Travel Blues for Newcastle United fans | OneFootball

Once more I find myself the victim of yet another waiting game along with thousands of other Newcastle United fans, sat twiddling the old thumbs while the almighty TV companies decree which games to select for the fifth round, and subsequently dictate the date and time of our trip to Blackburn.

With the tie going to be settled on the night, I don’t fancy the A66 at midnight if we suffer all the way to penalties, so I need to know what date I’m looking at a hotel, so hurry up ITV.

Of course, this venture doesn’t offer anything like the novelty value that a visit to Wrexham would have presented, as I personally have been to Ewood Park more times than I’d care to remember. Wrexham midweek would have presented a hell of a challenge though and this got me to thinking a bit: isn’t everything a hell of a challenge these days for Newcastle United fans and away days / nights?

As I look to planning this visit to Lancashire off the back of an overnighter in London for an 8pm kick off at Arsenal, it really comes as a bit of an eye opener as to how awkward life has become for the travelling Newcastle fan.

The Premier League is now home to seven London teams, so one in every three away trips involves trailing to the capital, a five hour drive or an increasingly expensive train (subject to late, strike-induced cancellation). The fact that the cup draws have sent us there on a further two occasions has increased this percentage and that’s before you get giddy enough to consider the semi and final are both there.

To be fair though, London is far from the worst of it, and it could yet get even more unsavoury.

There is actually an horrendous relegation scenario where it’s extremely possible the teams that go down are Burnley, Sheffield United and Everton, with their places being taken by Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton. Your initial reaction here may be to chuckle at the mess Everton have got themselves into but this would leave the Premier League with only four northern teams. This is an absurd disparity when you think back to the 90s or 00s when Leeds, Blackburn, Bolton and Sheffield Wednesday all had long stays in the top flight.

The above scenario would see the seven London sides complemented by more awkward trips to three south coast clubs, the depths of Suffolk and Luton, although few would be impacted given the miserly allocation offered at that ground. At least London has a direct train line (when it works). Suddenly trips to Forest and Leicester seem straightforward, both doable in a day if the kick off time isn’t ridiculous (which it usually is).

I’m going to go as far as to say that next year will be the trickiest campaign yet in terms of travel miles for Newcastle United fans, even if there was mitigation on the above scenario and we get rid of Luton or see Leeds come back up.

There’s also the consideration that it looks highly unlikely Newcastle will return to the Champions League, but recovery with the returning wounded, could well see us claim a spot in one of the “lesser” competitions. If there is a Europa league group to fit around all of this as well, then people are going to be far more selective about when and where they go, as I think some games in the autumn just gone were less in demand as people saved money, annual leave and credit with the wife for big trips to France and Germany at the expense of weekends away.

This is important for the club to consider as they assess the outputs from the away ticketing workshop I attended last week.

Demand may not be the screaming hysteria it sometimes presents as on social media and I wonder if the ticket office is sometimes capable of misjudgment after starting Arsenal tickets at a hefty 115 points, with the remaining thousand set to fall lower than 15 today.

Come on lads and lasses, get yourselves in, it’s not a closed shop anymore! Oh what’s that, you didn’t mean 8pm kick offs in London when you were demanding away tickets for all (as long as they have a season ticket)?

Shame, there’s plenty in the London Mags would love to have access to them.

Rights, now where’s this announcement about how I can have yet another disappointing evening in Lancashire?