Newcastle-Online.com reader ‘Big Daft Bill’ writes in with some strong words aimed towards his fellow fans, more than hinting that expectations, hysteria and a lack of patience are causing the faithful as many headaches as the club have done over recent seasons.

I am 60. I have lived away from my Scotswood Road childhood home for more than 40 years. I have seen the world and done the stuff. My temperament and that of the people who work for me and my friends and family is ruled by one constant - the latest result of Newcastle United.

I am old enough to have been around to see the Toon win 4 trophies in my lifetime. Despite all this, I am not only nonplussed but thoroughly sickened at the deluge of vitriol that has descended on Graham Souness’ head, almost non-stop, since his arrival.

The North East prides itself on its friendliness - why then should that not have been extended to the present holder of the managerial poisoned chalice at St. James’s?

I do not imagine that Mr Souness gets up every morning and plans a day that will be based around “How can I fail today?” Souness is a Scot and a proud one at that, with a track record of success. Therein lies one of the reasons why he continues down the same route - because he believes in himself. No one will shake that belief, Not Freddy, not the fans and certainly not a local and national media in the throes of a sales driven feeding frenzy.

The reasons for our poor performance are evident - they are all on the physio table. One of the most constant accusations thrown at Souness is his tactical incompetence. Fine words from the floor who haven’t managed anything bigger than a packet of Smarties.

How can you have any tactics if your main objective each week is simply not to get beaten and to play for time - time to get somewhere near a full squad of overpaid highly strung young men off the injury list.

Make no bones - any manager in the world would have been sorely tested by our injury list and the lack of continuity that this engenders. So lets not talk about tactics because not one of us can pass judgment on this because he simply hasn’t had the opportunity to practice them.

Much has been said about continuity. I happen to believe everyone deserves a fair crack of the whip. If Allan Curbishley at the Valley doesn’t have a good season, we don’t hear the red tops baying for his blood even though he has been there a good many years. In truth it took Liverpool how long to get rid of Houlier, who’s tactics and performance make Souness look positively Keeganesque?

The point I make is its expectation that drives the Toon. And I ask the question - do we as fans and supporters deserve success? Can we put ourselves up to the mirror and still say we are the best supporters in the land? My submission is that we cannot and have not been able to since 94/95.

The failure to win the title that year wounded not only KK but every loon who wears his heart on his sleeve for my home town team. Since that time, the climate of expectancy has developed until kids who were only 5 or 6 years old then have been brought along to believe that we are owed something because of that season.

It is an easy extrapolation from there to see how the Media jumped on the same bandwagon - it sells papers. Unfortunately some of the media allowed their personal feelings to be infected by the “deserving” bug. These are not confined to the EC but also that great bastion of Socialist objectivity “The Guardian” - tossers in my opinion almost to a man.

The pure fact is that no manager - or Chairman will succeed at St. James’ until we get back to counting our blessings. We are in the Premiership - the second best attended (not supported) team in the land - sound fiscally with a reasonable stable of talented players. WE do not deserve success unless we earn it and why anyone would want to wait until next season or the season after to get some continuity?

Much easier to chunter on to the press and have rent a mob demos outside St. James’ while an after match press conference is going on and confirm what every other fan knows in the country - we are a bunch of ungrateful, unsupportive, football ignorant toss bags. In short, we confirm our status as Charv Centre. My message is to Freddy - don’t be swayed by the knackers - time will tell.

This is the season horribilis without doubt but its down to bad luck for the club. Should you succumb to the siren cry of the lunatic fringe then be honest when you sack Souness - sack him for being unlucky and not for being incompetent. And if you do - then start looking very sharply at those who actually do the playing. Souness can only take them as far as the white line - anything that happens after that is down to doing a fair days work for a fair days pay.

Owen, Parker, Given, Big Al, Nobby, can all count themselves in that category - where are the rest? I cannot believe that the garbage, that is repeated in the rags, over Luque, Carr, Babayaro and Bramble, does not become an own goal for the teams confidence. I saw two different assessments of Luque’s performance in two different newspapers recently - one gave him an 8 the other a 3. No wonder he’s confused.

So lets all take a step back and start to become supporters again - like the ones who trailed many a mile to Leicester on a rainy Saturday to support the lads with no other reason than not to see us in the Third Division. Were we dreaming of Champions League then or of FA Cup finals - of course we were - but that’s all they were - dreams.

We didn’t expect it because we were Newcastle United. Expectations this year should be limited to a good cup run and somewhere about 10th. My dreams this season are for a Michael Owen hat-trick in the final of the World Cup against Brazil and us winning 3-2.

For next season though - the sky is the limit!

By ‘Big Daft Bill’