Arsenal Here, Arsenal There - Newcastle

... Arsenal every ******* where. Yup, right here in the middle of barcode land there beats a heart that is forever Gooner. Mind you let's get one thing straight. I'm not a Geordie. I am so not a Geordie. When I started using the screen name 'Exiled In Newcastle' I thought the 'Exiled' would give away that I wasn't but I've been called it so many times I thought I'd get it straight. Mind you I have to work at being a 'Notgeordie'. Eastenders a couple of times a week so I don't start talking all weird is a must.

So what is it like supporting Arsenal up here? Well it involves a lot of travel for a start. Over 3 hours to Kings Cross by train, and longer by car. I try not to drive if I can help it, but some times other things tie in with a trip down and I need to. And believe it or not the trains aren't that bad. I've been quite lucky I suppose, but generally GNER have managed to get the train where it should be more or less when it should be. Mind you I'm probably quite blasé about it because I tend to try and book to hit Kings Cross a couple of hours before kick-off, so if it's late at least I only miss the odd beer as opposed to any football. Actually now I think about it all the really really bad journeys I've had have been when I've been going down for something other than football. And I know you're wondering so I'll tell you. If I get my act together and book at the right time it's £34 return (they advertise a £20 return fare, but strangely they never seem available no matter how early I book!). No one that knows me will be in the least bit shocked that often this doesn't happen. And sometimes with flaming Sky choosing kick-off times you just can't book that early. So the next level is 60 odd quid return. Not too bad really. I think the book on the day type fair is nearly £100, but fortunately things have never gone that wrong. And whilst I'm talking about travelling to and from Highbury I must take this chance to thank George and Rex for putting me up (and putting up with me) so often.

Up here, obviously, there are not that many Gooners compared to the locals, but there are one hell of a lot more than you might expect. You get quite a few students up here, and there's a fair amount of Gooners amongst them, but there's also quite a few grown up Gooners as well. I'd say there's around a dozen I know well up here, most of them intending to move closer to Highbury when they can. In fact Dom, the guy I usually go to away games with has beaten us all and escaped at the end of last season. And respect to the guy, he managed to fit a game at Highbury into moving day!

I guess you're wondering about the locals. I moved up here just after the semis in '98 and to be honest expected some hostility what with us playing them in the Final a few weeks later, but far from it. In fact with us chasing down the Mancs everyone was supporting Arsenal in the league. The 'ABU' gene is strong here! Mind you having said that I drove down for the Cup final on the Friday night and I must have had the only car going down the M1 covered in Arsenal scarfs. A couple of hours into the journey I was convinced that baring your buttocks out of your car window was a quaint Geordie Cup final tradition...

Generally they don't really seem to mind us up here, but I must blow the myths the press perpetuate about their fans. Firstly there's the one about everyone supporting the team. Whilst most people might profess support, the truth of the matter is that most of them would have trouble naming a player other than Shearer. To be honest it's a laudable level of local pride rather than actually supporting football, and I suppose a psychologist would say it was down to the area being geographically rather isolated. If football ceased to exist tomorrow and suddenly, say, speedway was the major profile sport they'd all be wearing speedway shirts whilst not being able to name a rider. (Mentioning speedway – give it a go. I've been a couple of times up here and had a good time. Can't remember the names of the riders though...)

As for the 'actual' fans, well they do have more then their share of bigoted ignorant thugs. The press don't like to mention it but racism is still a massive problem amongst their fans. Unfortunately there's no escaping the fact, but I'd prefer to concentrate on the more decent. And I've got to say that they're a very knowledgeable, fair-minded lot on the whole. I do think they're more able than most to admire the ability of other teams players, and most of them will admit that Shearers a dirty git. But he's their dirty git!

So on the whole apart from geography and Geordies it's not that bad a place to support Arsenal. Beer's cheap!

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