We have all come across Mags who have had enough and cancelled season tickets. There is barely a week goes by where I don’t bump into a lifelong Black & Whiter who has reached his or her tipping point with the club and decided enough is enough. Only a fortnight ago I bumped into a lad I know whose points tally for away games would have been in excess of 200 who told me he hasn’t been to a game all season having cancelled the Direct Debit last season. He wasn’t missing it.
I shouldn’t be surprised at these encounters but I still am. Plenty of the people I know who have chucked it are excellent, life-long supporters and I’ve shared many an away trip and post-match drink with them for decades. There are supporters who I would describe as the hardest of the hardcore who can no longer stomach giving up their time and money to the club Mike Ashley has created where Newcastle United used to be. I understand them completely.
It does still come as a shock when someone who you regard as being the very essence of the club tells you he or she is 
packing it in because they can no longer go along with Ashley’s poor excuse for a football club. A little part of Newcastle United dies forever when they pack it in.
Regular readers of true faith will recognise the name Gavin Bradshaw. Gav has provided this fanzine with some of the most intelligent and well-crafted pieces I’ve had the privilege of publishing in its pages. For a number of years Gav has written the excellent column, The End within true faith and although he’ll squirm with embarrassment, I think I started true faith many years ago, so I could publish the kind of material our Mr Bradshaw has written.
I’ve known Gav as a friend for many years now too, meeting him when he was fresh out of Uni and clocked his life as he’s developed a career of his own and become a family man. I’ve also had the privilege of meeting Gav’s parents who are lovely, salt of the earth people but its his Dad, Tommy where you can see Gav gets his love of Newcastle United from. Basically, they are the kind of people you want supporting Newcastle United Football Club. Or rather you and I gentle reader want supporting Newcastle United. God only knows what Mike Ashley wants.
Gav is going to stop writing for true faith at the end of the season. Gav is going to stop supporting Newcastle United in May. He has made that call and when the 2016/17 begins Gavin won’t be there. For the first time since the period following World War 2, a member of the Bradshaw clan won’t be at St James’ Park on match-day.
You can read Gav’s thoughts and his explanation for cancelling that Season Ticket Direct Debit in the latest issue of true faith and within his column, The End.
To get access to the whole fanzine (true faith – Issue 124) if you choose, just click on the image below and remember its FREE.
No problem Andy -I just copied it from wikpedia or somewhere! I was at the West Ham game actually-my only game in 7 years, following my trip over for the Spurs game to stand outside and sing “Ashley out”. I was hoping that there would be a massive protest and there was a planned sit-in. However, after the match and maybe 2 choruses of “get out of our club” nearly everyone else went home. So I now only go when there is a planned protest, because sometimes I do think that by boycotting we have let Ashley off the hook. The atmosphere was indeed like those of the past, and whatever our differences, I think we both agree what NUFC could be.
I guess there is just no easy answer with this one, and maybe we are hoping to return to a time anda passion that is now lost for ever. Then again, when I watched us lose at home to Millwall before Keeganmania took off, things seemed pretty desperate then too. Hope springs eternal!
Apologies Peter I meant no insult. Just felt the definition quote was a little patronising…….
I respect all black and whiters equally and consider one and all my extended family, sometimes feel that the boycottors are more outspoken than the match goers. Felt Mark with his comments addressed the balance perfectly.
My bigger picture is simple avoid relegation I’m only interested in the team , fat Mike will go when and if he wants to not down to any cancelled direct debit from myself. It hurt to boycott Spurs game but I did it……feel momentum was drastically lost from that point onwards. Remember the in ground celebrations as Jonas slayed the hammers on the last day? Apologies you weren’t there , I mean that sincerely , but it was one of the days we live for.
As it was me Andy Bee that said about fellow fans attacking each other, I was not trying to belittle anyone. Many years ago on here, our editor asked us to avoid insults and try to respect each other, and I think that I try to do that. However, it is almost human nature to defend when attacked, so I was trying to point out that the “boycotters” do at least believe that they are making a principled stand, whether or not other people do. The other point that I am trying to get someone to answer is how supporting the team is construed by Ashley and how that is ever going to get us our club back? I do understand that some simply want to show loyalty to the team, but surely there is a bigger picture to consider.
This is the best thread I’ve read for a long time. Well done everyone. Especially to Michael and Mark for kicking it off!
Seriously, this was a good read.
Much better than that awful dribble on The Mag.
Someone said somewhere in this trail of mag words it’s sad we’re divided as fans. Firstly that’s my overriding feeling, as a match going mag. Secondly Mark you have written THE most articulate piece I’ve ever read here – sum up – if you want to f8ck off then f8ck off . Mark and I and others will always be there.
Now then…….some mistake this for regime support …..bollicks. We follow the team and support shite or otherwise full stop. We can try and be clever with nice big words but I’m pissed on whiskey as my wife knits (honest) so let’s not try and belittle each other eh Peter?
Anyway results were canny today ….we will stay up.
Steve-good to see you took on board my attempts to respect each others views! You, and “others of your ilk” are still to answer why you support Ashley. Maybe the “boycotters” make you feel a bit guilty. This is how you define a boycott:-
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for social or political reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict some economic loss on the target, or to indicate a moral outrage, to try to compel the target to alter an objectionable behavior.
That will do for me!
Excellent reply Mark, I finally gave up when Allardyce was knocking extremely tedious nails into me NUFC coffin and as much as I despised Hall and everything he stood for, turning up after 12 hour night shifts, using half me leave for matches, after 25 years, the primary reason I gave up was because we were really crap. Of course I managed to overcome all adversity when Keegan was manager, who wouldn’t?
news for you Peter – you havent ‘boycotted’ – you’ve stopped going to watch them.
you, like the bleeding hearted Gav, and others of that ilk – will be back. Its in the blood – like it or not.
fair play to Mark like, i enjoyed his response 🙂
A well thought out piece Mark! It is sad when fellow fans are so angry with each other. I have boycotted for 6/7 years (starting to forget how long), and I do not need or solicit your approval to my actions. Many of us have left because of all that Ashley stands for. That is not to say he has been alone in poor stewardship of NUFC, but in my opinion by far the worst. Even Hall and Shepherd realised something of what the club was about-even if they profiteered from it. It is ridiculous to say to fans who were following the club before the Keegan era, that people are leaving because the team is poor (I have substituted your phrase). Some of us resent what Ashley is doing to a proud club and a proud region, and we want to fight back in the only way we can. I have every admiration for anyone who stops going in protest at Ashley’s stewardship of the club and I am interested to know how you think that supporting the man is in any way helping our club be true to its history. I am not dismissing your views ,as you appear to do of others, but asking how you see supporting an Ashley owned NUFC as the way forward?
You love a good ‘giving up story’ on this site don’t you Michael. ‘Dyed in the wool Mags chucking it in’ is one of your favourite lines. Like a good badge of honour. I used to go but now I don’t…Well, here’s a message for the lot of you. Fuck right off. You won’t be missed. Just like the fuckers who gave it up when we sold Macdonald or Beardsley or when Keegan left or Sunday kick offs or any other tripe . You think you are different but you are all the same. It might not be the same reason or a different era, but your sentiment is the same. ‘Gav is going to stop supporting Newcastle United in May’. What a self indulgent, self pitying pile of fucking wank that statement is. Why don’t you just go now? Why wait until May? Honestly Michael, I don’t understand why you bother with a fanzine for Newcastle fans when you clearly hate every minute, where people who give it up are championed with almost Martyr like status? I have read Gavs article and like every other article of its ilk, it hides behind pseudo-political logic when the reality is he just can’t cope with us being shit. This boils my fucking piss. Why don’t you just fucking say it Gav? I’m not going because we’re shit. Nobody wants to though do they? The reason I hate this political spouting is because our most successful era in modern times was under the stewardship of the mighty John Hall, horrible Thatcher loving, blue blooded Tory cunt that he is. There was nobody protesting then was there? Nobody ‘chucking it in’ because of treatment of workers who built the Metro Centre? Nobody ‘stop supporting Newcastle United in May’ when it was clear he was raping the club from the inside and lining his own proverbial pockets? Thought not. And why not? Because we had a decent team. And that what it boils down to doesn’t it? So I don’t buy this workers rights bollocks as reasons for not going. Nobody cared then and if we were Arsenal, nobody would care now. So Gav, you are entitled you your opinion, but you’re not fooling me. You’re giving it up because were shit. Go on. Just say it.
I’m no apologist for Hall and Shepherd, but they had a strong local connection and understood what the club meant to the people of the city. I wasn’t a party to how he did, or didn’t treat the workers who built the Metro Centre, but how many jobs at all levels have been created for local people and how many families does it now support as a result of his vision. What about the contribution it makes to the region and the country in terms of tax and NI revenue. I don’t believe the people of Shirebrook would say the same about Mike Ashley.
I didn’t stop going because it was shit, I stopped because it’s rotten to the core
It isnt the fact that we are shit,though we certainly are,its the fact that we are deliberately shit!
Whe the club is happy and content to finish anywhere above 18th every season and dismisses cup competitions as irrelevant and dangerous,it isnt the Newcastle United I grew up loving. And that was with Jackie Charltons,Willie McFauls etc etc teams….ie they were shit.
This owner cares not a jot about you,me or NUFC…he cares about money. Nothing else.
Keep going and supporting that? No ta.
Nice fellow though he is, I never wanted or asked for the editor to include a feature like this on my reasons for walking away. Really enjoyed your response, Mark – the subject illicits passionate opinions and that is what forums like this are all about. Try cranberry juice for the boiled piss. Definitely sick of us being shit (sure there’s a terrace ditty about that) but certainly seen far worse in my 34 years watching NUFC. Agree with your point about what people are prepared to ignore when the team is doing well and my column has always pointed out this inconsistency, highlighting the track records of Virgin, Northern Rock and S & N as shirt sponsors long before Wonga arrived on the scene, for example. I have also written widely about the damage caused by Shepherd and Hall. You cannot claim to know my motives better than I do, Mark. I have arrived at a point where every direct debit feels like a vote of confidence in his stewardship and appointed personnel. Not really bothered if I or the other eight lads in my drinking group who are quitting are going to be “missed”, but the changing composition of the core support should be a huge concern for the club. Self-pity is not in our vocabulary. Totally respect your opinions, Mark – all the best.