Book captures the emotions of North East football fans

Nov 1 2009 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

IT was the season to end all seasons when all three of the North East's top clubs could have been relegated. A book capturing the emotions of ordinary fans as Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle United faced the dreaded drop has been published. And its authors have found it difficult to read such was the anguish they went through. Mike Kelly reports.

MAY 24, 2009. One of the darkest days in North East football as Middlesbrough and Newcastle United are relegated at the end of a long, torturous season. Sunderland stayed up, but it was a close-run thing.

Sports writers have well documented the plight of the clubs but have a level of detachment from the action that fans do not have. Auf Wiedersehen Lads is a diary of the thoughts of three such supporters as they watched their teams’ season implode during the crucial eight game run-in.

At one stage Rob Nichols, a long-suffering Boro fan who signed up to the project, thought he could write no more.

It became too much after his team lost 3-1 to Newcastle United with two games to go.

“I thought that’s enough, I can’t take any more,” he said. It took some persuading for him to get back on his keyboard again.

Ironically the following week Boro played Aston Villa and at half time were 1-0 up. If the results had been the same at full time their chance of avoiding the drop would no longer have been just a pipe dream.

“They were playing The Great Escape’ on the tannoy,” said Rob. “In my head I actually thought we were going down as far back as January but in my heart, with the results going our way at half-time in the Villa match, I thought we just might do it.”

But football is a fickle sport. The Boro match ended 1-1 and other results turned round too. Yet even on the last day, if results went their way Boro could have remained in the Premier League.

However, for ‘if’ in football read ‘as if’ and the inevitable happened. Rob said: “Deep down I thought we were doomed, but the hope never quite gets extinguished. You torture yourself until it finally flickers and dies”.

The idea was the brainchild of Sunderland fan Malcolm Robinson, a local lad who is in the RAF and currently based in Wiltshire.

Valiantly not trying to sound smug now that only his team survived the dreaded drop he explained the thinking behind the project he dreamed up at the turn of last year. He said: “It was a new situation that all three North East teams were battling for survival. At that stage it looked like all three would stay up. At the end of February it was still looking rosy then I contacted the lads and it started from there.”

The Newcastle United diarist was Barry Hindmarch. Barry and Rob had been recommended to Malcolm by friends through their work on fanzines. The three never actually met during the writing of the book, just emailing their entries to Malcolm for editing.

“It made it a lot more honest because we were working independently,” said Barry.

Rob added: I didn’t know the other lads and hadn’t a clue what they were writing. It was done blind. It was a pretty strange experience.”

He had a nagging fear about being stitched up because of the arrangement but has no fears having now seen the final result.

As all football fans know, it was not just the fate of the North East clubs which hinged on the last day of the season, but Hull City as well. For the sake of completeness there is a contribution to the climax of the book by Tigers fans Ben Sandall.

While all four support different teams the feelings of fear, sadness, anger, anxiety, hope, optimism and pessimism are a common thread which connects them all. As does the gallows humour which insulates the fans at the sharp end from total despair.

Rob said: “It definitely lightened the spirits when we were down and out after losing our final game at West Ham. Someone behind me shouted out the Geordies are down. There were mass celebrations in the away end. It definitely sweetened swallowing the bitterest pill of all.”

Barry added: “I was sure Newcastle would survive right the way to the second half of the last game of the season. All the time leading up to then I was sure that one of our so-called big players would produce the moment of magic that would make a difference - Owen, Martins, Viduka, Duff and the rest are all players that you feel can produce the special moment. Then the own goal went in and the players seemed to have no fight left. That’s when I knew we were going down.”

The book has now been published. Malcolm said: “It has been probably the hardest most stressful thing I have done, but the end product makes it all worth it. It’s like a historical artefact, the relegation battle seen through the eyes of fans.”

There’s talk of a follow-up with Boro and Newcastle riding high in the Championship and Sunderland on the cusp of the battle for a European place in the Premier League.

Rob quipped: “With beach balls scoring for Sunderland, us sacking our manager after a win taking us near the top of the league, and Newcastle . . . where do you start? . . . there’s certainly enough material already.”

:: Auf Wiedersehen Lads is now available in bookshops or by contacting www.a-w-lads.co.uk