force your way through, there and back. Then when you got to the likes of the Gallowgate open air toilets you half wished you hadn’t. As for those who were that desperate they needed something more than a wee, to be honest I don’t really know what they did back then, having a number two at the match was something that simply didn’t happen. No VAR and no number twos.
Society changes.
It doesn’t mean that everybody’s thoughts and attitudes change but when it comes to match behaviour, one thing stands out as having changed.
If the bloke (or woman) next to you at St James’ Park decided now to loudly try and start off a racist chant it would get a similar reaction to the example above of the bloke unzipping and having a wee. The Newcastle United fans around the racist chanter would react in disbelief and very quickly the stewards and police would be there to eject and arrest the offender.
Back on the terraces of the 1970s and 1980s you would be in a very small minority on most occasions if you didn’t join in. Times were different.
Who knows what the bloke (or woman) next to you is thinking, but when it comes to expressing yourself loudly inside St James’ Park or any other Premier League stadium in the 2020s, the rules have changed.
I felt like an exhibit at Beamish Museum as I saw the reaction of the younger Newcastle United fans to the tales of my youth following our team home and away. In the glory days of the terraces.
Interesting to hear in the comments section below what other ‘mature’ fans might put forward from the terrace era.
(The photo at the top of this article is the Gallowgate end on 17 October 1987, a 1-1 draw with Everton, Snodin scoring for the visitors in the 9th minute and Mirandinha getting the equaliser two minutes later)