Season 1977/78 - The Fans

Watching the Defectives

Pretty Vacant

As the season unfolded the attitude of the fans changed.

Initially they tried to lift the team. Dinnis was full of praise after the 0-3 home defeat against West Ham. "The Leazes End in particular were marvellous in the second half trying to keep us going".

But when the scoreline was repeated a week later in the home game against WBA the fans turned. They barracked the players throughout the match, chanted "we want football" and jeered them off the pitch (allegedly) reducing some players to tears.

The arrival of McGarry and a couple of better performances got the fans back on the team's side, but when relegation became a mathematical certainty they voted with their feet. The last home game against Norwich attracted only 7,986. It was the lowest attendance for a League match since World War 1; although it was to be slightly beaten in the following season.

Not surprisingly the average attendance slumped by more than a quarter to 25,037.

Blyth

It was apt that the biggest crowd of the season at SJP was for a match in which Newcastle did not play. A crowd of over 42,000 turned up (with many more locked out) to see Blyth Spartans unluckily beaten by Wrexham.

Even this match brought controversy as the Chronicle reported. "Turnstiles had closed even though there were huge gaps in some parts and many fans - especially in areas of the new stand and the Leazes End - could watch the match without even being pushed."

The club responded by explaining that certain section had to be closed because they had reached their capacity and that announcements were made to guide supporters to open turnstiles. Some supporters decided to gain entry by forcing their way through locked doors and the decision was taken to close all turnstiles.

Leazes

The home game on March 29th against Manchester City was poignant as it marked the end of an era for the ground as The Leazes End was closed to allow it to be demolished as the first stage of the Phase II ground development plan.

For safety reasons the capacity had already been reduced by 5000 and the decision was taken to start with the covered Leazes instead of the uncovered Gallowgate because the Popular End was in a worse state.

The plan was to replace it with a new stand similar to the East Stand with paddocks to the front and seating behind. The new paddocks were to be ready for the start of the new season; the 5000 capacity seating areas would "not be completed next season" but would instead "be built in sections as and when possible.

Blank Generation

With hooliganism rife at the time it was no surprise that the dire performances of the team were also reflected on the terraces. Fighting regularly broke out at the Leazes End during games, notably during the home defeat against WBA where there was a "pitched battle on the terraces".

The UEFA Cup Tie with Bohemians at Dalymount Park had to be stopped for ten minutes as fans fought with each other. Bottles, blocks of wood and cans were used as missiles and the trouble eventually spilled onto the pitch. United keeper Mahoney had to receive treatment after being hit and the windows in the United dressing room were shattered during the break.

Director James Rush was the centre of controversy when it was alleged that he had sent a letter to the Irish club apologising for the behaviour of the Newcastle fans and suggesting it was they who had started the trouble.

The return leg at SJ was relatively quiet, but a small smoke bomb was launched from the Leazes.

Elsewhere UEFA imposed a two-year ban on Manchester United after crowd trouble before their Cup Winners Cup match at St Ettiene. The Red Devils launched a successful appeal arguing that the home side had failed to provide adequate segregation. They were re-instated, though they were ordered to play all matches at least 300km from Old Trafford.

Man Utd and Chelsea fans were often causing trouble and as a result the games at SJP against them were made all ticket. Some clubs went further and banned their supporters from the grounds.

Meanwhile Millwall fans were involved in a number of incidents, the worst of which was during the Sixth Round FA Cup Tie against Ipswich at the Den. Ipswich won 6-1, but the game was held up for eighteen minutes after hooligans fought a running battle with the police.

Sir Bobby was not impressed and adopted the language of another recently knighted Robert. "Get out the flame throwers and burn the bastards" was his aftermatch response

Something Better Change

Some supporters decided that a more civilised form of protest was required and The Newcastle United Supporters Association was born with Alex Gibson as Chairman and Malcolm Dix Vice Chairman.

Businessman Dix had attempted to get on the Board on a number of occasions believing that there was a need for a younger more business orientated board. He suggested that "freemasonary" was being used to block him and accused the board of "making Newcastle a laughing stock".

Dix stressed that NUSA were not looking for direct confrontation "Our aims are simply to make United a successful club. It isn't that now and shows no signs of it becoming successful. They simply wanted "the name of Newcastle United spoken with pride once more".

They wanted the club to issue new voting share capital to bring in cash and new blood into the board. Their campaign started with them issuing leaflets to supporters before the home match with Wolves. "The directors have sole authority regarding the transfer of shares and this would seem to have been kept to movement between a select group".

Their premises were officially opened by Fifties stalwart Frank Brennan in January (McGarry having turned down the job as being politically sensitive). Brennan was highly critical of the club and urged the fans to boycott games to bring about change.

Another former player who publicly criticised the club was Macdonald, but his speech at a Sports Council dinner was not well received.

Plastic Letters

With their usual impeccable timing the club introduced a letters page to the programme to give the fans an "opportunity to air your views". Not surprisingly the state of the club was not reflected in the suspiciously positive tone of the majority of letters that got printed. Only one from Mr. RP Myers really criticised the club and the reply from the editor showed that this was only published to try and turn public opinion against the doubters.

But to be fair Anthony Kaye's complaint about the pre-match and half-time entertainment; "Every match is the same military music" was published.