As the Newcastle players fly home from training in La Manga they will be greeted by a lot of bad feeling due to some very negative journalism . Rather than cheer up geordieland by reporting on the game at the Stadium of light, tonights "THE PINK" apparently has three full pages devoted to letters concerning "THE CHARLTON DEBACLE" as they put it. They have published dozens of letters penned by disheartened Newcastle United fans, which will now no doubt fuel the southern based press. Yes , last weeks game was awful and raises many questions about the quality and commitment of the players in the game. But is it going to help to keep on going on about it? Wouldn't it be better to try to build up the confidence of the team rather than put the players and coaching staff under even more pressure by publishing this a week after the event? I used to think that Newcastle Chronicle and Journal LTD, publishers of "The pink ", were supporters of Newcastle United. I now have my doubts as this to me ranks worse than booing the players off the pitch, or leaving a game before the end , just because the team is losing. REAL SUPPORTERS might have a bit of a moan after a poor result , but they then look forward to the next one.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

Answers

Personally I don't see a problem with that Rik. The only reason it is a week after the event is because the players were not there to read it. They were in a very nice warm sunny place. I see where you are coming from, but perhaps this will wake up some of the players to the fact that a friendly wave to the fans after a game isn't enough. They have to produce, or at least try to produce. I don't think anyone is upset or disheartened that they lost. It was the way they capitulated and didn't even look as though they gave a sh!t. Perhaps reading the letters will get the message firmly planted in their minds that all the fans expect is PRIDE and EFFORT. They already have the skills but must consistantly put them to good use. I know if I had performed at my job, then went on a jaunt to a sunny clime, I would be expecting a bollocking or worse when I got back.

They aren't children with feelings to hurt needlessly. They are highly paid Professionals and should be accountable to the people that fork out hard earned cash that ultimately pays their wages. Let's face it, on average they make more money in a week than Joe Average does in a year.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

"I know if I had performed at my job, then went on a jaunt to a sunny clime, I would be expecting a bollocking or worse when I got back."

Should have read " I know if I had not performed at my job, then went on a jaunt to a sunny clime, I would be expecting a bollocking or worse when I got back."

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

The Pink postbag obviously received a load of letters about Charlton...just as there were loads of posts on here.

But bearing in mind the match was last Sunday, tonight was the first chance The Pink had to print them and reflect the fans' reaction. Can't see a problem with that. But, yes, we should now move on and give them 200 per cent support for next Saturday.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

I don`t think there`s any doubt that they will get the support, but I also don`t think it hurts for them to be reminded occasionally that the supporters are not complete morons. They can see when the team have fallen down on the job. The players receive their same big fat cheques, live the life of luxury and travel in style, while the supporters fork out their hard earned cash, often travelling hundreds of miles in difficult conditions, for the privilege of seeing them barely turn up! I`m not the type to kick a man when he`s down, but they`re hardly suffering are they?

I wouldn`t like to see the local papers full of critisism every week, but occasionally a good dose of reality might focus their minds!

As far as I`m concerned, the last game is now history - but then I didn`t do the 300 mile round trip - I suspect my perspective would be different if I had.(:o|

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

Since this is the first time the Pink has been published since last Sunday, then I can see the reason in them publishing the letters. I'll only start to feel things are going over the top if the papers continue to harp on last week and fan anger after this weekend. By Monday, everyone's had a chance to have their moan and every effort will have been made to be sure the players are aware of feelings. Time then to start to look forward to next Saturday and leave them to ponder the past week and decide how they want to respond on the pitch. Especially knowing there will be no escape to Spain if they turn in another Charlton-like performance. Gary Speed excepted. ;-)

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

If there had only been a few poor performances this season then it wud be unfair, but the inconsistency warrants a good kick up the back side for the team!

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

I know it was a desperate performance and all that, but this Charlton thing has rumbled on far too long now. Fair enough they needed a bollocking after the game and they got it put the reaction from the press and some of the fans has been hysterical to say the least. As Keith Peacock said, Charlton are no mugs, especially at the Valley and even their 1-1 draw with Dagenham proves that everyone has off days. Basically if we'd lost 0-2 at Leeds and beat Charlton 3-1 then not a word would have been said.

We are not going to get consistency until we get 11 players on the pitch who can get a decent run together, this hasn't happened yet this season as we've had yet another season thats had to be written off through injuries. Hopefully next season will see the ( relatively ) injury free run that we are long overdue.

Also in the Pinks letters page were 3 words that cropped up in almost every letter, the words were WORST EVER and SEEN. Well my memory isn't the best but the performances I watched a decade ago made last Sunday look world class.

In short we need to put last Sunday behind us. The last thing we want is for there to be a hostile undercurrent towards our own players on Saturday as that would be a disaster. The next 4 games we have are Man City, Everton, Boro and Bradford. 10 points ( easily achievable ) will see Charlton forgotten about and will set us up nicely for the run-in. That UEFA Cup place is still there for the taking.

We CAN do it.

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2001

Hey BM, a lot of what you say is true, but IMO it is a combination factor that has driven this animal.

We played f***ing abysmally at Charlton, ok there is no doubt that they CAFC are building a handuy little crew down there, and yes, there are a lot of teams who will go there and will aklso come away empty handed, but bottom line, it wasn't the result that hurt, it was the manner of the performance.

The biggest problem was/is, it was just the latest in a line of bad shows against teams which honestly are not always that good and who, on our day we should be able to take apart, and that is not arragance talking, I really think its true and I think most people will agree.

I think most of us will agree that the majority of the season has been masked by one or two good performance and then several bad ones.

Derby bad,
Leeds (h) good,
Manure good,
Spurs - nuff said,
Villa cup (h) crap - scrapped a draw,
Coventry average,
Villa cup replay (a) abysmal,
Leeds (a) great,
Chelsea (a) started well and capitulated,
Charlton (a) woeful.

The last one was just the straw that broke the donkeys back, it was in front of the television camera's and was played on the day before they weent off on a well publicised 'jaunt' to Spain.

Now don't get me wrong, when I heard after the Leeds game that they were planning this trip to La Manga I thought it was a great idea, especially as we had this gap in games, but it was just very unfortunate that all the combo's came together to conspire against us.

If it had been a simple case of losing the Charltn, back home training and then another game within a few days, then the bally hoo would have long since died away. It's the fact that we have not had a game to concentrate the mind since then.

I don't reckon there will be any backlash at the City game next week. I reckon there will be a near as damn it full house and they will get behind the team to a man, woman and child.

As far as the pages in the Pink are concerned, I reckon they are within their rights to do this, it has haapened in reverse often enough, we pull off a stunning result, ala Elland Road, and the letters the following week are full of praise for the team.....I always used to say when I lived in the Toon, and continue to say it now, the Pink should come out several times a week (ala Sport First) but just for the NE sports....thus you can have this type of reaction quicker and get it out of the way and move on!

Ok.....that's me lot, rant over. 80)

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2001

ITK's got the point.....it's the fact of so many piss poor performances.....we're starting to get a little sick of it to be honest! all the stories about YBR doing a fantastic job etc and yet the team are still SHITE.....

Personally I think the atmosphere for Man City will be edgy.....there'll be a lot of grumbling and it'll get worse if we don't score, don't play well or god forbid go behind to a Steve Howey goal!.....3 early goals and a good performance is about the only thing that'll stop it....

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001

It doesn't do them any harm to let them know we're not happy. But we shouldn't forget that the team is a stop-gap cobbling together of players, due to injuries, cash-shortages and the normal transitional phase of a new manager (plus the EU player transfer issues). Bobby is doing an good job getting as much from them as possible, and it needs constant attention and co-ercing, which only serves to paper of the cracks. That's why the performances are variable. We're right to not be satisfied, because if the players thought they were doing enough, I don't think we'd ever get any more from them. But ultimately I hope the La Mancha trip will do so good, to try and engender a bit of team spirit and cohesion.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001

If it means they pull their fingers out and perform against a wounded City side then I'm all for it.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001

Football365 reckon that the players have viewed a number of pretty critical faxes that have been sent to the La Manga HQ.

Will they close ranks and say fuck the fans lets play for ourselves. I for one would be glad for them to not bother clapping the support after thrashing someone 5-0!!

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001

Well they claimed fan criticism before Christmas drew them together and made them want to prove us wrong.

Go ahead you useless, overpaid pansies....make my day! :-)

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001

I believe one of the published letters in the Pink was from a Linda Wright. Wouldn't be Dougal by any chance?

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001

Yes Dougal had one of the less critical letters of the 36 published ones, including rather a lot of "received Via E Mail" .

The point is that the Pink dosen't normally publish page fulls of letter a week after a game do they? Let us suppose that we beat Man City five nil next week. Will the following weeks PINK have three dozen letters saying how good we are?

Shall we bombard them with E mails to find out?

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001

good idea rik

it's easier to vent via e-mail. written mail takes more thought. it's all a bit boring and over the top now this slagging and fist banging.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001

I did confess on here to having mailed them. What I said was that it wasn't losing, it was the manner of the defeat and that now was the time for the players to stop apologising and to do some work.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2001