Gary Neville makes big claim about St James’ Park after watching Newcastle United yesterday

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After watching Newcastle United beat Manchester United yesterday, Gary Neville has claimed that the atmosphere at St James’ Park was the ‘best’ he’s seen during his time at Sky Sports.

Newcastle picked up a well-deserved 2-0 win over Erik ten Hag’s side after they completely dominated the game.

It took the Magpies over an hour to break the deadlock after they were wasteful in-front of goal beforehand.

Joe Willock opened the scoring after missing a few chances himself, before Callum Wilson sealed a vital three points for Eddie Howe’s men.

Newcastle have moved back into third place and above Manchester United after the win and while Gary Neville was impressed with their display, he also heaped praise on the fans at St James’ Park yesterday.

Neville makes big claim about St James’ Park

Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, the Manchester United legend labelled the atmosphere at St James’ Park as the best he’s seen over the past 11 years. 

He said: “I have to say, when I played against Newcastle United, even beyond the Kevin Keegan years when they were going for titles, there was a big atmosphere up here and you knew you had to weather that and deal with it. It was a proper football club, a proper ground.

“Then all of a sudden, I finished my football career and came up here for 10 years working in this capacity, it was morbid. There was no connection between the team, the fans, the owners.

“Everybody was just low, the energy had been sapped out of the place and I don’t know how many times I said it that actually I didn’t look forward to coming up here and that’s actually a crime, to be fair.”

“That re-emerged for me today, it’s the first time I’ve been up here for quite a while and that’s the best atmosphere I’ve seen in my days working for Sky and that’s 11 years,” he added.

“I have to say, looking back to my playing career when I played here, I lost 5-0 one Sunday afternoon. That atmosphere at the end reminded me of what it was like for us as Manchester United players back then, probably worse in some ways because obviously five is a proper doing.”

Newcastle have been revitalised over the past year and the place seems like a stark contrast to what it was under their previous owner, Mike Ashley.

Much of the credit must go to the new owners, but Howe has built a side that the fans at St James’ Park can really get behind.

Howe is building something special at Newcastle and it’s no surprise that the fans are really getting behind him.