Newcastle is now truly united and the owners are showing one thing that Mike Ashley never understood

A decade ago this very week an unfortunate workman was sent outside of St James' Park, crowbar in hand, and ordered to take down the famous lettering of Newcastle United's stadium.

Then owner Mike Ashley had announced three months prior plans to rename the stadium in order to bring in revenue - this wasn't welcomed by the fans and nor was renaming the stadium The Sports Direct Arena in order to showcase his pitch.

Yet the anger rose to unprecedented levels after letter by letter, St James' Park fell from the wall on to Barrack Road.

There was even a fake funeral put on by some fans to highlight what they felt was the mourning of the club.

The lettering remained off the wall for eight months until then sponsors Wonga, in what proved to be a shrewd move, bought up the naming rights and returned to the stadium to its rightful title.

But as with a lot of what Ashley did at United - renaming the stadium was ill-advised and tearing the lettering down in such a manner - was disrespectful to the tradition of the club he was supposedly a custodian of.

Fast forward 10 years, Ashley has gone and United are now owned by a group intent on returning the club back to the top of the Premier League table.

Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, Jamie Reuben and those at The Public Investment Fund are still finding their feet but in just a few short months they've done more to enhance the relationship between the supporters and the club than Ashley ever did.

From welcoming back club legends like Warren Barton or Micky Quinn, stepping up plans to move Alan Shearer's statue onto club land or simply tidying up the stadium - the group have fully understood the impact a positive fanbase can have.

In the previous two sold-out home games, the fans