Imagine that you’re poor old gran has just passed away and you go to her grave. Only when you get there, instead of her name engraved on the headstone, there’s an advert for Bing Lee. Or, worse, a photo of Shane Warne looking very pleased with his latest treatment from Advance Hair Studio. Or Betty White eating a Snickers.
If you’re anything like BBM, you’d be turning red with rage – which is exactly how Newcastle United fans felt when they found out the large sign at their home ground which said ‘St James Park’ had finally been torn down to make way for the stadium’s new ‘official’ name, the ‘Sports Direct Arena.’
So when Michael Atkinson spotted the desecration on his daily walk to the Brown Ale store, he did what any other true-blooded Geordieman would do – he spray-painted the old name back on.
The graffiti was cleaned off a few hours later, but not before a viral photo of Atkinson’s artwork had been circulated on Facebook.
“I was having a laugh with me mates on Facebook and decided to paint ‘St James’ on the wall,” he said.”I had just done the ‘St James’ and was just about to do the apostrophe when I saw the blue lights flashing so obviously I had to quit. The police were Ok when they arrested me but obviously they cannot condone it.”
The rest of the football world has been shocked by Atkinson’s criminal actions, as Geordies have never previously displayed any knowledge or interest in punctuation. Atkinson said the name change from St James’ Park “wound him up.”
“The ground has always been ‘St James’ Park’ and should always be ‘St James’,” he blathered.
It is thought to be the first illegal use of paint in the Newcastle area since the infamous ‘Byker Grove blinding’ of PJ out of PJ and Duncan in the mid 90s.
