The somewhat mixed reception that Guly received on Saturday was a disgrace and could have cost us three points.

Over the past year or so I have noticed a worrying trend at this football club and that is to give abuse to certain players, of course crowds will often have a scapegoat and take a dislike to some players, but this is more than that and at any given time there are sometimes three or four players in our squad where a hate campaign seems to exist amongst sizeable sections of the crowd.

Some of you will perhaps point a finger at me for comments I have made about players on this site, but that is different, I make the comments only on here (OK down the pub as well) and I try to back up my opinions with facts, when I go to the match I gave and in some cases still give those players support.

It was perhaps two years ago this manifested itself at least in the past few years, Jason Puncheon was awful in the opening games of 2010/11 and the crowd started to get on his back, more than he deserved, but when I went to Doncaster Rovers last year for the first time ever I saw Saints supporters not just moaning at a player, but openly abusing him, "Guly your F*cking sh*t" chanted a little group of so called fans who were older enough to know better, this abuse got worse as the season wore on and to be blunt Guly who was having a decent season up to that point with eight goals and a number of assists to his name didnt deserve it.

Even two goals on Boxing Day as we beat Palace 2-0 plus another in a 3-0 drubbing of Forest at the City ground didnt silence the boo boys and the same chant as at Doncaster was heard.

It cant be a coincidence that after that Forest game Guly would not score again and whilst it cant be denied that his form was dropping, the abuse he was receiving had to play some part in it, quite frankly a sizeable chunk of our support put abusing Guly in front of achieving promotion.

The abuse has continued this season, but Guly has had several victims of this abuse joining him Danny Fox gets a lot of undeserved abuse and then there is Artur Boruc, yes his opening performances werent great, but to get the abuse he did after only 1 1/2 games for the club and most of it from supporters who probably hadnt seen his debut at West ham smacks of mob mentality.

But on Saturday the abuse got to the stage of being totally unacceptable, when Guly appeared on the touchline with 11 minutes to go  large sections of the crowd could see no irony in their abuse of Guly as he came on, only minutes earlier the praises of Nigel Adkins were being sung, well it is the manager who decides who comes on and off, if you dont like his choice of sub, then blame him not the player.

But this turning on a player by the crowd could have backfired, we were leading 1-0 in a vital relegation clash against a big rival, the team needed to see and hear that the crowd was right behind them, the positive support was driving them on, this negative vibe emanating from the stands towards Guly could have cost us dearly, it could have made us lose concentration and god knows we have done that enough times this season without contributing to it ourselves, those who booed Guly on Saturday or even expressed concern about the substitution should take a long hard look at their actions and how it could have affected the team and with that the result.

Time and time again I read on message boards about how united this club is and how this is a great time to be a Saints supporter, if thats the case then being united means being behind ALL our players and not just selected ones, of course there will always be favourites and always be those that the crowd never quite take to, but the time and place to slag off players is away from the games themselves, make no bones avoiding relegation this season will be tough, lets not make it tougher than it has to be by barracking our own players   

Photo: Action Images

Chesham_Saint added 09:44 - Dec 10 I agree its completely counter productive to boo a player especially as he comes on. At least the Northam tried to redress the balance by chanting his name.
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mgprobert added 09:47 - Dec 10 well said - together as one!
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SonicBoom added 09:51 - Dec 10 Agree. If we think Guly is that bad then it is Adkins who sahould be questioned for picking him. Then again you did say.. " Time and time again I read on message boards about how united this club is ".... Have you ever read your own message board Nick? Apparently the entire club is totally divided from top to bottom.
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SaintNick added 10:01 - Dec 10 Yes but half the message board is telling the other half how united the club is
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suttonsaint added 10:02 - Dec 10 I've never booed a player in a Saints shirt,whether warming up or on the field of play.Doesn't mean to say I haven't slated them good and proper post match though.Bad form to boo imho but you pay your money and I guess your entitled to do what you see fit...and it was Guly ffs!
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SaintNick added 10:11 - Dec 10 boo someone off the pitch perhaps, but dont boo him as he is coming on to it
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scummerlou added 10:28 - Dec 10 Agree with you Nick, Couldnt believe sections of the crowd booing Guly coming onto the pitch!!!! NA and AC looked shocked aswell at the reaction. Respect to Northam for signing his name, and also from Guly who didnt hide when on the pitch.
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jamesarmstrong added 11:18 - Dec 10 Great comment , sometimes some people show themselves not to very be civilized and there ape ancestors were far greater than them at least they were consistent in their madness. I also have been critical about Guly not that I think he is a bad person only I'm not sure he is premier league material, however from what I heard Guly played ok for the time he was on against Reading and he nearly scored. I watched many of the highlights last year and people like Guly made a significant contribution to us winning games. Also the way he played was exciting. I really hope Guly does find his feet as a sub and I hope he can prove the knockers wrong. In the meantime fans should be supporting not booing players who wear the pride of the Saints jersey.

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LostBoys added 11:19 - Dec 10 I had an argument with a dick who sits behind me in the Kingsland when he booed Guly as he came on. He was rounded on by everyone around him at that point and thwen left early. I have never understood booing your own players even after a crap performance - we are there to lift them. Also I thought he did well when he came on although he should have buried his chance - we sclapped him at the end.

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OldRed added 12:19 - Dec 10 Well said and I totally agree. I remember when Paul Jones used to get similar treatment in goal from some sections, even though he was good shot stopper and had some terrific games for us. What exactly has Guly done to deserve this kind of abuse? Some of the crown think that he doesn't give 100% and at times looks lazy, but as you say Adkins picks the team, he thinks he's good enough and that should be respected.

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bstokesaint added 12:27 - Dec 10 Never ever ever boo your own players. In my opinion Guly isn't Premiership quality, but I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt every game if the manager is. Every player deserves support (from the "supporters") and it must be especially hard when you play for a club thousands of miles away from home with little support domestically. It's staggering that there are so many morons out there who are prepared to embarrass themselves so publicly. The same can be said of Boruc. Okay, it was a bad reaction from the keeper, but he's the one player you really don't want losing his head. What is wrong with people? It's crazy. On the positive side I'm loving the support that Adkins gets from what I'd call the 'proper' fans, i.e. not the ones that were on his back the second things started going wrong. He deserves better treatment from a minority who have failed to see what he has done for us. The alternative is to look at Chelski and see what an embarrassment of a situation they have on their hands. How can you expect a team to perform under such circumstances?

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landsdownsaint added 12:55 - Dec 10 Good article,Guly is premiership quality IMO,everytime I walk out that ground I hear people say how good he did when he came on ,on Saturday he done exactly what NA wanted he held the ball and nearly scored a cracker! We all think we know more about the game than we do but NA is a PL manager and if he didn't rate Guly there's no way he would risk him when were winning 1nil with ten mins to go...anyway I was prod of the Northam when he came on ,they never let the lads down but some in that ground could have lost us those 3 points as you've said

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simmo400 added 13:14 - Dec 10 Nic k i suggest you move to the Kingsland North. No boo's there only true fans. For what its worth i thought Guly done well when on. Is upto him to prove the fans wrong by performing well when he gets his chance, but the crowd will always their favourites.
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no7saint added 13:18 - Dec 10 Totally agree, the abuse of Guly was shameful. Quite why you would boo a substitute on is beyond me, particularly one who is in need of confidence. As you say a negative crowd can be a distraction, not what you need when trying to preserve a 1-0 lead against a relegation rival. Positive support breeds positive results, time these "supporters" remembered what the 12th man actually means. Well done to those who reacted by singing Guly's name.

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darkangelv2 added 13:32 - Dec 10 I agree with the sentiment. Guly needs to display the attitude that Puncheon has. This is why he gets booed - not for his past mistakes on the pitch but for his utter lethargy. Guly's had such a long time to get used to the English game. It's fast and teams work together to close down fast. Saturday was the first game in 8 months I've seen him show that kind of work rate and commitment. Ps. You back up your opinions with your opinion on subjective stats. That doesn't make them facts.

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stmichael added 13:42 - Dec 10 I think the reaction of the crowd to those that did the booing shows that this has been dealt with. It was un acceptable and the vast majority of the crowd showed their feelings by applauding Guly when he did something well and others by chanting his name. Anyone who wants to boo him next time will now be well aware that the vast majority of supporters are totally against such ridiculous behaviour. Guly can help himself by putting in performances like he did Saturday. To be frank if he had showed the same desire in the last 12 months or so we would not be having this debate. He is not a scape goat he has just been consistently poor over a long period of time. Same thing applies to FOX.

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SaintNick added 15:15 - Dec 10 Sorry but Guly was getting stick last December when he had scored 11 goals and had a number of assists, now that is not consistently poor whatever way you look at it, Guly's performances over the past 12 months have probably been down as much to the crowd as anything, but up to Xmas last year he was playing well and was second top scorer
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powpow added 16:10 - Dec 10 Good article Nick, this disgraceful behavior by mainly moronic juveniles who know f'all about football has to stop, the manager picks the team, the supporters 'SUPPORT', simples. How is boo'ing ever gonna help a players confidence, it's counter-productive, which has an impact on the teams performance too. As you quite rightly point out there has always been this element of abuse directed at Guly, even when he was a pivotal part of the team, scoring crucial goals & providing plenty of assists (playing out of position) in our promotion pushes. I couldn't make the game on Saturday but listened to it on Radio Solent, the boo's I heard were embarrassing, & these bellends call themselves supporters, supporting what exactly?! At the West Brom away game recently I stared at one such angry young tyke behind me who boo'd Guly as he came on as a sub towards the end of the game, 'What, he's f'in sh*t' was his dumb response, 'He wears a Saints shirt so just get behind him', I replied, I got the same response, why do people like that even bother going to games? Retards.

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SanMarco added 19:02 - Dec 10 Was going to comment but no need because it is an excellent article and BSTOKESAINT's first paragraph sums up my view perfectly
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BlackAngel added 19:11 - Dec 10 Absolutely right Nick. There is no way that any supporter should boo or verbally abuse any player in your team. Ever. Confidence makes the difference between winning and losing, so why would you do that? God forbid if those doing this have children, what do they do when they don't consistently do well - tell them they're rubbish? If you can't be positive and handle the pressure - don't go to the game.

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SM7 added 20:22 - Dec 10 I was ashamed listening to those idiots booing.If we had listened to another teams fans boo one of their players , we would rub our hands together and think Christmas had come early.It's interesting to note a distinct lack of comment on this subject from anyone who did boo...perhaps they are only brave in a mob of thugs.
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WestEndBoy added 20:29 - Dec 10 Unfortunately i think most of the people responsible for the chanting are people who have jumped on the bandwagon in the last couple of years.It was nice to hear a chant of 'the saints are staying up saturday'-brings back memories of the great escape and many other seasons.Beats some of the crap that is sung most weeks.
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WestEndBoy added 20:35 - Dec 10 I think most of the people responsible are those who have jumped on the bandwagon last couple of seasons.Was nice to hear 'the saints are staying up,and now you gotta believe us ' on saturday.Brings back memories of the great escape and many other seasons.Beats some of the crap that is sung most weeks.
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SonicBoom added 21:08 - Dec 10 All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
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steadyeddie added 22:04 - Dec 10 Unfortunately, we do have our fair share of retards who follow our team, and who have given stick to various players over the years. I remember Steve Baker in the eighties and even Nick Holmes a club legend getting verbal abuse from Saints Fans. About 4 years ago at the Bristol Rovers cup game, i stood next to a so called fan who gave abuse to virtually the entire team, from start to finish. We are in a very good position at the moment, compared to a few weeks ago. it is vital we get behind EVERY player who pulls on the shirt. I hope Guly scores a last minute winner from 25 yards soon. That should shut the moaning buggers up!

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