Is this a library?

[The9]

You're also one of those who spends a fair amount of any away trip taking selfies and uploading them to social media so your opinion is irrelevant

 

Don't pretend you didn't love my live Facebooking as the teams came out on Sunday...

[The9]

If we were in Leicester's position and achieved that result, we'd have a better atmosphere and no need for clappers.

 

That's certainly an opinion that doesn't stand up to any scrutiny based on the usual level of Saints fan engagement at matches, and of course is a hypothetical that isn't likely to be tested.

 

The Kingsland and Itchen centres don't make any noise at any point in any match. Leicester's entire ground was engaged almost the whole time.

[Sour Mash]

That's certainly an opinion that doesn't stand up to any scrutiny based on the usual level of Saints fan engagement at matches, and of course is a hypothetical that isn't likely to be tested.

 

The Kingsland and Itchen centres don't make any noise at any point in any match. Leicester's entire ground was engaged almost the whole time.

Even at Liverpool at home, just the other week, the whole ground joined in at one point.

 

Guess you're just not paying attention.

[Turkish]

Even at Liverpool at home, just the other week, the whole ground joined in at one point.

 

Guess you're just not paying attention.

 

Too busy taking selfies

[djharvey]

I know the police apparently won't allow us to move the away fans, think it's because they can get coaches and police escort to the current area without too much mixing with home fans if need be. But surely there is a solution? How about building an elevated walkway that takes the away fans along the back of the northam (above the current turnstiles) and then into the northam/kingsland corner, the walkway would have to be covered to prevent things being thrown etc . If the will to find a solution were there then without a doubt it could be found, even if it did cost a few million! We really do have to create a home end. Another way would be to extend the northam by about another 3k and then that at least would help dilute the away support somewhat, could kill two birds with this option.

[Batman]

Why can't the chapel be the home end?

[djharvey]

Why can't the chapel be the home end?

It can, but you would have to force or motivate the northam lot etc to move there.

[djharvey]

We actually need a combination of creating our own home end and denying the away support one!

[Nordic Saint]

You clearly don't have a clue if you think most of those are decent!

As with others who go away regularly i'd say St Mary's is easily as good as any ground in the Premier League and at least has two sections (Itchen/Northam & Kingsland north) that actually try and make noise every game, also when the Kingsland main gets involved it can be very good.

 

sour mash, I guess that you are one of the fans who sits in the corners of the away end at St Mary's, where you probably can hear some noise. But, in the rest of the stadium, you really can't hear much noise at all, apart from the away fans. You can tell the home fans in the Itchen/Northam and Kingsland/Northam corenrs can't even hear each other above the away fans because they are often attempting to sing completely different songs at the same time. If the two small corner mobs joined together and got behind one of the goals, they would actually be able to outsing the away fans, and would probably get the rest of the stadium joining in more. We'll only ever have a decent atmosphere at St Mary's when we have a proper home end, and that has to be the Chapel because the Northam is the away end. Divide and rule, they say. Our kop has divided itself and so is easily ruled by every set of away fans.

[ErwinK1961]

sour mash, I guess that you are one of the fans who sits in the corners of the away end at St Mary's, where you probably can hear some noise. But, in the rest of the stadium, you really can't hear much noise at all, apart from the away fans. You can tell the home fans in the Itchen/Northam and Kingsland/Northam corenrs can't even hear each other above the away fans because they are often attempting to sing completely different songs at the same time. If the two small corner mobs joined together and got behind one of the goals, they would actually be able to outsing the away fans, and would probably get the rest of the stadium joining in more. We'll only ever have a decent atmosphere at St Mary's when we have a proper home end, and that has to be the Chapel because the Northam is the away end. Divide and rule, they say. Our kop has divided itself and so is easily ruled by every set of away fans.

 

I'd imagine the majority of fans who sit in the Northam sit there because of the closeness to the away fans and the atmosphere that comes with it. They won't move to the Chapel to create a home end.

 

If you move the away fans somewhere else, I'd imagine most of them would move with them.

[Saint_clark]

. But, in the rest of the stadium, you really can't hear much noise at all, apart from the away fans. You can tell the home fans in the Itchen/Northam and Kingsland/Northam corenrs can't even hear each other above the away fans because they are often attempting to sing completely different songs at the same time.

 

If you can't hear the two sections of home fans, how can you tell they're singing two different songs?

[Saint_clark]

I'd imagine the majority of fans who sit in the Northam sit there because of the closeness to the away fans and the atmosphere that comes with it. They won't move to the Chapel to create a home end.

 

If you move the away fans somewhere else, I'd imagine most of them would move with them.

 

If there was an organised effort to create a "kop" end at the Chapel, i would absolutely move. But there is zero point while the family section is there.

[Nordic Saint]

Why do we have to get our 'home' atmosphere from the away end? We're not only going to watch the away fans. Home support can help a team and it's worth a few points a season. That's why we should have it.

 

I'm in the Kingsland and I do sing and shout at every opportunity. But, the silence around the stadium does, as you can tell from my posts, really p!ss me off. Our cynics take the p!ss out of clubs like Leicester and Palace because they have organised and taken action to improve their home support. But, we really should do something.

[Nordic Saint]

I would move to a Chapel kop too. The Family Stand is not a major problem as it is only in one corner. The big empty fan 'segregation' area directly behind the goal at the Northam end is a far bigger problem.

[Saint_clark]

Family section isn't the only problem...i'd wager there'll be a fair few season ticket holders in the chapel who wouldn't want to relocate.

[LuckyNumber7]

I'm in the Kingsland and I do sing and shout at every opportunity. But, the silence around the stadium does, as you can tell from my posts, really p!ss me off. Our cynics take the p!ss out of clubs like Leicester and Palace because they have organised and taken action to improve their home support. But, we really should do something.

 

This. I'm not the biggest fan of drums/clackers etc but was at Leicester last season and the place was absolutely rocking, nothing like SMS of late. The whole stadium was contributing and they had a good range of songs too. I don't believe our fans are less passionate as on occasions we have an excellent atmosphere but it is getting worse and worse and regardless of what's happening on the pitch it does spoil the enjoyment for me. There are clearly plenty who want to create atmosphere but the will needs to be there to actually organise something, as other clubs have done, otherwise it will continue to get worse.

 

Likewise I'm in Kingsland North which used to be good, but would go wherever the atmosphere was, don't care if it's near away fans or not.

[Sour Mash]

sour mash, I guess that you are one of the fans who sits in the corners of the away end at St Mary's, where you probably can hear some noise. But, in the rest of the stadium, you really can't hear much noise at all, apart from the away fans. You can tell the home fans in the Itchen/Northam and Kingsland/Northam corenrs can't even hear each other above the away fans because they are often attempting to sing completely different songs at the same time. If the two small corner mobs joined together and got behind one of the goals, they would actually be able to outsing the away fans, and would probably get the rest of the stadium joining in more. We'll only ever have a decent atmosphere at St Mary's when we have a proper home end, and that has to be the Chapel because the Northam is the away end. Divide and rule, they say. Our kop has divided itself and so is easily ruled by every set of away fans.

I've sat all over the ground, you can hear both the home and the away support.

 

Which clubs currently have a better home atmosphere than us?

 

Where actually has a Kop that makes any noise regularly?

[Wurzel]

I've sat all over the ground, you can hear both the home and the away support.

 

Which clubs currently have a better home atmosphere than us?

 

Where actually has a Kop that makes any noise regularly?

 

At the end of the day the answer to those two questions is irrelevant (and not one you're ever going to reach agreement on as there's no definitive way of measuring it). The point many are making is could ours be better. Doesn't really matter how good or bad anyone else's is.

Back in the pre-relegation era I used to have ST in the Chapel. Standing joke then was the same as it is now, that the Chapel never made a sound. Anyone at that end at the time knew that was rubbish. There was probably just as many singers in the Chapel as there was in the Northam. Difference was those in the Northam were all squeezed into 3 blocks, those in the Chapel were spread around 8 blocks. The gaps made it much harder for songs to spread. The larger the concentration of singers in one place the louder it's going to be (stating the bleeding obvious there) . ATM if the Northam starts a song it can only spread one way, around the corner into the Kingsland. If singing started in the Chapel it can then spread around both sides of the ground. Simple logic says that's where the "home end" should be but with so many ST holders at both ends I don't know how changing it could be achieved.

 

Genuine question, you mention you've been to many grounds, how many of them have the main singing section (not just a few lads gobbing off ) along side the away fans? And in any that are , does it have any effect on shutting up our away fans?

[Sour Mash]

At the end of the day the answer to those two questions is irrelevant (and not one you're ever going to reach agreement on as there's no definitive way of measuring it). The point many are making is could ours be better. Doesn't really matter how good or bad anyone else's is.

Back in the pre-relegation era I used to have ST in the Chapel. Standing joke then was the same as it is now, that the Chapel never made a sound. Anyone at that end at the time knew that was rubbish. There was probably just as many singers in the Chapel as there was in the Northam. Difference was those in the Northam were all squeezed into 3 blocks, those in the Chapel were spread around 8 blocks. The gaps made it much harder for songs to spread. The larger the concentration of singers in one place the louder it's going to be (stating the bleeding obvious there) . ATM if the Northam starts a song it can only spread one way, around the corner into the Kingsland. If singing started in the Chapel it can then spread around both sides of the ground. Simple logic says that's where the "home end" should be but with so many ST holders at both ends I don't know how changing it could be achieved.

 

Genuine question, you mention you've been to many grounds, how many of them have the main singing section (not just a few lads gobbing off ) along side the away fans? And in any that are , does it have any effect on shutting up our away fans?

Pretty much every ground. I can't think of a single club that still has a kop that makes a noise every game. West Ham at a push.

[Batman]

http://news.arseblog.com/2016/04/arsenal-to-introduce-amplified-chanting-next-season/

[djharvey]

http://news.arseblog.com/2016/04/arsenal-to-introduce-amplified-chanting-next-season/

Note the date on the article!

[The9]

Even at Liverpool at home, just the other week, the whole ground joined in at one point.

 

Guess you're just not paying attention.

 

"At one point". As opposed to "for the entire match".

[The9]

Too busy taking selfies

 

Only at new grounds - and not during the actual match. What would be the point of taking one at St Mary's anyway, which I've been to somewhere in the vicinity of 250 times?

[The Cat]

Only at new grounds - and not during the actual match. What would be the point of taking one at St Mary's anyway, which I've been to somewhere in the vicinity of 250 times?

 

There's no justification for taking selfies at any time. Was Fratton Park a new ground when you were hilariously sticking Saints season tickets to your head?

[Saint_clark]

If we're talking about stupid chants, "you've had a shot" followed by "you've had two shots" just before they scored has to be up there right at the top.

[alehouseboys]

If we're talking about stupid chants, "you've had a shot" followed by "you've had two shots" just before they scored has to be up there right at the top.

 

Sounded like it was just the Northam joining in with the Geordie's gallows humour, they were singing "we've had a shot", and as they quickly followed it up with only their second shot of the game I guess it was a bit inevitable. Little more than a training session for us but the atmosphere was, once again, sh*te though.

[The Cat]

At one point near the end most of the ground was singing. Other than that it was pretty horrific. The number of people leaving 5 mins before the end must have been at record high levels. By the time a few players turned to clap the family section there was about 12 people left in it.

[Saint_clark]

Sounded like it was just the Northam joining in with the Geordie's gallows humour, they were singing "we've had a shot", and as they quickly followed it up with only their second shot of the game I guess it was a bit inevitable. Little more than a training session for us but the atmosphere was, once again, sh*te though.

 

Yeah i got that, but it was just ridiculous and cringeworthy.

[Sour Mash]

If we're talking about stupid chants, "you've had a shot" followed by "you've had two shots" just before they scored has to be up there right at the top.

Yep, classic modern football moron singing today.

[whelk]

At one point near the end most of the ground was singing. Other than that it was pretty horrific. The number of people leaving 5 mins before the end must have been at record high levels. By the time a few players turned to clap the family section there was about 12 people left in it.

 

You didn't go to the Liverpool cup game I guess. Although many didn't wait for last 5 mins then.

[The Cat]

You didn't go to the Liverpool cup game I guess. Although many didn't wait for last 5 mins then.

 

I've erased that evening from my mind. As far as I'm concerned it never happened.

[Griffo]

Itchen North was the worst it's been for months yesterday. Must have sung boring sh*t about Newcastle going down 10x more than any of our own songs. No point in moaning I guess, I should just accept that our support is w*nk

[CHAPEL END CHARLIE]

I would move to a Chapel kop too. The Family Stand is not a major problem as it is only in one corner. The big empty fan 'segregation' area directly behind the goal at the Northam end is a far bigger problem.

 

I will suggest that St Mary's would have more serious problems to deal with were there no segmentation between home and away fans. As for the idea of shifting thousands of ST holders around in order to produce a 'kop' effect ... well I would be amazed if the club would even seriously contemplate such a unlikley notion, let alone implement it.

[warsash saint]

Itchen North was so cringe yesterday. Especially when a group of 10 or so started to sing 'Let's all have a disco'

 

We were 2 goals up against 2nd to bottom in the league!!

 

To be fair the Geordie fans reaction put them in their place

[Plastic]

You didn't go to the Liverpool cup game I guess. Although many didn't wait for last 5 mins then.

 

The people in front of me left at half time, by 70 minutes I had a row to myself.

[Saints foreva]

Few people in the Kingsland North trying to get a chant about JWP and Kim Kardashian going on Saturday. Thankfully it didn't get going and hopefully it never does.

[Turkish]

The biggest surprise is that people are still talking about it. The atmosphere has been slowly getting worse for the last 10 years. Its because football grounds had their heyday in the 70s and 80s and now its a different sort of crowd that goes to football. It's now full of utter cretins and soccer AM style banter boys trying hard to be hilarious. The "Mars bar on his head" catastrophe has been coming for a while and was the final nail in the coffin for our fan base I'm afraid. The warning signs have been there, from "look like a wotsit" through to "small town in villa" in our league one and championship days should have served as a warning that things were only going to get worse once premier league fans reared their ugly heads back inside SMS and so it has proven to be. I'm just glad our signing sections our split into two as you can only imagine the helmetry of they were all in one place as they all try to outdo each other with their wackiness.

[Batman]

The biggest surprise is that people are still talking about it. The atmosphere has been slowly getting worse for the last 10 years. Its because football grounds had their heyday in the 70s and 80s and now its a different sort of crowd that goes to football. It's now full of utter cretins and soccer AM style banter boys trying hard to be hilarious. The "Mars bar on his head" catastrophe has been coming for a while and was the final nail in the coffin for our fan base I'm afraid. The warning signs have been there, from "look like a wotsit" through to "small town in villa" in our league one and championship days should have served as a warning that things were only going to get worse once premier league fans reared their ugly heads back inside SMS and so it has proven to be. I'm just glad our signing sections our split into two as you can only imagine the helmetry of they were all in one place as they all try to outdo each other with their wackiness.

 

remember being at Bristol Rovers with the 'Wotsit' thing going on.

absolute Bantz that night. Like the being back on the Milton

[The9]

There's no justification for taking selfies at any time. Was Fratton Park a new ground when you were hilariously sticking Saints season tickets to your head?

 

Nah, that was just us sodding around at a League 2 match because... it's League 2.

[The9]

Itchen North was the worst it's been for months yesterday. Must have sung boring sh*t about Newcastle going down 10x more than any of our own songs. No point in moaning I guess, I should just accept that our support is w*nk

 

Can safely say I didn't hear even one of those songs from the other side of the away fans. There was hardly anything from the Northam either, very subdued.

[Lets B Avenue]

remember being at Bristol Rovers with the 'Wotsit' thing going on.

absolute Bantz that night. Like the being back on the Milton

 

It was at MK Dons. Left back Dean Lewington.

[The9]

It was at MK Dons. Left back Dean Lewington.

 

And repeated for then Bolton keeper Adam Bogdan in the Championship.

[Batman]

It was at MK Dons. Left back Dean Lewington.

 

Deffo heard it at rovers

Also, hilarious stuff with the pink boots on Chris Lines

[manina-pub]

League One - Exeter away - keeper had pink jersey.... "Does your boyfriend know you're here" chant...

 

League One v Brighton - general homophobic stuff

[shurlock]

Remember up at Hartlepool on a Tuesday night, some of our lot creaming themselves silly over some steward that had a passing resemblance to Alan Carr.

 

#epic bantz #L1glorydays

[Mattio]

Ah, this is the moan about people because they're not thes same as you thread... oh no wait that's all of them.

[Turkish]

In hindsight our support on the championship was pretty cretinous as well, despite rose tinted glasses making many believe it was very good. There was a phase in the championship Where a group of divs going dressed in red Lyrca gimp suits. I definitely remember seeing them at Peterborough and Blackpool away. At middlesborough away they had gone for a cheeky yellow and blue number but of course that day they were overshadowed by the clowns in clown suits. One of these "characters" was shown on the verge of tears on the TV in the closing minutes when we were 1-2 down. That image was the source of untold grief from opposition fans to me about how embarrassing our fans were for months. I also remember seeing road cone hats on several occasions and a bloke in his 60s dressed as an elf.

[JRM]

In hindsight our support on the championship was pretty cretinous as well, despite rose tinted glasses making many believe it was very good. There was a phase in the championship Where a group of divs going dressed in red Lyrca gimp suits. I definitely remember seeing them at Peterborough and Blackpool away. At middlesborough away they had gone for a cheeky yellow and blue number but of course that day they were overshadowed by the clowns in clown suits. One of these "characters" was shown on the verge of tears on the TV in the closing minutes when we were 1-2 down. That image was the source of untold grief from opposition fans to me about how embarrassing our fans were for months. I also remember seeing road cone hats on several occasions and a bloke in his 60s dressed as an elf.

 

Haha good times mate, those clowns at Middlesbrough were hilarious great effort by those fans to treat us all to such fun.

 

On that subject we need to start putting some serious thought into what fancy dress to wear for last away game of the season, last year we had Koeman day at Man City with orange wigs with Nick who runs Saints travel selling orange t-shirts with his own company name on , I think we could do better than that this year at Spurs, any ideas?

[The Cat]

In honour of Van Dijk we should all go dressed as lesbians.

[The9]

In hindsight our support on the championship was pretty cretinous as well, despite rose tinted glasses making many believe it was very good. There was a phase in the championship Where a group of divs going dressed in red Lyrca gimp suits. I definitely remember seeing them at Peterborough and Blackpool away. At middlesborough away they had gone for a cheeky yellow and blue number but of course that day they were overshadowed by the clowns in clown suits. One of these "characters" was shown on the verge of tears on the TV in the closing minutes when we were 1-2 down. That image was the source of untold grief from opposition fans to me about how embarrassing our fans were for months. I also remember seeing road cone hats on several occasions and a bloke in his 60s dressed as an elf.

 

Our supporting in L1 was basically the same as it is now, with fewer of the kind of background people who fill empty seats but don't do much else. On the bright side, the backgrounders put physical barriers between me and the fighty helmets who thought they were entitled to do what they wanted in the lower leagues, of which there seemed to be more, but there were actually just a larger proportion. It's still basically the same number of people singing as in L1, there's just more chance of other people joining in than when they weren't there at all.

 

Unless they're in Kingsland centre, in which case there's still no chance.