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Considering the dire performance from the home team today, it was better than it used to be. The best part was the beginning of the game, when the atmosphere was very good, but then the team slowly drained the spirits of the crowd.
So, it's a success so far. As Le Tissier said, the setup should have been like that when we first moved into St Mary's.
Definitely better having the away lot in the Kingsland/Chapel corner and at times the Northam was pretty loud and everyone else joined in so I think it'll be a sucess.
We just need to up the quality on the pitch and the fans will respond no doubt.
Great to see a whole a Saints end. However, the lack of "interaction" with the away support was noticeable. Those Saints fans who paid for the expensive seats in the Kingsland next to the away fans, just sat there, making it very calm and quiet. Once Forest went one up, it was very quiet. Good idea to put the away fans in the corner. They seemed very insignificant and I could hardly hear them but the team still lost. It was chaos after the game outside the Northam, with some fans standing still outside the fanzone, to have a drink and some fans trying to go left and right to go home. It was really squashed. Anyone near the away support? It all looked very quiet and amicable in the Chapel.
Being stuck in the corner definitely subdued the away support, although they sang quite loudly at the end of the game when it was clear they were going to win. The new set up has improved the home advantage in the atmosphere, but nothing other than different tactics and team lineup was going to fire up our team today.
It was louder than last season except the play off semi final but as others said the performance sucked the life out of it, still no good songs not sure why as a club we’ve got nothing, so many good songs we could use but same old fathers gun sh!t
The club do everything they’ve done over the summer, moving away fans, fanzones etc to try and build on the West Brom game atmosphere then the team puts in a performance like that at the first time of asking. If you were working in department for fan engagement you’d be mightily miffed this morning.
I agree Cockle. One of the tests I say to myself sometimes is, “would I cringe if one of my pfc mates was sat next to me watching our fans?”. The answer yesterday was a resolute no (“ father’s gun” aside). I thought the ‘Wall’ was a huge improvement.
I sit in the Itchen quite near the Northam and since we’ve been at SMS the acoustics have been such that even the away fans could rarely hear the home support (despite it being there) hence the “library” chants. The new positioning is a big plus from my perspective.
Maybe as Chesham said it's the acoustics as sitting in the Chapel yesterday you could rarely hear the red wall but could hear the more or less constant away support, would be interesting what you actually hear on the pitch? As I'm old school I go to watch a football match and not a pop concert so from my prospective it was a lot worse in getting in and out of the ground yesterday but obviously with such a sh*t team selection and performance you tend to focus on the negatives.
A total and utter flop and that was always going to be the case. Whats happening on the pitch dictates the crowd in our case. Last season showed that away fans in the northam made no difference. Go back to 2002 2003 and 5000 away fans and the place was rocking becuase of what was happening on the pitch. There was nothing differennt yesterday to dozens of games at St Marys even with a full northam home end.
Lets not though discriminate againnts Saints fans in other stands, the northam is just one stand and shouldnt dictate.
I agree. Before the change in setup. a dire 0-1 defeat to Forest would have been played with almost total silence from the home crowd, apart from a few groans, and all game you'd only have heard the away fans. It really wasn't like that yesterday. The home support prevailed for most of the game.
There are a few people who opposed the change who are hoping it fails and they are not going to say anything positive about it.
Watched a few videos on the wall. It looks more impressive and must surely be louder (but only for generic chants; good luck getting anything new or spontaneous going in there).
Overall, it looks like an amalgamation of everything i’m not for in modern football. But yet, to those who don’t wish to participate, there is no alternative. Standing in any other part of the ground is not allowed.
No longer will the Northam compete against Itchen, Milton against Archers, Archers against sections of the East. All must conform to the seal clapping mantra of allez allez allez and an americanised culture marooned inside English football.
It’s a case of the higher ups telling fans “this is what you want”, hidden behind the real motive of just getting rid of the costly annoyance of the Itchen North.
Im a former itchen norther too. I am now a "Waller " i enjoyed the atmosphere in there it was loud for the most part ..plenty of noise and could hardly hear the away fans . obviously there needs more songs but when OWTS gets going then its great ..but we need more .
The other good thing which was getting worse over recent seasons was the constant idiot element looking for aggro .. i dont know what it was like over next to the away fans but at least thats now gone from the itchen north and northam .
We just need a striker 6ft plus , strong who can hold the ball up and of course score. That game for us cried out for che Adams !!
Saw a few negative comments towards the new setup on X etc. Always going to be a few who moan rather than support the changes.
Couldn't hear forest fans untill they scored tbh being tucked away in that corner. Which is good but as someone suggested earlier that performance was never going to be an electric atmosphere. Will take a season or so for the Northam stand to develop. Sounded great at times but will take a bit of time. Still a great effort by the club and will eventually pay off. We do need more songs but I'm sure every clubs fans say they same up and down the country. Same generic songs sang by every club up and down the country unfortunatley.
Surely the new 'fanzone' can be used to promote some new songs. Could be a good opportunity if the right people can scribble some lyrics to famous songs we all know together.
Oh and singing OWTS should be fast version not slow spursy style. When we go fast it goes on and on and on which is good. Players can feel the continual backing.
With 6,000 in one stand and some silent spells during the game, surely this is the perfect opportunity for someone at the back of a centrist block to shout:
made worse because even though the weather was awful the live music etc outside was brilliant great atmosphere and the anticipation of a good result ... but its a long season , and the naysayers are entitled to their opinion , myself I try to remain positive.
It was entirely predictable that the “wall” wouldn’t work. We simply don’t have 7k fans that want to stand and clap in unison all game, we also have always had small pockets of cultural differences between sections of the support, it’s why the layout of the dell lead to different pockets like under the east, the bike shed, the west stand benches and the Milton muppets
It’s also why st Mary’s worked before this, the northam was predominantly a younger stand, and more recently a social media stand. The itchen north was older and lot there moved to get away from people in the northam.
I didn’t make Saturday but a lot of the people that I know and have season tickets are already thinking about moving seats because they hated the “wall” so much, and they are/were all noisy f*ckers.
Personally I think the club have just played a blinder in using a small vocal minority to should about a mythical thing that would never happen so they can nullify a section of the ground they didn’t like.
I would expect to see some improvement, if we start winnning games. But its still never going to be the w@ank dream that some fans want ala dortmund or some other euro ultra cesspit. Im sure the 'saints 1885' will be giving out more instructions and telling fans to jump up a down etc
If you ignore the amount of middle aged blokes there were squeezed into those hideous pink kits, the rest of the ground looked like it was full of theatre goers. No-one stood, no-one sang, it appeared completely dead.
No matter how hideous it was in the abomination that is the Wall, I think it’ll be a case of sucking it up and dealing with it...for this season at least.
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