This weekend starts off a tough testing stretch of matches for Newcastle United. The next three weekends, the Magpies play Manchester City, Manchester United, and Chelsea – the first, second, and fourth placed teams in the table. These games will be a litmus test to see if Newcastle is deserving of their current third place standing. This Saturday’s match should also simply be a great game, penning Newcastle’s top rated defense against Man City’s top rated offense.
In the few years I’ve followed Newcastle now, this has been their most promising season. Of course one of the recent years they were relegated and the year following they were in the Championship league. As I am still following them, I’ve obviously stuck with them during those down years. I’m an ardent supporter now – that’s not a question – but it’s worth wondering, how did I become a Newcastle United Fan in the first place?
The truth is I can’t remember what led me to become a Newcastle fan. I began following them my senior year of college so I’m sure that it helped that they were from the same town as Newcastle Brown Ale. I’m pretty sure the beer was the jersey sponsor then as well. I’m sure that the fetching black and white stripes of their home jersey were appealing too, as there are not many jerseys that are that simple in the color scheme. I would like to say that it was from seeing Newcastle great Alan Shearer play in some of his final matches. Sadly, that wasn’t the case since I had never seen Newcastle play on television or streaming online until the last few years.
What I do know, (and I did mention this a few posts ago) is that I admired the historic St. James Park where Newcastle have played since the turn of the last century. I admire that football has been played there since 1892, with until just recently no change in the stadium’s name. I also always enjoyed upper façade of the older East Stand. Until recently it was void of any advertisements and just simply read “NEWCASTLE UNITED.” Everything just seemed to be football at its purest. (Unfortunately things have changed recently with advertisements and the money behind it leaking into the historic purity of the stadium. You can read more about my thoughts on that from my post from earlier this month found here.)
Although it wasn’t part of why I started following Newcastle United in the first place, I’ve become more enamored with Newcastle the town and the people. Newcastle is in the far northeast of England, far away from the other larger more known cities of England. It’s also a more working class town, historically with a background in manufacturing and coal mining. Newcastle has a more blue collar type base, unlike what you see with the big city clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, or the Manchester teams.
The people Newcastle and the northeast also have another thing that sets them apart from the rest of England – language. People of the northeast are known as Geordies with their unique accent referred to by the same name. It’s still English that they write and speak, but many English from other parts of the country would say the latter is a stretch. When stating that my wife and I would like to visit Newcastle, a family friend who is natively English stated, “They’re all Geordie up there. They don’t even speak English!” Geordie is very much like a deep Scottish accent, which makes sense since they are so close to the border. It has that rich deep accent that American ears or English ears used to milder accents have to really concentrate on to understand. As an example of this, try to follow this YouTube video on the Geordie dialect. I incredibly can follow what the speaker is saying now, but the first time I heard it I was completely lost. There’s something to be said for such a good solid accent.
The Geordie dialect is also the reason for a nickname of Newcastle’s supporters. Because of the way Geordies say the word “town” as “toon,” the supporters are often called the Toon Army. The team itself is also often called the Toon, as well as their other nickname of the Magpies which refers to their black and white home uniforms.
My explanation of being a Newcastle United fan would not be complete without voicing my hate of current owner Mike Ashley. Ashley of all things is a Cockney from north of London, much different than the Geordies. He’s a billionaire owner of a sporting goods retail chain. I and the rest of the Toon Army would tell you that he has done more the club more harm than good. I’ll give him credit (as much as it pains me to) for getting the club financially out of the red. However, in my opinion, it has come at the cost of the club, the history, and the fans. His selfish control of the club can be to blame for the club’s relegation in 2009. Ashley has put the club up for sale a few times, always to retract the offer. Until Ashley sells the club, Newcastle will have a hard time moving forward. An owner that irks the fans as much as Ashley does is not good for an organization’s future. The Toon Army does not have to agree with everything an owner does, but agreeing with them even sometimes would be nice.
With all that said of my distaste of owner Mike Ashley, it does not sour my support of the Magpies and the people of Newcastle. They’re where the identity of Newcastle United truly lies. In support of that thought, and in support of the team in the upcoming matches, I end this post with a simple but enthusiastic –
Howay the lads!
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