Behind enemy lines – What I learnt sitting amongst the home fans at Southampton on Sunday

I’d only ever sat with the opposing fans at one Newcastle game prior to this weekend.

It was 1999 and I was a kid at one of my first matches. My mum hadn’t managed to get tickets in the Newcastle away end at Villa Park, so we had to sit in with the home fans.

My abiding memory of that game was these two blokes behind me that were slating everything that Shearer did. I was getting more and more upset about my hero’s treatment as the game went on.

Eventually my mum turned around and said, ‘he’s the England captain, show some respect!’ We didn’t hear a peep out of those chaps for the rest of the game. Thanks Mammy.

We won 1-0 courtesy of a Duncan Ferguson goal but I decided from that early age, sitting with other fans wasn’t for me. You can’t cheer or sing. What’s the point?

Fast forward two and a bit decades and my hunt for away tickets at St Mary’s was futile. As one of the many thousands that missed out on a season ticket, I’ve had to make do with a membership. So far, I haven’t had an issue securing tickets for home games but there is no hope of getting away tickets unless you possess a season ticket with a lot of loyalty points.

Despite that, I was quietly confident I might get some for this one.

Firstly, it’s the furthest away game of the season for fans living in Newcastle.

Secondly, it had been shunted to a Sunday afternoon.

Thirdly, it was on tv.

Never underestimate the power of an ambitious Newcastle United though. Whereas I could have always secured tickets for this fixture under Ashley, those times are long gone. The passion and pride are back. The black and white army will travel the length and breadth of this country (or any country probably) any day of the week.

Having glanced at the abundance of free seating in the home areas, the desire to snap one of these up was overwhelming.

I decided I would wait until the game day and see how I felt. There were loads of seats left so I was confident I could get a ticket on the day of the game if I fancied it. Southampton is only a two hour drive for me.

As fate would have it, a guy at work who is a Saints season ticket holder decided he couldn’t face watching us bulldoze them and gave me his and his friend’s season tickets. That decided it. I contacted another Newcastle supporting mate and arranged to meet him down there on Sunday.

I knew that we’d be in the same stand as the Newcastle fans so at least we’d be able to hear them, even if we couldn’t join in. I was also looking forward to infiltrating an opposing set of fans and hearing what they have to say about us and our current fortunes.

The first half was similar to the previous weekend in its scrappy nature. The fans in our section were surprisingly boisterous. It felt like their version of the Gallowgate and we didn’t sit down once. They matched our fans for songs the majority of the time but I could always hear the away support. When our lot sang, ‘Newcastle, Newcastle, Newcastle.’ The Saints supporters bizarrely hit back with ‘Sunderland, Sunderland, Sunderland.’ There were several renditions of ‘dirty northern b.stards.’

Their most common chant was ‘Red Army, red army, red army.’ It was tempting to point out that 80% of their kit is white now…

When we broke the deadlock, the Saints fans chanted ‘It’s only one nil, it’s only one nil… how sh.t must you be, it’s only one nil.’

I was concerned when Wilson went off at half time but his replacement made an impact. Wood probably wishes he could play at St Mary’s every week. He’s scored two thirds of his Premier League goals for us in that stadium. With a two in two record at St Mary’s, Southampton might be tempted to put an offer in for him.

At 2-0 the home fans were singing a song that my mate and I could finally join in with, as the whole stadium correctly informed Hassenhuttl that he would be relieved of his duties in the morning.

At 3-0 the Saints fans were back to an earlier chant. This time singing, ‘how sh.t must you be, it’s only three nil.’ The third goal was my favourite of the game, a great touch by Tripps and incisive pass for Willock to toe punt in his first of the season. I can’t work out if his goal was lucky or pure class but from certain angles the finish looks magnificent.

I’ve attended this fixture many times in the past. I managed to get to three in a row between 2014 and 2016. Those first two games we lost 4-0, both games falling within the space of six months. The final of those games was in the relegation season and at 3-0 down we reacted to our one decent bit of play by singing, ‘we’ve had a shot, we’ve had a shot, we’ve had a shot, we’ve had a shot, we’ve had a shot.’ When Townsend rattled in a consolation that song was upgraded to, ‘we’ve scored a goal.’

This game was reminiscent of that last occasion but it was the home fans singing the same songs at 3-0 and then 3-1 this time around.

When Bruno curled in the fourth, the fans around us began to disperse. In fairness to them, they’d stuck around longer than I’d thought they would. At 3-0 with five minutes to go I had hoped they’d clear off and I could trundle over to our lot and join in with the songs at last. Do you know how hard it is not to join in when you’re hearing all the popular ditties being belted out just metres away? I found myself mouthing the words every now and then. Nothing could stop me beaming as each of our goals went in.

Despite the battering there was still no rage aimed at us or our ownership. I heard one fan nearby state, ‘You’ve got to give them credit. They’re doing really well.’

As he was about to leave, I asked the guy stood next to me what his thoughts are on the Newcastle situation. He said he was jealous but that it’ll be nice to see a different team doing well.

At the final whistle I stayed to watch the Newcastle players being clapped and quite a few Southampton fans applauded as well. Not sure if that was aimed at their team or ours but it gave me an excuse to join in.

Walking away from the stadium, I overhead one fan say, ‘I’d love Newcastle to get into the Champions League this season.’
I glanced over my shoulder to confirm him as a Southampton fan and, sure enough, he had their white and red stripe (singular) shirt on.

Maybe we’re not as despised as platforms such as Twitter, BBC Sport or Talksport seem to portray. Maybe not every fan thinks we should have set fire to our shirts and pledged allegiance to Sunderland the day the takeover went through. Maybe the regular fan in the stadium actually finds it refreshing to see a team like ours mixing it with the powerhouses. Maybe a lot of fans would prefer us to do well than a Manchester United or a Liverpool.

I’m not saying we’re becoming everyone’s second team, but I do think, a lot of non-Newcastle fans appreciate our transformation and don’t all put it down to money. Everyone is jealous of us but not all of them are spiteful. Not that we should care either way.

We’re Newcastle United, we’re back and we’ve just made history. We’ve beaten Southampton away in back-to-back seasons for the first time ever. Who knows how much more history we’ll make in the coming months and years.

Stats from BBC Sport:

Southampton 1 Newcastle 4 – Sunday 6 November 2pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Almiron 35, Wood 58, Willock 62, Bruno 90+1

Southampton:

Perraud 89

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Southampton 56% (49%) Newcastle 44% (51%)

Total shots were Southampton 16 (4) Newcastle 7 (4)

Shots on target were Southampton 5 (1) Newcastle 4 (1)

Corners were Southampton 8 (3) Newcastle 2 (2)

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Crowd: 30,402 (3,300 NUFC fans)

Newcastle United:

Pope, Trippier (Manquillo 80), Schar, Botman, Burn, Longstaff, Bruno, Murphy (Shelvey 64), Willock (ASM 73),  Almiron (Anderson 81), Wilson (Wood 45)

Unused Subs:

Darlow, Lascelles, Fraser, Targett

(3 Positives and 3 Negatives from Southampton 1 Newcastle 4 – Read HERE)

(Ralph Hasenhuttl facing sack as he reflects after hammering from ‘clinical’ Newcastle United – Read HERERalph Hasenhuttl facing sack as he reflects after hammering from ‘clinical’ Newcastle United)

(Southampton 1 Newcastle 4 – Match ratings and comments on all the NUFC players – Read HERE)

(Southampton 1 Newcastle 4 – The instant NUFC fan / writer reaction – Read HERE)

(The photo Newcastle United fans all wanted to see on Sunday…See HERE)

You can follow the author on Twitter @billymerlin