Back in the day, an episode of Auf Wiedersehen Pet had two guys from the Met Police heading up to Tyneside to investigate Ally Fraser.
They stop off at a service station and the young one asks the boss, ‘What’s Newcastle like?’
The boss replies, ‘Do you think you are working class lad?’
‘Well my dad was a docker and my mum a school cleaner, so yes I do.’
‘Well wait until you get to Newcastle, you will realise that you are middle class.’
A bit harsh, although this was back in 1986, before Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyneside as a whole, had totally reinvented itself. I guess the best way to describe Newcastle in the 1980s is that it had hidden potential.
Very well hidden potential.
Now living in a time where it seems that I can identify myself as a horse if I want to, to put people into little boxes isn’t that easy any more, but as a man of a certain age, football has always been the working man’s game.
But that was then, this is now.
A visit to St James’ Park these days bears absolutely no resemblance to what it was in so many ways :
The stadiums
It shows how far things have progressed, that we are currently sitting here complaining about the condition of St James’ Park and wanting to move to a new home, because as we all know, until Hillsborough happened our ground was like all the others. Lumps of crumbling concrete surrounding a piece of grass.
I was still extremely proud of our St James’ Park but it really was a dump in comparison to what it is today.
The atmosphere
A lot is made of the atmosphere at grounds. We like to think that ours is up there with the best but it is simply a fact of life that atmospheres everywhere have diminished.
When you look around Europe , across Serbia, Turkey, Germany, Italy….they still have some pretty wild support. But I guess that young men jumping up and down and setting off flares will always make a lot more noise than middle-aged men sitting in a seat while drinking a latte.
I also think that in the UK we are now too scared to act out of place because big brother will have you and it could have a massive impact on your personal life .
In other countries I believe authorities will and do ‘look the other way’ to boisterous behaviour.
Dare I say it but up the road in Glasgow, where Celtic and Rangers continually push the buttons with flares, contentious banners and pitch invasions, they get away with it because they are simply bigger than the league itself.
Atmosphere is a contentious subject. It can be spinetingling, it can be ok, it can be dire. I guess it was always that way.
Which brings me on to:
Visitors
Virtually every away fanbase will speak about Newcastle United as being one of the very best away games in England. Coming to Newcastle Upon Tyne is seen by the vast majority as a pleasure .
That certainly was not the case back in the 1980s.
However, we are now renowned for our hospitality to away fans when they visit, which has to be something to be proud of.
But by shoving them up in the Gods, 3,000 of them will struggle to impact on the atmosphere the way they would do if they were pitchside.
TV
I still remember the excitement when BBC and ITV announced they were going to show the odd game live on TV in the mid-eighties . It was groundbreaking stuff . Even if there were only a handful of games that season. When Sky brought along Super Sunday in the early 90s you would find yourself tuning in to listen to Keys and Gray talk tripe for two hours before the game got started.
Having said that, our live games were few and far between, meaning I can still remember many of them. Liverpool 0-4 away in the FA Cup, West Ham 4-0 at St James’ Park and Man Utd 2-3 at home in the FA Cup.
Media
Where do you start?
The Chronicle and The Pink. That’s about it. We didn’t get a lot of national coverage in those days, apart from Keegan’s playing years.
Then along came this radical idea of fanzines. The reason I write for The Mag in 2026, goes all the way back to the days when the lads would sell me an edition outside the ground. To be able to read what other fans thought was simply brilliant. I loved fanzines and I loved Danny Baker on 6-0-6. The first real fans football show.
But careful what you wish for I guess.
Now we have 24 hour saturation from people like Savage, Cundy, Gobby and Jim White, the list is endless of pundits who are clearly just out to wind up the audience.
The cost
I appreciate that this may sound like a Monty Python sketch, but when I were a lad, getting into a football match just wasn’t an issue.
Whether I like it or not, there are now tickets on sale for a Newcastle United game costing north of 600 pounds.
The game has truly moved away from its traditional core support
Look, I get it. I understand the argument is that it has to if we are to compete at the top table.
But wouldn’t it be better to have a salary cap which would level the playing field. Some ‘Superstars’ may not want to come to this island any more but I’m sure we would get by.
Watching the FA Cup final earlier this month, as the second half started the cameras showed rows of empty seats surrounding the tunnel. I believe that these are the 10 grand corporate seats and these ‘fans’ were obviously preferring to stay inside and sample the food and drink than come back out and watch the match.
I guess that times change and you have to go with it.
My original question was whether it’s still a working man’s game?
It isn’t.
Forty years ago football grounds were full of Oz types but these days we are a bunch of Nevilles.