Patrick Hamilton wrote the fantastic Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, a trilogy of books (that was also made into a BBC drama) that deals with the lives of three main characters, but there is a periphery of other characters with stories that interlope and generate fantastic scenarios as they interact and create deep stories.
As an NUFC member, I have not managed to bag tickets for any Newcastle United home Premier League games so far this season via ballots or queue sales.
So we weren’t lucky enough to be at the Liverpool game on Sunday, nor will we be at Bournemouth or Hull. Oh well. We will continue to apply and hope.
Our luck has been out so far but no worries, we have a couple of tickets for the League Cup game tonight against West Brom and in the Gallowgate End as well.
On Sunday I sat with my son watching the game on TV, we were loving it. That was until that moment. A definite penalty the TV commentators said. But then social media chucks out images which suggest something different. More blatant challenges in the box waved away by referees in other games, so why was this referee so quick to point to the spot?
When the penalty was awarded me and my lad looked at each other. With that look which one can only describe as the Liverpool look . The inevitable shake of the head with no words.
Last season we were in the Milburn Stand last August and watched Liverpool steal a victory, when if the referee had any bottle, Liverpool would have also been down to ten men.
If that Hall challenge was a Liverpool player making it at Anfield the referee would have dramatically waved away Newcastle players’ protests, I have absolutely no doubt.
But that brings me to my main point, I believe that clubs such as Liverpool and Man U need Newcastle United. Without us they are impotent. The big five who have managed to win trophies over the last thirty years cannot justify their position unless they have decent opposition.
The Premier League has made a massive miscalculation in my opinion and is giving traction to what is basically a European Super League. By empowering an elite group of teams.
After thirty years of the same old, the Premier League is running out of time.
Aston Villa supporters have their heads in their hands as they sell the core of their team that got Champions League, purely because of the financial rules that have been applied to allow those team that are not the elite few.
Without, Villa, Newcastle, Leeds, Forest etc having a chance, there is no Premier League. Liverpool and Man U are dependent on Newcastle. There is a relationship between the clubs and how many games between us and Liverpool have created the drama which sells the Premier League and the Liverpool product worldwide?
Likewise Man U and their battles with Newcastle United.
Just as Patrick Hamilton writes his characters, they are not the characters they are unless they have the supporting cast that create the situations and controversies. A supporting cast who would love the lead role and who are individuals with a story to tell in their own right, but are denied the opportunity.
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