The ironic cheering directed at Bart Bialkowski after his blunder against Blackpool is of no help.
Last week I wrote an article about the abuse hurled at Guly at Doncaster and its negative effect on individual players and the team as a whole, sadly I find myself writing a similar piece again after yesterday' match against Blackpool.
Bart Bialkowski came in for his first league game of a season, without making excuses for him, this is even more difficult for a goalkeeper, unlike outfield players they dont get much game time off the bench to keep them fresh, they have to rely on the odd Cup game plus the sporadic reserve team games and then suddenly like yesterday they find themselves in at late notice and in the case of Bart yesterday behind a defence that is not the tightest in the league by a long chalk.
In the first half he didnt look confident, however he had a couple of saves to make and he made them, for the second one it was the type of save thats more difficult than it looks because of the way the modern day lighweight ball swerves and dips sometimes, but keep it out he did and that all you can ask of a goalkeeper, but even at this time you could hear slight rumblings in the crowd whenever he was called into action.
There can be no doubt the second was a complete howler, however Bialkowski is not the first goalkeeper to make this type of error in a Saints shirt and he wont be the last, at times Kelvin is talked of in hushed tones, but he has had more than one dodgy period in his time at the club, indeedin his first two years he was a figure of hate at times and had more than one spat with the crowd who were on his back.
So I was slightly disapointed with the reaction of some sections of the crowd after the goal, the ironic cheers etc that followed every simple cross he caught or ball he collected where of no hope whatsoever, in fact in many respects they threatened to ensure we lost the game, it was still only 2-1 and we were in the game, so why get on the back of a goalkeeper who was clearly lacking a bit of confidence, it can only make him play worse not better, the supporter who stormed past me down the aisle screaming at no one in particular "Why does he pick that ****er" would do well to think a bit harder, Bialkowski was playing because Kelvin was injured, we didnt even have a sub keeper on the bench, if the supporters want to vent their anger at why he was playing they should ask why the manager hasnt signed another keeper if Bart is really that bad.
Lawrie McMenemy always used to say about the difference between Saints and Newcastle supporters, he said that up there the Geordies see the team struggling and get behind them, whereas down here the crowd need to see something from the team first tnad then they do their bit, over the years in the main I have usually found that to be true, when we are winning we are as good as any crowd in the country, but when things arent going are way things are different. In the 90's the Dell encouraged a siege mentality and there were many games when the crowd played as big a part of the team as it dragged itself out of the relegation zone, since we have moved to St Mary's we have lost a little bit of that, perhaps thats no different than other teams, but the downside of the move was an influx of those who are there for the good times, but cant be bothered going through the bad.
In the coming weeks we need the fans to get behind the team throughout the game and reserve their frustrations for the pub and message boards on the internet, hopefully no member of the Saints team pulls on a shirt and goes out there with anything else in their mind other than winning the game, no player deliberately makes an error, when it happens it happens, and we supporters should do our bit then and urge on the player making the error, not dent his confidence even more by boing, abusing him or even the ironic cheering we heard on Saturday.
This season Saints have stepped up to the plate on the pitch and performed above our expectations, now is the time for us to do our bit in the stands and show that when the chips are down we are supporters not abusers of the players on the pitch, of course I have my favourites in the team and those I dont like very much, the time to question their ability is away ffrom the ground, when Im at the game they have my 100% support, this week more than any we need to be united as we take on our traditional enemy at Fratton Park.