It gives me (and no doubt any of the other authors that will write about this subject in the coming days) no pleasure to have to sit down at 1am after travelling back from Newcastle to Sydney as I do every home game and write an article about a disgusting episode I was unfortunate enough to witness in person.

Please allow me first and foremost to apologise to the fellow fans who were in EnergyAustralia Stadium on Sunday 18th January who may have been unaware of the full story of what necessitated almost the entire populations of Bays 1 and 2 to stage a mass walkout and move to the terrace next to it in a very visible display of dissatisfaction.

We also apologise to the players and coaching staff who may have mistakenly thought the protest was aimed at them. It was not. Allow me to explain what lead to this and the ramifications of which is the main point of this article.

It has been common practice around the world for football supporters to show management what they might think of a situation that is happening with their club. It can be something as simple as Barcelona FC fans waving white “hankys” en masse, many supporters around the world hang their banners upside down as a show of unhappiness or protest, and some fans can go even further in an effort to drive home exactly their feelings.

AC Milan fans gatecrashed a television show to protest live on air about being denied entry into an away game their club was about to play against Juventus this year, and Newcastle United fans in England swamped their clubs headquarters over several days in an effort to get the clubs chairman Mike Ashley to resign after their beloved manager Kevin Keegan walked out on them for a second time after a dispute with management.

Now, while the Newcastle fans here in Australia are dreadfully unhappy with the way their Championship defence has gone this season, the AC Milan or Newcastle England examples were obviously not a viable option to publicly show that dissatisfaction. So it was decided a few weeks ago to hold the CHAMPIONS banner upside down as the players came out and then get on with supporting.

This seemed to spark interest with many of the less informed supporters asking what is was all about. So for the final home game of the season, seeing as finishing rock bottom was confirmed, it was decided to hang all of our banners upside down on the 2nd balcony at EAS. This was seen as a visible (and we thought least offensive) form of protest against the dismal results and constant disappointment over the course of the season.

Over in the Western Grandstand someone else had taken it upon themselves to do up their own banner stating “Newcastle Jets We’ve been CONNED”. These were not the only forms of protests, other people had decided to bring in wooden spoons, in fact one lad on the Southern Hill had made a wooden spoon as high as he was.

The upside down banners were noticed as they were being put up during the warmup, Neville Bajzath came over and told us it was noticed and that if we put them upside down during the ACL they would be removed. We told Neville that we had no intention of doing that during the ACL, we would be starting fresh and some new tifo was being planned as well. Everything seemed to be ok.

After the game started, the chanting and singing began as normal, but part way through the first half TimmyV (president of The Squadron) was informed by security they were instructed to tear down all the banners. So he was dragged up to the 2nd level to help security remove all the banners, while below the fans were first bemused, and then annoyed. A few chants of Who are ya were aimed up at the security guards ripping down the banners, one of which responded with a middle finger which was entirely unprofessional.

After this episode Timmy went over to the control box to find out from Neville and security why the banners were suddenly removed, upon which he was told that Con had ordered them removed and was not listening any suggestions to the contrary. After passing this information around, we all decided to show Con we were not happy with this, and promptly staged a walk out of the supporters bays and went to the terrace corner.

Timmy was then called to go up and see Con Constantine up in the Corporate Level. Timmy then grabbed a few of the main organisers (including myself) and we headed upstairs and out onto the balcony where Con was seated. We were then immediately bombarded with the most venemous tirade I had personally ever been subjected to. I will not write a transcript of the verbal attack here, but among other things we were told we were all nothing, nobodies, f*cking c***s, and if we kept going all the active supporters would be immediately ejected from EAS and banned from attending future matches.

When Timmy repeatedly attempted to explain why we had hung the banners upside down, Con directed the same verbal barrage at him to cut him off and at one point, threatened to throw him over the balcony if he spoke another word. None of us were allowed to even attempt to put our point of view across, we were told after listening to much of the same vitriol being spouted repeatedly for about ten minutes to “F*ck off out of here”.

After leaving the corporate level, we then engaged in a lengthy discussion with John Tsatsimas and another club official who, unlike his employer attempted to put the managements point of view across in as calm a manner as possible after both sides had witnessed the aforementioned tirade. We explained to John our reasons for hanging the banners upside down, and he explained the feeling of persecution the management felt as a subject of the protest.

We also put our point across to John that Con had just verbally abused and threatened five of some of the most active members of the supporters they had loved so much last season, and that the consequences of what had just taken place was to place a gulf bigger than the Pacific between the supporters and the current administration. At least during this exchange both sides were able to present their views in a calm manner, even if nothing was resolved.

As to where we go from here, that is anyones guess. But the supporters have heard about what our chairman and supposed saviour of Newcastle football thinks of his clubs active supporter base, and they are understandably angry and upset.

And on a personal note, I feel even more upset upon witnessing a great deal of the tirade was directed personally at Tim Verschelden the President of The Squadron. No one has defended the club and especially its chairman more than Tim to other supporters (even our own on occasion), and he has been one of the clubs most staunchest fans through thick and thin from day 1. So to be on the receiving end of such an outburst from the Chairman telling him he was nothing and meant nothing was especially hard to take.

Where to from here? Who knows, but this certainly wasnt the way to engage your supporter base in the leadup to appearing in Champions League football.