The reason it's in Newcastle this time round is it's before the SJP derby. If all goes well there'll be a return leg in Sunderland in April 2015.
This time 12 months ago we were really close to a "bubble" match being pushed through against fans' wishes - it was SAFC & NUFC fans' groups working together in meetings like this who helped stop that happening.
Thankfully, the bubble was narrowly-avoided but given there's been more cooperation between both sides of the divide than ever before in the past year, it seems a good time to strike while the iron's hot and prove to the authorities that fans can work together on initiatives which seek to oppose violence. We hope this event will help prove that point to those powers and the local media.
Fans are rightly quick to cry foul when the media portray us in an unfair light, or the police treat everyone as criminals thanks to a few numpties, but unless we do things to combat those perceptions, they won't change. We appreciate the event won't appeal to everyone, but it's been set-up with the aim of improving things for both sets of fans, particularly away fans, on derby day.