If you can’t get up for this then maybe you aren’t cut out to be a Newcastle United fan

I am guessing you are a Newcastle United fan if you are reading this.

Unless you have got lost.

If you aren’t a Newcastle United fan, you are excused.

However, the rest of you aren’t, so please listen to my plea.

If you can’t get up for this Champions League match against PSV, then maybe you aren’t cut out to be a Newcastle United fan…

It was all a bit strange last time out at St James’ Park.

The Manchester City match all felt a little flat, both in the build up to the game and inside St James’ Park.

The anticipation, excitement, whatever, was nothing like the levels of the Arsenal Carabao Cup semi-final a year earlier.

I know that the matches were in reverse, home leg first instead of away, so nothing was going to be completely settled last week, with still a second 90 minutes to play at the Etihad. However, whilst the atmosphere wasn’t terrible, it still wasn’t like what it should have been.

In the previous semi-finals against Southampton and Arsenal at St James’ Park, it felt like the whole ground was up for it. Last midweek it felt more like just the usual hardcore were up for it, with others joining sometimes, others not at all.

When you take into account Newcastle United had won their last four matches, scoring 12 goals. The last three of them at home and especially the manner of the wins over Leeds and Bournemouth, real late thrillers and turning impending defeat into glorious late victories.

Is it too many games, especially at home, with match fatigue setting in for Newcastle United fans, as well as certain players?

Or is that now we have won a trophy, the spell is broken? We have now won the Carabao Cup and that is ticked off?

What about the Champions League though?

For over 20 years we had bemoaned no return to the top European competition, then Eddie Howe gets us back in, then does it again!

Win tonight and who knows what doors that might open up?

Victory would guarantee a minimum of a tw0-legged play-off to reach the last 16, whilst a win tonight against PSV and the same against a PSG side in Paris next week, would almost certainly see automatic progress to the last 16.

I honestly think, as a grounded Newcastle United fan, that if we get into that last 16, we are capable of beating anybody. Especially what this United team are capable of at home.

So please, if you are a Newcastle United fan heading to St James’ Park tonight, please give it your all.

You never know when these type of opportunities will next present themselves, there are no guarantees.

After all, I know a football club and a fanbase not very far away from Tyneside, who dream of having what we have.

Enjoy tonight and give it your all, even if you are just screaming at the TV…