Toon shot stopper gives invaluable (read: useless) perspective on the club’s predicament

Maybe it’s just nerves before tonight’s game (after all, Newcastle have conceded sixteen and scored once in their last four away games), but Steve Harper is trying his best to make everyone at the club feel the strain. He told The Guardian:

“We have five tough away games and this one against Birmingham is the biggest game in the club’s recent history, the biggest game for a long, long time. There is always pressure at this place, everybody knows it’s a pressure cooker, more than any other club.”

I know Newcastle is a huge club with 50,000+ loyal supporters, but what makes the pressure higher at St James’ Park? Why is it more intense than, say, Manchester Utd’s title battle or West Ham’s struggle to stay up last year? And how can a man who has spent his entire career on Tyneside (save for a few loan spells) say there’s more pressure at Newcastle ‘than any other club’ - he wouldn’t know!