Newcastle United away ticketing system/restrictions – How it worked in reality down at Man City | OneFootball

After the match at Man City, I made a brief contribution about the game last night.

Now on Sunday morning, looking at things in a bit more depth and of course, two main talking points that everybody was talking about beforehand.

How would we get on against Peps quadruple winners, then also, what would prove the reality with our new Newcastle United away ticketing system.

Well first off, Matty Hall did an excellent article on The Mag on Saturday morning, basically covering our old away ticketing system and what now appeared to be the reality.

So how did it work in practice?

On Friday the club issued a very definite statement, saying any season ticket holder who had passed on their tickets and if the then said ticket, was found been to used by a unnamed person when entering the ground, it’s all bets off and you lose all your loyalty points and if found guilty of doing it again, then loss of your season ticket.

Well first of all, my mate’s son who has started travelling away with us, had his offer of a ticket withdrawn.

Our own bus, ‘The Ugly Bus’, ended up only half full and got cancelled.

So seats were secured on the Chapel Park massive bus, run by Davie and Steve. Two lovely lads who run a tight ship with a pub / club always lined up upon arrival at the destination of choice, where always seems to be a welcome for us with mountains of cheese sarnies and pasties. Top lads.

Upon arrival at the ground, my predictions / fears came true.

Barrier upon Barrier, a sterile checking area and pat down zone with more stewards than a Mel Gibson film and more sniffer dogs than a Pablo Escobar funeral entourage.

Personally, we got in without much hassle and up to our seats on level 3, where I bumped into Stevetoon.

He’d had his ticket flagged up. So off he went to show ID, get replacement ticket etc…

While he was getting everything verified, he decided to video his interaction. Bad mistake, as a senior ticket office staffer appeared. Demanding he delete his transaction or have his ticket rescinded. Whoa, heavy duty stuff for a simple check.

Back on the coach after the match, stories started to appear online of older and younger fans being refused entry over ID issues. Some of these may have been spurious, I don’t know.

What I do know, is a lad who was sitting opposite me on the way down, was now looking a tad sheepish, as he retold a story of how a relative, who works in the box office, confirmed that there had indeed been a plan today to target ticket holders who had numerous points, 200+, to make sure these folk weren’t part of some big time touting operation.

Which obviously they were not.

General consensus on the way back?

This new system needs scrapping and back to the old one.

Though how about this for a compromise.

Away ticket holders allowed to reassign say five tickets per season?

As a footnote, there were loads of junior toons in the away end last night, so obviously the passing on of tickets is still going on.

Footnote number two, is it just me or did Bruno look a half yard off it yesterday?

Stats from BBC Sport:

Manchester City 1 Newcastle 0 – Saturday 19 August 8pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Man City :

Alvarez 31

Possession was Man City 60%  Newcastle 40%

Total shots were Man City 14 Newcastle 7

Shots on target were Man City 4 Newcastle 1

Corners were Man City 3 Newcastle 0

Referee: Robert Jones

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Bruno, Joelinton (Longstaff 57), Tonali (Anderson 67), Gordon (Barnes 56), Almiron (Livramento 86), Isak (Wilson 66)

Subs:

Dubravka, Lascelles, Targett, Ritchie

(Pep Guardiola reflects on narrow Manchester City win over Newcastle United – Read HERE)

(No need for the panic and criticism after Manchester City 1 Newcastle 0 – Read HERE)