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Losing 2-0 to the best team in the world may not be the very worst outcome for a number of Newcastle United fans.
Manchester City progressing to the semi-finals very much in line with what most people predicted.
However, some Newcastle United fans may have an even more negative lingering memory of their visit to the Etihad.
Sunday morning has seen the Newcastle United Supporters Club confirm (see below) that the club carried out further ticket checks at Saturday’s match.
The draconian approach seeing the club threaten Newcastle United fans with potential punishment of losing all their loyalty points, or even losing their season tickets, if they pass an away ticket on to another fan.
The club sending out a number of tickets that don’t work at the turnstile, match after match, with then those Newcastle United fans having to go and prove their identity to NUFC ticket office staff who have travelled. If you aren’t the person who bought the ticket, then the season ticket holder who did, could then be punished with loss of loyalty points (or even losing their season ticket). Whilst not going to see the travelling ticket office staff if your away match ticket fails to work, seemingly sees the club take the position that you are guilty unless you can prove otherwise (photos of you inside the away stadium, proof of purchases inside the stadium and so on).
This Man City match could prove one of the worst ones yet for Newcastle United fans getting punished by their own club. As there were 7,800 travelling fans and no doubt many of them will not be regular away travellers, thus maybe thinking that things have been much exaggerated when it comes to how the club are dealing with this away ticket issue…
I think the punishment(s) are way over the top if enforced against any Newcastle United fan finding themselves having passed a ticket on for whatever reason.
However, especially with 7,800+ tickets, for starters there would be a canny few who had very genuine late reasons for not using the ticket they had bought. From my experience in the past with away matches, you would always get a sizeable minority of fans who late on find they can’t travel due to illness, having to work, family issues and so on.
It is just crazy then that as things seemingly stand, if you find on the morning of an away match that you can’t go, that ticket has to remain unused or else you risk losing your loyalty points and/or season ticket. What kind of club treats their fans like that?
Newcastle United Supporters Club via Twitter – 17 March 2024:
‘Ticket Checks! (Please read!)
Ticket checks do happen and we regularly get emails from supporters contacted by the club. There were further checks at Man City yesterday.
We will always try and help supporters where we can but if you sell your ticket, you run the risk of losing all of your loyalty points.
We don’t agree with the way the checks are conducted and continue to push for it to be changed. There should be options for supporters to transfer a ticket a limited number of times per season to friends and family. 72 hours prior for a refund is also too long – should be 24 hours especially as digital tickets become more common and reprints of paper tickets can be arranged at the stadium.
But until changes are made this is the system the club are using.
Club do continue to monitor social media and we know they blocked tickets sold via X for the Chelsea game last week.
Our DMs are always open to discuss or you can email info@nusc.uk’
Stats via BBC Sport:
Manchester City 2 Newcastle 0 – Saturday 16 March 5.30pm:
Goals:
Newcastle United:
Man City:
Silva 13, 31
Possession was Man City 72% Newcastle 28%
Total shots were Man City 16 Newcastle 2
Shots on target were Man City 5 Newcastle 1
Corners were Man City 11 Newcastle 2
Referee: Simon Hooper
Newcastle team v Man City:
Dubravaka, Murphy, Schar, Lascelles, Botman (Krafth 83), Burn (Hall 62), Bruno, Longstaff (Miley 62), Willock (Anderson 62), Gordon (Almiron 62), Isak
Unused subs:
Karius, Dummett, Ritchie, Targett
(I’ll tell you the exact moment when Newcastle United went out of the FA Cup – Read HERE)
(Manchester City 2 Newcastle 0 – Instant Newcastle United fan / writer reaction – Read HERE)
Newcastle United confirmed matches to mid-April 2024:
Saturday 30 March 2024 – Newcastle v West Ham (12.30pm) TNT Sports
Tuesday 2 April 2024 – Newcastle v Everton (7.30pm) TNT Sports
Saturday 6 April 2024 – Fulham v Newcastle (3pm)
Saturday 13 April 2024 – Newcastle v Spurs (12.30pm) TNT Sports