Cod Almighty | Diary

The St James effect

7 December 2023

Mr Target Demographic writes: Hello all! Been a while. Since I last spoke to you all about GTFC there has most recently been a new manager and we find ourselves annoyingly in the bottom half of the table. However I'm not here to talk about Grimsby today, oh no, I'm here to talk about 'The St James effect'.

Now, I've been in Newcastle at university for over a year now and only last week did I go to St James' Park for the first time ever and I have to say it did not disappoint.

The game was Newcastle vs Chelsea and, although I was an honorary Chelsea fan for the day (which pained me), I couldn't help but be amazed at the home crowd and the way they made St James' Park a fortress. People have previously spoken about St James being a reason why Newcastle are so successful at the moment. The most recent example being when PSG, giants of Europe, came to Newcastle and were played off the park. This surprised me, but not my friends from Newcastle, they said and I quote "That's the St James effect, mate. PSG could not handle the occasion". Now this didn't make all that much sense to me before I had been to St James as I've only really ever seen Blundell Park as a home stadium and although while I do believe the BP is a tough place to come and get points St James is an entirely different being.

That being is one that allowed Eddie Howes' team to unsettle one of the most, if not the most, experienced centre-backs in the game in Thiago Silva. The way the crowd almost allowed Newcastle to push up onto Chelsea and squeeze them all the way into their own 6-yard box was something to behold. Now, writing this I do realise this was against Chelsea, a team who recently lost to Manchester United so they can't be that good, but I still do believe my point stands.

Another fact to back up my thesis (look at what uni has done to me I used to write about football manager and KitKats…now it's all essay terminology) is that Newcastle only allocate around 6,000-8,000 tickets to away fans with the Newcastle numbers 50,000 strong. Alongside this they put all the away fans high up in the heavens miles away from the pitch giving them little hope of impacting the game. I thought maybe this is the case with most Premier League grounds and not just Newcastle trying to gain the advantage, but remembering I've been to Anfield, Selhurst Park, Bramell Lane, the Amex and Stamford Bridge I didn't feel like the away fans couldn't have an impact on the game.

This all leads to me conclude that this term thrown around in Newcastle of the 'St James effect' is real, especially now with how well Newcastle are doing; it just gives them that extra edge against opponents. Unsurprising when 50,000 blokes are almost on top of you screaming at you, wanting you to make that mistake, a fear factor almost. One that only football can give.