Nordic Saint Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 Imagine is fans of other Premier League teams had been subjected to the home form that we have, including a 0-9 defeat to Leicester. They'd have hounded out the manager, there would have been protests against the owners and the players would have taken some real stick. Our fans are a pretty easy-going bunch who really don't expect a great deal for their team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alehouseboys Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 Imagine is fans of other Premier League teams had been subjected to the home form that we have, including a 0-9 defeat to Leicester. They'd have hounded out the manager, there would have been protests against the owners and the players would have taken some real stick. Our fans are a pretty easy-going bunch who really don't expect a great deal for their team. And that's reflected in our vocal support. Even when we were "Champions League" bound it was only marginally better in the couple of usual areas, most of the place, particularly south of the halfway line, was still dormant. I've been actively going to watch SFC for over half a century and I would honestly say it was never much different. The Dell suffered from never having a home 'end' bank of terracing with a roof over it like most other grounds where the atmosphere was generally generated. It was mostly small pockets of fans that tried to get it going but as the place was so compact it could quite quickly make a din when fans collectively got excited. Even then we had a large percentage of polite fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordic Saint Posted 17 February, 2020 Author Share Posted 17 February, 2020 And that's reflected in our vocal support. Even when we were "Champions League" bound it was only marginally better in the couple of usual areas, most of the place, particularly south of the halfway line, was still dormant. I've been actively going to watch SFC for over half a century and I would honestly say it was never much different. The Dell suffered from never having a home 'end' bank of terracing with a roof over it like most other grounds where the atmosphere was generally generated. It was mostly small pockets of fans that tried to get it going but as the place was so compact it could quite quickly make a din when fans collectively got excited. Even then we had a large percentage of polite fans. That's why so many of us find it disappointing that now we have an opportunity for one at St Mary's, our fans have failed miserably to take it and instead our potentially most vocal fans have hidden themselves in the corners of the away end, where the players. officials and rest of the stadium will hardly notice them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dellman Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 its ridiculous to think the fans are in any way to blame for home performances. Its amazing that the numbers have kept up the way they have. Lots of us travel long distances each week to be there and get back home near 1.00am after evenng matches. I'm a fairly polite fan, which means I support the players and don't turn against them, or against the manager. I guess that's fairly typical. Something wrong with that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordic Saint Posted 17 February, 2020 Author Share Posted 17 February, 2020 its ridiculous to think the fans are in any way to blame for home performances. Its amazing that the numbers have kept up the way they have. Lots of us travel long distances each week to be there and get back home near 1.00am after evenng matches. I'm a fairly polite fan, which means I support the players and don't turn against them, or against the manager. I guess that's fairly typical. Something wrong with that? Where I sit, I haven't noticed any fans turning against the team. In fact, it amazes me how our fans just accept defeat with equanimity and walk towards the exit with just a shrug of the shoulders, whereas fans at many other grounds would be turning viciously against their players and manager. Newcastle fans, for example, would be up in arms after a 9-0 home defeat and would have hounded out their manager by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint1977 Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 Where I sit, I haven't noticed any fans turning against the team. In fact, it amazes me how our fans just accept defeat with equanimity and walk towards the exit with just a shrug of the shoulders, whereas fans at many other grounds would be turning viciously against their players and manager. Newcastle fans, for example, would be up in arms after a 9-0 home defeat and would have hounded out their manager by now. This. Too many soft players, lack of leadership. RH has got some character and maybe 4-5 of the players have. Look at Saturday, Burnley worked harder, played to the conditions and deservedly won. Some excellent results and performances recently - Spurs home and away for example. Just got to get back onto fromt foot v Villa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miserableoldgit Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 I genuinely think that a lot of this comes from our relegation season in 2005. Our inability to close out games at home (especially Aston Villa and Everton that year) seemed to install a "Sense of Doom" vibe that exists to this day. We seem to need a 3 or 4 goal lead at home to feel reasonably confident going into the last 15-20 minutes of home games.....anything less then it`s squeaky-bum time! SMS isn`t the fortress that it should be....we are all pleasantly surprised if/when we get a home win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dellman Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 I agree, the last ten minutes are always dire for the fnas, expecting the worst, and I don't doubt the players feel the same, not because of the fans,but because they also know their own habit of last ten minute surrenders. But we aren't the only mugs, one struggling team after another suffers and loses points in the last few minutes ---like Villa yesterday, whereas top six teams get a winner in the last minutes, whether they deserve it or not. It happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the saint in winchester Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 I was disappointed with Ralph's comments, if indeed they were Ralph's literal words. We've been here before. I remember the Dutch Duo (Poortvliet and Wotte) saying home fans put the team under too much pressure to do well. I don't scream at the players or shout abuse. I'm happy to internalise my frustration but I do cheer and celebrate good play. So I'm happy to not renew my season ticket next season, and if the club would like to refund me £200 now, I'll not darken their doorstep again this season too. The shouts from others to get it forward are based on our tendency to fancy-dan around at the back and concede. We/they just want the ball away from danger. Other teams are simply defending away from home and we don't seem to have the creativity to break them down. Instead passing around midfield and recycling from the back. We don't see Liverpool having that issue, but we don't have their creativity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpsaint Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 And that's reflected in our vocal support. Even when we were "Champions League" bound it was only marginally better in the couple of usual areas, most of the place, particularly south of the halfway line, was still dormant. I've been actively going to watch SFC for over half a century and I would honestly say it was never much different. The Dell suffered from never having a home 'end' bank of terracing with a roof over it like most other grounds where the atmosphere was generally generated. It was mostly small pockets of fans that tried to get it going but as the place was so compact it could quite quickly make a din when fans collectively got excited. Even then we had a large percentage of polite fans. I dunno, the last 7 or 8 years once they made the Archers our home end, used to be rocking and really felt like we made a difference when the team needed the boost. Because of the executive boxes, location of Britannia Road and away coaches, plus footbridge the only logical place to put the away fans is towards the Northam end of the kingsland, but I can’t see the club spending the money to adapt the stadium - particularly as they want St Mary’s as friendly for the day tripper as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian lord Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 I genuinely think that a lot of this comes from our relegation season in 2005. Our inability to close out games at home (especially Aston Villa and Everton that year) seemed to install a "Sense of Doom" vibe that exists to this day. We seem to need a 3 or 4 goal lead at home to feel reasonably confident going into the last 15-20 minutes of home games.....anything less then it`s squeaky-bum time! SMS isn`t the fortress that it should be....we are all pleasantly surprised if/when we get a home win. Even a 3-0 lead doesn’t erase a sense of inevitable, impending catastrophe. Nothing installed a sense of doom in me more than the 3-4 Leeds match. I remain traumatised to this day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Duckhunter Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 I genuinely think that a lot of this comes from our relegation season in 2005. Our inability to close out games at home (especially Aston Villa and Everton that year) seemed to install a "Sense of Doom" vibe that exists to this day. We seem to need a 3 or 4 goal lead at home to feel reasonably confident going into the last 15-20 minutes of home games.....anything less then it`s squeaky-bum time! SMS isn`t the fortress that it should be....we are all pleasantly surprised if/when we get a home win. Dear god. Do you really believe this. From Pardew until Puel we had a decent home record. Are you really harking back to Harry Redknapp to explain our poor home form? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwsaint Posted 17 February, 2020 Share Posted 17 February, 2020 Didn't we win 20 home games in a row in 2011? Atmosphere was a bit different then. The issue is more how we set up for home games, rather than the atmosphere. Really good post in the Burnley thread. We allow teams to get compact as we play so slowly, then get caught on the break when we make a mistake. For away games the opposition tends to open up and attack and we play through them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordic Saint Posted 18 February, 2020 Author Share Posted 18 February, 2020 Didn't we win 20 home games in a row in 2011? Atmosphere was a bit different then. The issue is more how we set up for home games, rather than the atmosphere. Really good post in the Burnley thread. We allow teams to get compact as we play so slowly, then get caught on the break when we make a mistake. For away games the opposition tends to open up and attack and we play through them. There weren't away fans behind the goal in the Northam in those days. Basically, there were hardly any away fans at all. If we could replicate that now, we'd probably win a lot more home games. The truth is, if we had A REAL HOME END, with thousands of noisy fans behind the goal, intimidating the hell out of the officials, we'd win most of our home games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordic Saint Posted 18 February, 2020 Author Share Posted 18 February, 2020 I remember when a poor Millwall team, backed by fans on a mission, built the longest unbeaten home run in the history of English football, by scaring away fans from coming to their ground and scaring officials into making sure they didn't lose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted 18 February, 2020 Share Posted 18 February, 2020 And that's reflected in our vocal support. Even when we were "Champions League" bound [emoji14] it was only marginally better in the couple of usual areas, most of the place, particularly south of the halfway line, was still dormant. I've been actively going to watch SFC for over half a century and I would honestly say it was never much different. The Dell suffered from never having a home 'end' bank of terracing with a roof over it like most other grounds where the atmosphere was generally generated. It was mostly small pockets of fans that tried to get it going but as the place was so compact it could quite quickly make a din when fans collectively got excited. Even then we had a large percentage of polite fans.I disagree, I remember beating Arsenal 2-0 at home in the new year under Koeman and the atmosphere being one of the best I've ever heard at SMS. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shandy_Top_89 Posted 18 February, 2020 Share Posted 18 February, 2020 A lot is made of poor / great support relating to different teams, but bar the odd exception most clubs are pretty much the same. Good atmosphere when on a good run, bad atmosphere when on a bad run, indifferent atmosphere when middling. I think we are pretty average tbh and no different to other clubs of the same size and actually given the absolute ****e we have been treated to when for a prolonged period, including the worst home result in top flight history I don’t think that’s a bad effort. I’d also say our away support is above average when we get the numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alehouseboys Posted 18 February, 2020 Share Posted 18 February, 2020 I disagree, I remember beating Arsenal 2-0 at home in the new year under Koeman and the atmosphere being one of the best I've ever heard at SMS. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk One-offs. I'm not disagreeing, we've some top atmospheres at St Mary's but they're few and far between. We used to get groups of Dutch fans travelling over in Koeman's days, I'd chat with some, they were surprised how subdued a stadium full with over 30,000 fans could be. And playing well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alehouseboys Posted 18 February, 2020 Share Posted 18 February, 2020 I dunno, the last 7 or 8 years once they made the Archers our home end, used to be rocking and really felt like we made a difference when the team needed the boost. It was probably the best it had ever been then but I was thinking back more to the days of open terracing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
100%Red&White Posted 18 February, 2020 Share Posted 18 February, 2020 The Dell at its best was probably more atmospheric than St Mary's, maybe not so much with constant singing but just making noise. Even the old gits in the upper stands would stamp their feet on the wooden floors and contribute. Today too many don't get involved. Late 1960s, early 70s, Saints most vocal fans were 'under the Toomers' and mostly the middle section of the Milton. The rest of the ground would join in occasionally, usually towards the end of the game with OWTS. Mid-70s the Milton effect lessened and got a bit of competition from the lower West near the players tunnel (Lawrie Mac didn't like the stick he was taking on his walk to the dug-out around that time). The Warrens had made the Archers their home (not big on singing, more for 'bantz' with aways) and the Archers end of the West Stand also became a more vocal area. Late 1970s more had migrated to the Archers and the Milton had mostly fizzled out. Some returned when they rebuilt it to look like a piano. I preferred my days on the lower East terrace in the 80s most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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