Popularity of Newcastle United Football Club:
Newcastle United Football Club (also known as The Magpies, or The Toon) are an English Premier League football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne. The club was founded in 1892 after the merger of two local clubs, Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End. Historically they have won 4 First Division titles and 6 FA Cups, The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969 and The UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2006. Newcastle has a long-standing rivalry with neighboring Sunderland with whom they have contested the Tyne-Wear derby since 1898. The clubs are the current champions of the Football League Championship. 
Newcastle United went on to win the League Championship on three occasions during the 1900s; 1905, 1907 and 1909. The club's success continued in cup competitions, as they reached five FA Cup Finals in seven years, appearing in the final of 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910 and 1911. However, there was still one particular low point during this period, as the team suffered a 9–1 defeat by fierce rivals Sunderland in the 1908–09 season, Sunderland still count the result as their record highest win. The team returned to the FA Cup final in 1924, in only the second ever final at Wembley Stadium. They were successful in defeating Aston Villa and therefore winning the club's second FA Cup trophy in its history. Newcastle won the League a fourth time in 1927, the last time they have to date.
During the 1950s, Newcastle won the FA Cup trophy on three occasions within a five year period. In 1951 they defeated Blackpool 2–0, a year later Arsenal were beaten 1–0 and in 1955 they defeated Manchester City 3–1. Newcastle had gained a high profile, and so had their players. Harvey's team qualified for Europe for the first time in 1968 and surprised many the following year by winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, (which was the forerunner of the Europa League), beating Sporting Lisbon, Feyenoord, Real Zaragoza and Rangers along the way, before triumphing over two legs against Hungary's Újpest in the final. Newcastle possessed a reliable team and Newcastle's tradition of fielding a popular goalscorer at number 9 continued, as Welshman Wyn Davies was prominent. 
In the years that followed European success, Harvey brought in a string of talented entertainers who thrilled the Newcastle crowd. Nicknamed 'Supermac', Malcolm Macdonald was one of Newcastle's most popular figures and is still held in high regard by supporters to this day. He was an impressive goal scorer, which led United's attack to Wembley twice, in 1974 and 1976, against Liverpool in the FA Cup and Manchester City in the League Cup, but on each occasion Newcastle failed to bring the trophy back to Tyneside. A small consolation was back to back triumphs in the Texaco Cup in 1974 and 1975.
One of the famous Newcastle players, Jimmy Lawrence holds the record for the most Newcastle appearances, having played 496 first-team matches between 1904 and 1921 as a goalkeeper. Former captain and left back Frank Hudspeth comes second, having appeared 472 times and scoring on 37 occasions. Alan Shearer is the club's top goalscorer with 206 goals in all competitions between 1996 and 2006 having surpassed Jackie Milburn's tally of 200 in February 2006. Milburn had held the record since 1957, his 38 Wartime League goals scored during World War II were not accounted for. His striking partner Len White is the third highest scorer at Newcastle with 153 goals. Albert Stubbins could be Newcastle's all time leading goal scorer but his goals are not counted as the majority was scored during World War II.
The most prolific goals per game striker in the history of the club is Hughie Gallacher - a strike-rate of over 82% with 143 goals in his 174 outings. Newcastle's record win was a 13-0 home victory against Newport County in Division 2, on 5 October 1946. Newcastle's record home attendance is 68,386, against Chelsea on 3 September 1930. To the fury of the fans Gallacher had been sold to Chelsea and the Geordie public turned up by the thousand to welcome home their hero. As well as the record crowd in the ground thousands more were locked outside. The capacity of St James' Park is currently 52,387, so it is unlikely that these records will be broken in the foreseeable future. Newcastle have also set the attendance record for a Championship game, with a crowd of 52,181 present in the club's final home game of the 2009-10 season against Ipswich Town on 24 April 2010.
Supporters of Newcastle United are often referred to as the Toon Army, the Magpies, or the Geordies. The name Toon originates from the Geordie pronunciation of town. Magpies refers to the black and white colours of the club, similar to the Magpie bird. In a 2007 Virgin Money survey of football supporters who held season tickets or otherwise paid to attend games, it was found that Newcastle fans were the most loyal in terms of making sacrifices in order to attend the game, In a 2004 survey by Co-operative Financial Services, it was found that Newcastle topped the league table for the cost incurred and distance travelled by Newcastle based fans wishing to travel to every Premier League away game. The cost was highest whether travelling by car, train or coach. The total distance travelled was found to be equivalent to a round-the-world trip.
