Magpies fans deserve better

AS TIME ticked away on Newcastle’s survival hopes at Villa Park at the weekend, the feeling that something dramatic was about to happen was tangible.

Surely, surely, with the sword of Damocles perched a hair’s breadth from their heads and an army of travelling fans roaring encouragement, Alan Shearer’s lot would be inspired to have a real go at some point?

Not a bit of it. The giants of the north-east went down not with a bang, but with a pitiful whimper to grant Aston Villa the most routine of 1-0 victories.

It is almost incredible that a club as big as Newcastle can spend so much money on a team, both in terms of transfer fees and wages, and still be so one-paced and mediocre.

The Newcastle fans certainly deserve better. Whether the claims made of them as “the best fans in the world” are over-hyped or not, the fact that upwards of 50,000 have continued to turn out week after miserable week is testament to their devotion to a club which forms an integral part of the city’s identity.

Unfortunately, this is also a club that has slalomed gently downhill ever since Kevin Keegan first made the decision to resign his post 12 years ago, marking an end to the era of Peter Beardsley and Andy Cole, bold title challenges and thrashing Manchester United 5-0 at St James’ Park.

The only Uniteds that Newcastle are guaranteed to face next year come from Scunthorpe, Peterborough and Sheffield.

At least the players — 15 of whom are rumoured to be on over £50,000 every week, regardless of relegation — won’t be hurting too much, in their pockets.

Not that this provides any consolation for an area beset by widespread unemployment, which values its club for more than its overpaid and underachieving players appear to.




THE FOOTBALL season has drawn to a close and with it being an ‘odd’ year, there is no summer international tournament for England to drop out of at the quarter-finals stage.



But if any local footy fans were to fancy dipping their toes into the world of lower-division summer rugby league for the first time, they would find themselves almost entirely out of luck.

Typically brilliant fixture scheduling by the RFL has Oldham down for one fixture in the best part of a month — the Northern Rail Cup quarter-final tie against Featherstone, which is being played at Leigh’s swanky new ground.

Had the Roughyeds not managed to get that far, though, the club would have been left with one solitary fixture in the whole month of June.

Talk about an opportunity wasted.