Mattyblue

Coleman had just got Wales to the semi finals of the European Championships.

Words mean nowt. Sure Chris Coleman came out with something similar... next news it was a Netflix documentary.

Wasn’t it in the Coca Cola Cup?

Always makes me cringe when I see east Lancs folk with no connection to Scotland calling the Old Firm (usually Rangers) their ‘second club’.

Expected to have close to a 1,000 there. Fantastic following for a down south Sky game just after Christmas and our 4th away game in two weeks. We wouldn’t have had close to that a few years ago...

Two more winding up petitions have been raised. Not sure how much longer Anderson can keep spinning these plates...

You mean the 'buy early discount'?

Fair enough! Sounds a good gig.

It’s odd though. They would have realised many years ago that Todd Kane won’t ever make it at their level, so why hoard players of that ilk for so long? Unless the loan fees themselves are lucrative? Yet, using Palmer as an example, they still pay most of the wages.

Exactly, so that’s why I’d be interested to hear Waggott’s rationale.

Aye, Bolton I think it was.

No Stu, I think it doesn’t really matter if a few hundred from Ipswich, QPR etc are downstairs. But followings of say 3000+ to 6000, the kind of followings that really could help the away team should fill the upper first, with the overspill downstairs, instead of massed ranks in the lower. But what actually happens is, the few hundred go upstairs, the larger 2000 to 5000 followings start in the lower, chipping away at said home advantage - seems the wrong way round to me.

All a bit of a dogs dinner! Has Waggott explained to the FF why small followings go upstairs? And why large ones that could actually spur on the opposition don’t start in the upper too?

It will be Sky’s fault. They were ‘The Entertainers’ remember! They even used to have a ‘Newcastle Goal of the Month’, think that was shown on Goals on Sunday. Used to drive me Dad absolutely crackers!

Chelsea employ ‘loan managers’, just to keep tabs on them all. How the other half live ay! Mowbray in the LT: ’Joe Cole was down only 10 days ago and watching training and was talking about Kasey as one of their loan managers. We discussed why he hasn’t played, why he has played, what he needs to work on, and all that sort of stuff. They employ people to keep an eye on their loan players.’

Seen that The Pack at Belthorn has suddenly shut down, strange one as it always seemed to do well. Though we did go in December and it was only a fairly limited set menu, no a la carte, we presumed it was due to being the run up to Christmas, but who knows...

Quite a few casual fans may buy a ticket for this, certainly more than a League game, but that will be offset if a majority of ST holders don’t. Generally speaking, as long as we amble around mid table in the Championship crowds won’t substantially improve. They will rise incrementally if/when the team improves. With only the Premier League seeing a big jump. But that doesn’t mean; you cant try offers, that you price match tickets for second tier football at £30, that you can’t offer a young person ST, that you can’t get season tickets on sale until nearly June, that prices can keep increasing by £50 a season etc

And Tugay was a 20 a day man. He was in with the fans once at an away game and he nipped into the concourse a couple of times (pre smoking ban, of course).

You know 20 Newcastle fans in Chorley?! Wht didn’t they just jump on our 90s bandwagon instead?

Thought players were supposed to have personalised nutrition plans? Wenger banned mayo, ketchup etc... in 1996! Obviously doesn’t filter down to our level.

Possibly because they took something similar to a night match at Everton, I’d imagine that was £30 though...

The life of a Chelsea loanee, ay!

Exactly, they’ve got it the wrong way round.

Good point arbito. We don’t ACTUALLY get 11,000 for a midweek league game, probably 7/8,000 because of all the missing season ticket holders, that won’t change for a cup tie, they just won’t get counted in the attendance this time.

End of the day if most season ticket holders turn up, it’ll be a decent crowd, as I imagine a fair few match by match ticket buyers/casual fans will be there. If they don’t, it won’t, as we don’t have a vast fanbase outside the season ticket holder base to take up the slack. So it’s not as easy as saying ‘Why do the owners bother, when the fans can’t be arsed’ as that group are arsed as a rule as they buy a season ticket. They just don’t normally bother with cup ties, maybe they will this time, but I have my doubts.