Thursday 23 April 2015 17:05, UK
The group who are protesting against Mike Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle United are planning to ramp up their efforts this weekend.
But instead of following on from last week’s boycott of the home match against Tottenham, AshleyOut.com are appealing to fans to attend the home game against Swansea City - but make their feelings known in a different way.
As well as organising protests before and after the match outside the Gallowgate End of St James’ Park, the group are asking Newcastle fans who feel the same way as they do to stand up in the 34th minute of the match and make their point by way of a visual protest.
The 34th minute reflects recent financial figures posted by the club revealing they have more than £34m in cash assets.
The latest protest comes after a season-low home gate of 47,427 against Spurs on Sunday; although that total included all season ticket holders – some of which appeared to not be in their seats.
A spokesman for AshleyOut.com told Sky Sports: “We are pleased with how it went as a starting point.
“Our feelings were demonstrated and boycotting numbers were somewhere between 5,000 and 20,000 so we think it’s a very positive start.
“But for us, this is only a start of what will be a very long campaign.
“This is the accumulation of various failings by Mike Ashley and a time comes where enough is enough and apathy can no longer reign supreme.
“The club is disengaged from the community and the city that it should thrive from. It is time together to unite our support and send a clear message to Mike Ashley that time is up.
“The pictures are out there, and looking at it I think it (Sunday) was probably the club’s lowest attendance for a Premier League fixture since the stadium was expanded in 2002.”
Despite encouraging supporters to attend the Swansea match, the group say they understand if those who boycotted last week’s match wish to do so again on Saturday.
The spokesman added: “We will stand by anyone who wants to boycott off their own back; we will support them 100 per cent.
“But we also recognise a need to bring together the match-going fans who will always go no matter what.
“We will protest outside the Gallowgate End before and after the match again, but for those fans who are attending the Swansea game we request that everyone ‘Stands Up to Ashley’ in the 34th minute and show a visual protest by simply standing up.
“We will take every match game after game in terms of a protest to send a very big message like we did last weekend.
“To represent the fact we have no manager and a threadbare squad devoid of real quality with any sense of direction, having £34m in the bank account isn’t acceptable to any of our fans.”
Newcastle interim boss John Carver insists he has no problem with the fans airing their frustration, but admitted he would prefer supporters turn out in force at St James’ Park and not boycott the game altogether.
“We talked after the game last week about the protest,” Carver told reporters on Thursday.
“I genuinely thought at the time that the protest wouldn’t make any difference and it shouldn’t. I didn’t want to use it as an excuse for the players but I think it did affect people.
“It does affect you, and it did affect me slightly, and it certainly affected some of the players. I know there is another one coming this week but at least people are coming to the stadium and if it’s a protest that only lasts one minute then we’ve got 89 minutes to get on with the game.
“I’ll say it again I don’t have a problem with protests, people are entitled to do it, but at least people are coming in the stadium this time because it certainly did - and it’s not an excuse - but it did affect the performance.”
A club spokesperson declined to comment on the planned protests when approached by Sky Sports.
