A cruel defeat for Newcastle the pitch against champions Manchester City, but a new pre-match initiative takes off with the aim of stirring up atmosphere. Daniel Wales reports from St. James’ Park.
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00:00 This season, St James' Park has become accustomed to vocal European supporters making themselves heard in the away end of the stadium.
00:11 And so, prior to Newcastle United's clash with Manchester City, a supporter parade from Leazes Park to the ground was organised by the fan group Black and White Army, with support from the already existing group War Flags.
00:27 I spoke to some of the organisers.
00:30 So we've got a fly march going on with the Black and White Army. We saw an opportunity to bring back one of our favourite things to do, which was a flag courtier.
00:41 Used to be from North Terrace back in the day, but started from Leazes Cafe today, going through Leazes Park and made a bit of a noise trying to get it going back into the party.
00:51 Me and Liam both met after the Dortmund game, where probably atmosphere for me had an all-time low. Don't know what it was.
00:57 Me personally, I think it was the Dortmund fans with their drum just absolutely killed our fans at home.
01:02 Yeah, so we were online, hadn't known each other previously and seemed to be backing up each other's arguments a little bit, or points of view rather than arguments, I should say.
01:12 And then we messaged each other and said, well, rather than complain or criticise, we're not here to do that at all. Why don't we come together and try and start something?
01:22 There's a multitude of problems with starting something. There's connotations with hooligans or ultras.
01:29 And really, it was difficult to start out with and not a lot of people believed in it.
01:33 Whilst the drum isn't everyone's cup of tea, there is certainly a place for it and getting the chance going.
01:37 Generating new chants and also keeping the pace of other chants going along.
01:41 Just look at that new song today, everyone was jumping. It's got a bit of a carnival feel to it, hasn't it?
01:45 Yeah, it brings the energy. Sometimes the end of the games don't go our way, but we'd like to think that we could probably get something like that going all the time.
01:52 It's been a mega success today. I think from the start we were thinking anywhere from 10 to 50 people would be good.
01:59 I think we had about 200 marching through the park, so onwards and upwards and hopefully we'll do it again.
02:03 Inside St James' Park, War Flags had already set up a tribute display to Fabian Shaw, who had signed a new contract this week.
02:12 The stage was set for kick-off.
02:14 A frantic start to the game saw Manchester City's goalkeeper, Edison, forced off through injury.
02:19 Newcastle were pressing high, but thrown a sucker punch when Bernardo Silva's deft finish beat Martin Dabravka.
02:27 Soon after, Newcastle turned the game on its head, with two similar strikes from similar positions, first from Alexander Izak and then from Anthony Gordon.
02:37 St James' Park was rocking at the interval.
02:40 In the second period, Manchester City dominated possession, but struggled to find a crucial opening.
02:49 That changed when Kevin De Bruyne entered the fray.
02:53 He scored an equaliser before assisting Oscar Bob in the dying seconds to give all three points to Manchester City.
03:02 just a city.
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