Newcastle fans urged to stand up against 'out of order' Liverpool chants

“We’ve got enough good songs to sing - we can sing about Joelinton,” Bill Corcoran tells me with a chuckle toward the end of a conversation about this weekend’s game with Liverpool. Back in December when Newcastle travelled down to Anfield, a small section of the away end could be heard singing ‘feed the scousers,’ and that left Bill and the volunteers of the NUFC Fans Foodbank disappointed.

Bill’s point about Joelinton came toward the end of a serious conversation about Saturday’s game at St James’ Park - and the hope that the scenes down on Merseyside aren’t repeated on the terraces at the Gallowgate.

“To hear those chants made me feel disgusted and ashamed. Some might say ‘I was only having a laugh’ but making a joke at the expense of hunger isn’t funny.

“There’s a line - that was unacceptable. Newcastle United fans are magnificent and I’ve never seen anything like the generosity they’ve given to the foodbank over the last five years. I get it, humour can come from an uncomfortable place and sometimes you can say things that are close to the bone and there’s a bit of needle - I kind of like that. But now today, with what we’re seeing with the cost of living crisis, we don’t take the mickey out of starvation - it’s far too serious.

“Take the mickey out of hair-dos and accents - and they can do the same to us but there are mothers on Tyneside and Merseyside who are going without food to feed their children - and there are scousers feeding the Geordies, and Geordies helping to feed scousers through donations to the food bank. That’s the way it should be.

“We don’t sing about hunger. We don’t want to see that this Saturday.”

With Liverpool going for the Premier League title, the world’s media will descend on St James’