12th man helping out at Newcastle?
Posted on November 27th, 2009 | 45 Comments |
Smudger reckons that without the customary ’12th man’ theory, Newcastle wouldn’t be where they are in the league now. And he insists that the ’12th man’ isn’t just a factor at home either, it’s away as well:
“They want to see us win, and that’s what we’re doing,”
“Their support’s driving us on to keep winning, and long may that continue.
“It’s unbelievable. There’s times when people say it’s difficult to play in front of our fans, because they expect so much, but I think that’ll help us.
“We’ll be in games away where it’s difficult – like Preston and Sheffield United – and they’ll be singing for us. It gives us a massive lift to go on and get that extra result.”
“We had a run of winning five games on the trot, and that’s our fourth this time. If we can put another string of wins together, it gives you a gap.
“We want to make sure we give ourselves the best opportunity we can, and every home game, we know we’re capable of winning.
“Preston was a bit like the Sheffield United game. There were no outstanding individual performances, but as a team we all worked hard for each other and go
“We always maintain we want to play football, but we can battle as well and mix it with the best of them. Not a lot of people come to Preston and get a result.”
We entertain Swansea on Saturday and they come with a good defensive record and a reputation for playing good football, which has resulted in them sitting comfortably below us in 4th position:
“They’re a good team,”
“They’re a confident team coming to a place they’ll relish. Everyone raises their game coming to St James’s – we know that.”
“They’ve had a bit more rest than us, so we’ve got to make sure we recover well.”
I expect the crowd to swell close to the 50,000 mark on Saturday, which is remarkable really under the current circumstances. The subject of fans of helping to run the club is topical at the moment, and under debate. What’s not debatable, is the way we resolutely support from the stands and we get another chance to do what we do best on Saturday. Surely, with that sort of backing, the lads can push on and ensure they don’t send another big crowd home disappointed?
If we can nudge 50,000, that would be one in the eye for the press, and it would smash the mackems record. A record that was set on their “promotion party” day……… and we’ll break it in November! Nice :D
It does concern me though as this sounds again like some of last season pre match player interview drum banging, and we all know the performances that followed them :(. If they can “raise their game” for 40,000+ this season, then why couldn’t they “raise their game” for the 52,000+ last season?
Sorry for being cynical, but seeing the way we wimpered out of the premier league will take a long time to erase from my memory. The owners, changes of manager and all the other problems can be cited as contributing factors, yes. But in my mind, blame ultimately should be shouldered by the players aswell. Something they are 27 games away from, for me is, putting it right!