Protest Of Newcastle United Fans Against Owner Mike Ashley Lacks Numbers

A few thousand Newcastle United supporters "gathered in the shadow of the Gallowgate to loudly call for Owner Mike Ashley to sell the club, but there was not the mass boycott of the game campaigners had hoped for," according to Luke Edwards of the London TELEGRAPH. Despite the failure "to persuade their fellow supporters to stay away from the game in their tens of thousands, there were still rows of empty seats inside St James' Park and it seems certain it will be their lowest Premier League attendance since the ground was expanded" in '02. With fans "arguing amongst themselves about whether to support the boycott or the team in the build up to the match, bickering which continued as the protesters gathered outside the stadium, the demonstration gathered momentum as kick off approached." The anti-Ashley chants "continued inside the stadium after the game had started as the more militant protesters made their way back into pubs near the ground" (TELEGRAPH, 4/19).