The Fans - 1986/87

Stranger than Kindness

United fans were not impressed with the poor start to the season and made their feeling felt in no uncertain terms. McFaul wasn't blamed, their ire was directed at the board and the lack of incoming transfers.

When United were turned over 4-1 at The Dell in September the long travelling and suffering supporters hurled abuse at the directors.

Defeat over two legs to Bradford City in the League Cup led to fans demonstrating after the game and an even bigger post match demo followed the 0-0 draw at home to Oxford.

Hundreds gathered outside the club entrance despite torrential rain chanting "sack the board", "what a load of rubbish", "we are going down" and "Keegan was right" (a reference to Keegan's statement during the promotion season that significant investment was required to take the club forward).

Easy Me Ting

Despite their troubles the average attendance 24,544 of was actually slightly up on the previous campaign and made United the 6th best supported side in the country behind Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham.

The home match against Manchester United caused chaos as an estimated six thousands fans were locked out (including me!). The first time that had occurred in fourteen years. As the turnstiles started to close one by one supporters rushed from queue to queue and twenty minutes before kick off the gates were closed.

Police with dogs and horses were used to clear away those who failed to get in although over a thousand stayed in Strawberry Place to soak up the atmosphere and cheer The Mags on from outside.

Secretary Russel Cushing admitted the club had been "taken by surprise" . There were many complaints with some supporters claiming that they had tickets and many others unhappy with the heavy handed tactics of the boys in blue.

There were spaces in the ground with gaps caused by the need to segregate supporters and spaces in the family enclosure which was consistently under used.

Kicking Against the Pricks

The ban on English clubs imposed after Heysel was retained after the UEFA Committee voted 8-5 in favour of retaining it, not that this was an issue for Newcastle.

Despite the antagonism brewing during the season it was relatively quiet although the last game of the season saw trouble.

United were at Nottingham Forest and the Toon travellers were in celebratory mood after the club had secured their top flight status a week earlier.

Fans of both teams spilled onto the pitch after the game and mounted police, with a little help from Forest manager Clough, had to step in to separate the fighting hordes.

One place where United fans were not to travel to - along with all other supporters - was Luton Town's Kenilworth Road where Thatcherite chairman David Evans had banned away fans.

Another location where Mags were even less welcome - but still turned up in numbers - was at Roker Park to see Sunderland relegated to the Third Division despite winning 4-3 at home to Gillingham.

By the time I get to Phoenix

It was still common practice in the eighties for the club to ask for volunteers to help clear the pitch when snow had fallen. In January an unsuccessful attempt was made to get the game with Tottenham played; but it wasn't just the game that was lost.

Although some of the fans brought their own shovels the club hired fifty from a local shop just in case. With the game postponed the fans left and some of them appeared to supplement their gardening apparatus as only twenty shovels remained.

"I am not quite sure how we will explain this to the shop" said an embarrassed club assistant secretary Ken Slater.

All Tomorrow's parties

There was better news for the armchair fan with football returning to the tele with a new deal being brokered. As part of the deal the clubs were split into three groups: the top five and the second six who made up the "Super League" (and got more money) and the rest. United were placed in the second group.

Part of the deal included the broadcasting of live games and Newcastle featured when they entertained West Ham although ITV tried to pull out due to United's poor start to the season. It was only the 5th time the club had appeared live on the box.

The club itself also started to sell videos of the home matches at a price of £12.50 and available on VHS or Betamax. Filmed using a single video camera they are of pretty poor quality and I doubt whether they sold any copies of some of the worse matches that season.

No Get Nuthin

The club also launched it's own monthly newspaper "United" and a telephone information service "Clubcall"

The "United" newspaper was published monthly and included match reports written by players, numerous features on players and an "offbeat" look behind the scenes with left-back (and left out) John Bailey.

As you might imagine this was not a high brow broadsheet, but where else would you discover the following vital information.

Manager McFaul banned the players' "bad taste" party due to the team's bad start to the season. Peter Beardsley handed sweets out to the others to try and stop then nicking his and had his chicken soup half inched.

Clubcall (in conjunction with Supercall) provided team details, player profiles, match previews and reports and used the latest "fibre optic" and telephony technology. All at a price of 46p a minute.

Fans with even more money to burn were invited to join the Executive Private Members Club (at a cost of £2 a week); the benefits of which included an "executive club tie" for men and an unspecified "gift" for ladies, "free Charterhouse Breakaway Hotel accommodation (subject to Charterhouse conditions)" and "priority consideration to all-ticket games".

A national fans magazine was also launched; "Off the Ball" being published in Birmingham.

Your Funeral My Trial

The results of a survey claimed that United were "top of the league" in terms of racist activity and the club was criticised for "not doing enough" to prevent both acts of racism and the distribution of racist literature around SJP.

The club responded with a note in the programme stating that they were "NOT TOLERANT OF BEING USED AS A VEHICLE TO PROMOTE THE VIEWS OF ANY POLITICAL ORGANISATION". They followed up by saying they would take "the strongest action possible" to deal with anyone "discovered in the performance of ANY ACTS likely to cause harm or distress to any other person within the club's property".

It was the end of the road for United's eighty two year old West Stand which was demolished in the summer of 1987. The Bradford fire of 1985 had brought safety concerns into the sharpest of focus and despite the club's unhealthy financial position they had to either severely curb the stand's occupancy or build a new one.