It's a long-held cliche that football means something entirely different on Tyneside: as a city, Newcastle is one of very few in England that has the stadium within its walls, and not only that, St. James' Park sits proudly on the top of the hill as the crown jewel of the redeveloped skyline, so it is little wonder that the club has long been the focal point, both physical and metaphorical for Geordies. They say cut a Geordie open and he will bleed black and white, and though there's no need for violence, the sentiment rings entirely true: football is far more important to most than politics, or pop culture, and the quickest way to change the mood in the city is not through over-hauling the council, or pedestrianising the main streets, it's by making sure Alan Pardew's men win every second Saturday at least. That isn't to say that Tyneside owns football fanaticism - not by any distance - but as with other passionate areas where the residents are deeply tuned into what it means to belong there - whether Scouser, Bristolian, or Glaswegian - it can be difficult to understand the nature of public feeling unless you're from the region. Which is precisely why the fanaticism is sometimes cruelly criticised as an indicator of knuckle-dragging stupidity from harsher commenters. But the truth is, they just don't understand, and part of that comes down to the fact that the Toon Army also speak a language entirely of their own. It's not enough that fans speak in a colourful range of Geordie accents for the most part, they also have a dialect that belongs within the confines of St. James Park, using words you might be familiar with, but which mean something entirely different to what you probably suspect...
20. Over The Line
What It Usually Means: The act of completing, or literally of crossing the finishing line in a race. What It Means To Us: A term that contradictingly seems to suggest the most difficult prospect faced by a football manager - given the precedent (ignoring the last few weeks for the moment), the meaning seems to have taken on an entirely different meaning: suggesting that aiming to get something over the line is the same as watching your target go somewhere else entirely.
19. Metro
What It Usually Means: A newspaper, cobbled together largely from other, more reliable newspapers. Or in Paris, a reliable underground train service. What It Means To Us: An over-stuffed, unreliable form of match-day transport, marginally preferable to sitting in immobile traffic for two hours trying to get into the city centre, which usually involves your face being pressed into someone taller's armpit, and the strong, unavoidable stench of the matchday fart.
