Roll up, roll up...One thing that has struck me about being relegated to the Championship is just how different the attendances are. I’m not talking about our home attendances, I don’t need to, as the average of nearly 43,000 speaks for itself and should improve as we get closer to the end of the season. Here, I’m more looking at away games and the effect Newcastle United could be having on the Championship.
We’ve seen the Toon Army takeover entire stands and more at away grounds this season. Cast your memories back to Barnsley where we had 7,000 away fans at Oakwell that day. You could say it is great business sense from the opposing teams chairmen, if they have spare seats then why not make sure they are sold and increase revenue for the club?
Of course we haven’t had it our own way at away grounds at all times. Sometimes we only get the bog standard away allocation which, of course, is the home clubs right. If they are able to sell these empty seats to their own fans then that has to be the priority but there are also a few teams that have a strong following themselves and so are unable to give us any more tickets such as Derby and Sheffield United. (more…)
Butt: Shocked.Newcastle United’s vintage ginger playbreaker, Nicky Butt, has been giving his thoughts on life in the Championship so far, with the lads about to face their seventeenth league game of the season against Preston North End at Deepdale.
“It’s a bit of a strange division and one that is very hard to predict.” Butt mused.
In the Premier League, nine times out of 10 the top four teams win their games whereas in the Championship you can come into the changing room after a game to find out there’s been one or two shocks.
The stastistics bear Butt out on this. As I stated in a previous ‘blog some time ago, last years champions, Wolves, lost a whole ten games last season, the year before, West Brom lost eleven, and the year before that, a certain Wearside team lost a mighty twelve games and still won the top spot. The last team to really ‘storm’ the division being Reading in the 05/06 season when they lost only two games, but with quite a few draws.
Butt continued:
“That’s down to the fact that the bigger teams in this division – the likes of ourselves, Middlesbrough and West Brom – are teams that everybody wants to beat and it’s a big deal for some of the smaller clubs to play teams like that. You see that week in, week out and it’s reflected quite regularly in the results.” (more…)
