He ruled the club with arrogance, contempt, and a belief that the fans would never fight back.He was wrong.From late‑night rumours to viral posts, from pub whispers to city‑wide mobilisation, a grassroots uprising explodes across Tyneside — digital, relentless, and impossible to silence.A story of modern fan power, online rebellion, and the moment a football club’s supporters brought down the man who underestimated them.
THE GEORDIE JACKALA novel by Derek Platten
Newcastle has had enough. After years of lies, penny-pinching, and humiliation, the fans finally rise --and the man they call The Fat Controller feels the ground shift beneath him.But as the protests swell, Dodge, a hitherto ordinary fan who'd had enough, finds himself in charge of a bandwagon he can no longer control, and The Geordie Jackal will not let him escape.As the terraces roar, the streets ignite.
A debut novel spawned by real-life events
CHAPTER 2 - THE THREE BULLS' HEADS
Newcastle had just lost. Again.
To a relegation rival. Again.
At home. Again.Barry slammed his pint down and announced, with the solemnity of a man making a will, “If somebody could organise a hitman to kill that fat bastard, I’d gladly pay a hundred quid towards it.”Tiger didn’t even look up. “Aye. You and twenty thousand others.”Dodge leaned back in his chair.“Twenty thousand hundred quids is two million quid.
I reckon someone would top the fat bastard for less than that.”They talked about crowdfunding, anonymity, crime novels, online fundraising, and whether “incitement to murder” applied even if you were only thinking about it while pissed.By closing time, they’d solved nothing except the number of pints they could drink before losing the ability to pronounce consonants.A week passed."What if we divvent actually need to do anything?
What if we just make the Fat Controller believe someone could?”Chris leaned in. “How?”“I write a novel.”The others blinked.“A novel?” Tiger said.“Aye. A thriller.
About exactly this.
About us. About the idea.
About the assassin.I post it on Toon Army social media. Let the fans react.
Let the rumours spread.
Let the Fat Controller see what he’s driven people to.”“And you think you can write it?” Chris asked.Dodge nodded. “I think I can give it a go.”And so, he did.And THIS was the result!
Meet the author
Derek Platten
A lifelong Toon fan, I, went to my first match in 1963 and have very rarely missed one since then.
I live and breathe my beloved Newcastle United and have followed them home and away the length and breadth of the land and the continent - from Exeter to Dundee and from Cardiff to Norwich. From Oslo to Barcelona and from Bilbao to Dortmund.
I was a nightshift taxi-driver in Newcastle for more than 25 years and my nickname was Dodge.
Chapter 2 is completely autobiographical and Barry, Tiger, my son, Chris, and I were all there that night in the Three Bulls' Heads.
Whilst what follows is pure fiction, it truly demonstrates the depths of despair to which the Toon Army were driven in the not too distant past.
Here's hoping that our future will be a lot brighter than that saddest-of-sad past.
HOWAY THE LADS