atmosphere at pompey

[1886]

CE Faithful- you may well do already fella but why not attempt to get your mob to stand throughout the entire game regardless of whoevers behind you, this ultimately should have a knock on effect. Ive always found that nine times out of ten we've given a good account of ourselves when stood. Someonelse pointed out the mancs (may well have been yourself), look at them, theyre always standing and making a racket and as much as it pains me to say it theyve definately got one of the best away supports in the country. Why do you think that is? Cos a majority of their following comprises of lads not a wig circus full of women, kids and blokes who are too busy reading jeffrey archers latest release or discussing the state of the economy (nothing wrong with either of those two things but theres a time and a place!) that arent prepared to sing. Thats the bottom line.

Away s/t holders, away scheme members and travel club members (15 credits were required remember?) are supposed to be our hardcore vociferous support and are to blame for yesterdays showing, no one else. :x

Fair play for telling it how it was fella

Regards

 

[Anonymous]

I heard a rumour that a lot of Rich so called fans put a compliant to the board, that thug's where shouting very very loud behind them?

 

[reggiepaul]

CE Faithful- you may well do already fella but why not attempt to get your mob to stand throughout the entire game regardless of whoevers behind you, this ultimately should have a knock on effect. Ive always found that nine times out of ten we've given a good account of ourselves when stood. Someonelse pointed out the mancs (may well have been yourself), look at them, theyre always standing and making a racket and as much as it pains me to say it theyve definately got one of the best away supports in the country. Why do you think that is? Cos a majority of their following comprises of lads not a wig circus full of women, kids and blokes who are too busy reading jeffrey archers latest release or discussing the state of the economy (nothing wrong with either of those two things but theres a time and a place!) that arent prepared to sing. Thats the bottom line.

We were standing throughout the game yesterday. I know people around me sung, yes we didn't sing throughout the whole game but find me one Pompey support who sung as much as most Arsenal fans did. They did have more fans than us. In my experience I felt we did a lot of singing considering we had no roof, were rained on and had bad facilities for the game. The Pompey fans were very loud and they didn't exchange in much banter and we're only interested in trying to keep us quiet. At times it worked at other times it didn't but we sung and we sung for Henry when he went in for that tackle, took the piss out of Teddy who is warming up at the corner next to the Arsenal fans amongst other things.

Away s/t holders, away scheme members and travel club members (15 credits were required remember?) are supposed to be our hardcore vociferous support and are to blame for yesterdays showing, no one else. :x

Fair play for telling it how it was fella

Regards

We gave as much as we could considering the situation. People with Season tickets and that many credits are hardcore and I don't think they need to justify that to anyone since the credits prove it anyway. If you don't have that many credits you don't go, do you? As far as I know we were singing for most of the game - some people will argue against that after hearing one song, but that was one song of banter. In most situations after the game it's a friendly atmosphere. Most people say we are the loudest away fans in the country and I get this from a lot of oppossition fans. I think that proves otherwise.

Pompey fans afterwards were telling me we were loud as well. Yes there was ONE song about not singing, but that's banter not a realistic impression of the situation. So we took the piss back. That's what happens in banter situations.

If you think you can sing loud, go to the games, get the credits and sing. If you don't go to the games you have little or no room to speak at all. Our away fans alone can sing louder than Highbury if that's what they are supposed to be up against. Is that hardcore enough for you?

If you want to prove otherwise, go to games, get the credits and prove yourself. If you haven't got the credits, what are you talking about?

 

[stumpi1]

all i say is well done to all for going to game,singing or not.me and missus would love 2 join u all if tickets more available.

 

[1886]

reggie paul- first and foremost im having to priortorise which games i can and cant attend this month especially should we progress to the CL qf and are drawn away in the first leg- a five day excursion out in vigo has set me back a little you see. Seeing as the pompey game was being screened i opted to settle for the box and this had nothing to do with the amount of credits ive accumalated in the past two seasons besides that it was a toss up between that and B'burns darwen end.

I know what our away support is capable off on our better days, but were you at man city, soton, bolton or wolves this season?- i felt embarrassed leaving all those grounds. ok maybe im being a little harsh with soton.

the point i made about standing to CE Faithful was this should be something done continuously not just for whenever we're at the lane, its a cup game (not that anyone was stood at leeds!) or abroad this is something that should exist week in week out.

Fair enough maybe i was little harsh on those that made the journey on saturday but thats how it sounded to me mate along with continuous pompey baiting.

Regards

 

[reggiepaul]

No problem but I did go over myself too, yet,

Man City - Loud and proud I'd say although not throughout. I had a great time at Southampton Bolton and Wolves? I guess who you get to sit around. Ask to be seated closer to the home fans. A lot of atmosphere there.

Right Wolves, people sitting in the middle had a crap time, people sitting at both ends said they were singing throughout. The wolves fans told me WE were the loudest crowd they had witnessed that season but I did hear from Arsenal fans in the middle, they found it quiet. My answer is, sing then! All the people in the middle who told me it was quiet tell me they sing, well collectively you could have sung then right? As I stated the other ends of the stand were loud and we had a lot of banter with Wolves fans.

Southampton - had a wonderful time. I had a great number of singers directly around me. Yes there were some silent numps behind me but no one cared for them. Overall good atmosphere, fair bit of singing. Were you sitting towards the corner or closer to the goal? It was louder closer to the goal.

Manchester City, yes we didn't sing much but it was ok still. We sang enough. It was a good laugh with the blow up doll.

Bolton we were ok. A lot of silent fans too though.

I can't fault Wolves though. That was the loudest I think we've been this season and I think some of our fans didn't get vocal but I sang throughout most of that game.

Yet the BBC (I watched the coverage today) really didn't do us any justice at all. All I could hear were the Pompey fans which was bit of a pisstake. We sang a lot during the game (well at my end, the corner where Henry went in with that tackle) and we were pretty loud. Although I have to admit the Pompey fans never stopped singing. They sang throughout without a break. It's easy to outsing grounds where they don't sing much but at grounds where they sing non-stop you have a hard task. Wolves was different because I was told we were loud, a guy sitting in the stand opposite to ours told us we were louder than the Wolves fans. In my view the Wolves fans were louder than the Pompey fans.

We're not always as bad as people make out.

 

[1886]

Man City- i was sat reasonably close to city fans and felt we only made ourselves heard only once we had our noses in front which wasnt till midway through the second half. How our fans had the audacity to turn round to city once we'd equalised and start singing "youve only got one song" was completely beyond me and left city fans in bewilderment, i kid you not mate they were sat there laughing at us. An observation ive made is we are nowhere near our full potential when allocated the upper and lower part of a stand. 4/10

Bolton- The two tier reason stated in the above could well have contributed to this game- cant see why though considering we receive the entire upper section there. This for me was easily our poorest league showing of the season as it seemed nobody was at the races and that they were more interested in fending off the cold! 3/10

Soton- To be fair we were a little more ourselves here though this time my only critisism would of those sat around me (behind the goal, practically next to soton fans) for not standing. When youve near enough the entire allocation of home support stood besides you wouldnt you too wish to stand? sadly myself and a handful of fellow young'uns were heckled by our own for attempting to do so. Overall though it was a pretty good jolly up and we were reasonably loud when reminding them who "won the cup!" 6/10

Wolves- Yes, the wolves were loud and probably reserve a welcome like that for some of the bigger clubs whose support takes up their entire steve bull section. I was sat closest to the end we were attacking in the second half though i wouldve preferred being sat behind that goal where you usually see away support at wolves, i can only imagine that stand cannot house 3,000 odd. The fact that we had been granted the entire lower section of a main stand meant that we were unable to generate any real cohesion between us as as with the case at Highbury our singers were dotted all over- think the only time we did anything collectively barring when we scored was when everyone started celebrating when a rumour that everton had turned things round and gone 4-3 up against the mancs! Do agree with you about the clusters and those sat nearest home fans getting things going but it just gets to me when the singing doesnt spread like wildfire when we're away at times. 5/10

Personally speaking, the best performances we (the fans) have given this season were Man Utd- those last ten mins we were phenomenal (not to say we hadnt made ourselves heard throughout) and "Arsène Wengers Red n White Army..." had me in what seemed a trance as it got faster and faster! Inter in the CL was just pure cuckoo land from start to finish (and i mean from the moment we set foot in the ground to the moment we left some hours after!) West Brom in the "$hit Cup" was a right barrel of laughs and although are numbers were lame every single Gooner to a man was outstanding particularly those that opted to stand at the back of the stand.

You're right mate, we are nowhere near as bad as made out to be and do have on its day without a shadow of a doubt the best away following in the land but we do seem to have been slacking of late and theres always room for improvement. Anyway roll on Weds and then its back on the road come Sat.

Regards

 

[reggiepaul]

Inter was somewhat cuckoo land yeah and it's probably the closest we got to as the greatest experience as away fans but most of the Man Utd away game got a little bit of a midfield game and became nothing more UNTIL the last 10 minutes when everything went mental. I did like Wolves though because the atmosphere, where I was, was really great and everyone was near enough having a laugh. The baggies in the cup was good as well though.

It was cold at Bolton. I heard it was worse at the other end and the upper tier when we couldn't get a song going at all.

I don't think it has been all that bad. Southampton and Wolves was still good and it does depend where you sit as well. I haven't come across an extreme lack of singing in a long time but I am usually closer to the home fans as well so we can get a lot of banter going. We did only start singing when we went ahead at city, still a great game overall. The Wolves game I would put ahead of the Southampton game easily because most of our away end didn't sing for that game and at Wolves we could make ourselves heard for a large part of the game.

When you come from Highbury and go to an away game you can see a massive difference in terms of support. Even the Clockend isn't as loud these days either and I can't see anywhere in Highbury being as loud as anything as we deliver at away games. Personally, this is a sentiment held by a lot of travelling Arsenal fans who expect a good support on the road and Highbury is very much less of that. It's just simply, many fans don't see singing as a factor at games these days, especially in light of the expense of tickets that get snapped up by corporate travellers. I can't expect our older support to sing because they tell me it gets tiring for them when they sing too much at a game. It's mainly the youth. When you have a large proportion of our support watching Sky Sports and the Premiershit who justify a lot of their air time by doing "analysis" and "appraisal" you're going to get a lot of fans arriving to watch a game rather than support it and the whole charm of singing and getting behind the team disappears or is unknown to them. I've noticed a lot of the new younger fans are like this and think this anal detail to football is required and the whole idea of being a "supporter" and enjoyment of it disappears in favour of things like history, stats, facts and analysis and also sadly - the win.

Yes winning is important but if you lose the enjoyment of supporting a team (which is most of what you can do as a fan) the whole spectacle of winning (which, let's admit most teams don't do as often as Arsenal) is just the whole point to glory hunting. I come across so many Arsenal fans who hardly ever go to games. I find this bizarre at this point in time where we have such an amazing team to watch made up of the greatest players and people are mainly interested in analysis and speculation, which lets be serious here, you gain nothing of from watching it all on TV.

The reason clubs like Pompey and Wolves are so loud is they know what support is. They don't get many wins but the fans turn out for the support and singing and banter rather than anything else. I have recently grasped the idea that many fans see our present situation as an actuality, which it isn't and anything can change. The oppurtunity of seeing your team play is not set in stone so if there is an oppurtunity you should grasp it with both hands. There is no substitute to seeing the whole thing live. I can't see the point in missing a live game but only some people have the means to do that. When I come across fans saying there are plenty of Arsenal games to see it leads me to question their passion to actually wanting to see Arsenal and exactly why?

If push came to shove, would you watch your team play or go and do something else instead?

These are all reasons for the lack of support emanating from the stands. We don't have the same form of "football" support other teams have. We may mock United fans but these fans are the most passionate and obsessive people you will probably ever come across and I speak of the majority here. We may call them glory hunters and the like but United have a game on game successful history which only Liverpool can rival. Yes Arsenal have been in the top division the longest but success speaks differently when you win more trophies like Liverpool and United do. This is where there support has built up from. If you want to change matters at Highbury it based upon getting people to sing and more passionate about the game but I don't know how you can do that when many people don't relate themselves to singing and support at the game.

 

[Split]

Maybe people sing less when watching arsenal because they are actually watching the game and enjoying it too much to sing. In my experience when you're singing you don't watch so much. When something exciting is happening on the pitch people don't tend to sing.

The Pompey fans sang so much because they didn't care about the result of the game anymore, so they just decided to entertain themselves.

One of the reasons Arsenal fans are less vocal is that the team is too Entertaining!!!

Sounds odd, but if you think about it it is true.

 

[reggiepaul]

Nyah that's no excuse

We were never all that entertaining and I've used that excuse as a joke for the library when talking to oppossition fans, but even I know it's only a joke because at the end of the day the primary reason you are there is to watch the game so in consideration for other clubs, everyone sings and people can do both at the same time because you sing with your mouth, not your eyes.

If you watch people who sing they are watching the game. How else do we know if someone scores or if someones passing the ball around to switch between songs. Now this opens up the nutty argument of "Do you go to games to sing or watch the game?". Now there are so many things wrong with that I don't know where to start. Since I was a small yoot I have been able to sing and watch the game at the same time, so if I had little problem with my intelligence of doing both at the age of 9 I can't see how many people in their 20's would have difficulty either.

People don't sing because they are not used to it, so ideas of confidence around people and relationships with other fans come in to it. I have noticed people alone look a little uneasy to sing until someone close to them sing louder and then they get in to the swing of it.

 

[Split]

Reggie, it was said with my tongue in my cheek. Although there's an element of truth in it.

Personally I am quite an 'introvert' but when I'm at Highbury I can't help singing and shouthing at the top of my voice.

I recently took my girlfriend with me and she was quite shocked and how much of an 'extrovert' I became.

If the passion is their inside you, you'll sing...

 

[reggiepaul]

There is an element of truth in it although I didn't grasp you were playing around. It's just someone else said that recently too and I couldn't help but laugh.

Like I said, you sing with your mouth not your eyes.

I am not entirely an introverted but more so an extrovert but like you said, if the passion is there you sing, you want to be a part of it.

The song sheets recently had new songs and that was the problem with that because if they were usual songs (which many people at games were looking for) I am sure people would join in. I only really thought one of the songs on the sheet could really take off and that was Henry, Henry one. It was funny as well.

 

[Stevo]

I was at the match on Saturday but unfortunately couldn't sing along with the Arsenal Fans as I was sat in the middle of thousands of pompey fans and didn't really fancy letting them know which of the two teams I was supporting as It could have put me in a little trouble. lol.

The Pompey fans around me didn't stop singing all the way through the match. They were supporting their team while also applausing the the great performance by Arsenal that was destroying their team.

They're great supporters of Pompey and also great supporters of the game.