You don’t travel to St. James’ Park as an away fan and expect to receive your favourite player’s shirt as a gift after the final whistle.
By the looks of it though, nobody told this to this kid who travelled to Newcastle to support his Southampton at St. James’ Park.
The kid, standing in the top tier of the away stand sporting a Southampton jersey and a Bally over his head, could be seen holding a banner that reads “James Ward-Prowse 8, Can I Please Have Your Shirt?” Pretty optimistic we believe.
St James’ Park, Newcastle United’s historic turf which has a capacity of 52,405 seated fans, is prominently known for its away stand and its distance from the pitch.
Situated in the top tier of the very far side of the Sir John Hall Stand (also known as the Leazes Stand), the stadium end that houses the away fans has a capacity of 3000 supporters and lies far above the pitch, behind the goalpost. At the height of 14 flights of stairs (140 stairs), the away section of St James’ Park is among the farthest away end among the Premier League stadiums.
This fact though, was clearly not known to the young supporter who went out of his way to design a poster in hopes of getting a jersey from his favourite Southampton player.
Fans on the internet, however, did not hold back from launching their banters at the Southampton enthusiast. Not long after the image was shared from a Southampton fan account, Twitter users were quick to pounce on the opportunity to showcase their trolls.
“Let Lyanco take a shot with the shirt attached. It’ll find him, no problem” joked a user. “Would be some throw for Prowsey that” commented another fan.
“Tbf when our CBs try a long throw they just go up rather than into the box so get Bednarek or Salisu to take a long throw and it might make it” commented a third fan, taking some serious shots on Southampton defenders.
Some fans also took shots at Southampton’s looming relegation, while there were a few using gifs to flaunt their creativity.
The match in question ended with a defeat for the Saints with a scoreline of 1-3, courtesy of goals from Callum Wilson and an own goal from Theo Walcott. Stuart Armstrong scored Southampton’s single goal of the game.
The Saints reside at the rock bottom of the Premier League table with negligible hopes of survival. With six points off the safe zone with four games in hand, Ralph Hassenhuttl’s side is certainly going down to The Championship next season.
The hosts on the other hand though, sit comfortably inside the top four. With 65 points and five games to go, a Champions League birth seems secured for the Magpies as they reside 9 points atop the fifth-placed Liverpool. The team under Eddie Howe has seen a significant improvement over the course of a year and would be hoping to leave a mark in the UEFA Champions League next season.
