Rather Sad to say....

I take out a lot of my frustration arguing with fans around me! E.g. When they moan at the ref for something he obviously got right or moaning that we're not getting it forward quick enough ( I hear that at least 5 times a game)

 

The only times I have ever come close to fisticuffs in my adult life has been arguing with "fans" at Saints games. I hasten to add that I would never, ever throw the first punch but I can see people sizing me up. However, 6ft3in can be an advantage at times: even if I'm as tough as wet wallpaper, it's hidden inside a big frame. Boruc after his ballerina attack at Arsenal and Yoshida when we were 2-0 down against Man C this season spring to mind. Both led to chats with less than enthusiastic "supporters."

I truly, honestly, believe that some people get more enjoyment out of a bad performance than out of a good one. Tragic but true. They get a chance to expel all of their daily worries via some perceived fault in a Saints player. They gain catharsis at the expense of someone who can't answer back.

I detest it and it spoils my enjoyment of football.

Tragic indeed.

Vin

P.S. What we need is to choose a game next year and book a corporate box for the Hopeless Optimists Saints Fan Club.

 

Some people are just waiting to come out of the woodwork when we lose...they must have suffered at the beginning of this season.

 

Count me in Vin

 

Yes, me too. I like the sound of that!

 

I listen to some conversations going on around me often make me smile, as well as shake my head. People arguing over a simple mistake by a player........and the way they would deal with the culprit if they were in charge.
They often give me the impression that they think the players are robots and don't act on instinct or have less knowledge of the game than they do. They seem to know better as to who should be playing international football and who should not. They read the game as if they can read the mind of every opposing player where he was going to put the ball and to whom and when......all after the event of course. Everything was obvious to them....again after the event of course.
The referee as you might think also comes in for some harsh criticism, as a consequence, I have the feeling there would be a hanging every week.
No I think I will stick to my initial reasoning on this subject .......some people just like to hear their own voice and seem to know less and less each week about how football is really played............

 

This reminds me of the old Guly debates. If our players were not putting in a shift then I might have cause to moan a bit at the end of a match, but otherwise I try not add to the negativity and remain stoic in the face of (relative) adversity.
Pelle isn't playing so well at present but then he has hit the woodwork so many times that he could have scored another 6 goals by now- small margins in football. Coutinho's shot might have caught the other edge of the bar, for example. If we had started poorly and worked our way up to 5th everyone would be ecstatic.
Funny old game, football.

 

Well today is an opportunity to put any negativity behind us and get right behind the players again
We need to show them we are still right behind them and give them the confidence to do the job we all know they can do

 

Well said Dark Lord

 

Some Saints fans need to get real FFS!....Anyone who is unsatisfied with the season so far should F. Off and go and support Chelsea....We are Saints, we are doing things the right way, developing our own talent and balancing the books...
Remember Nigel's rallying call in our promotion seasons, "TOGETHER AS ONE", well that is what we need to get back to now....Banish all negativity, it is only self defeating, and make a wall of noise to help the team to a much needed victory and if we are losing then sing even louder because that's when the team need our support the most.

 

True but you would think in hospitality the standards would be not quite as low. You have to wonder why he wasn't asked to leave by staff.

 

For those that say things are much better these days than in the 60's let me recall an incident in the Milton end when I was at school. I was half way back and was joined by an 'acquaintance' from my school who proceeded to use that same word repeatedly. After a few minutes the so called Milton Road hard boys started to complain and eventually asked a steward to throw him out. Rightly so but it surprises me a bit how little stewards intervene these days and how so many supporters feel it their right to spoil the enjoyment of others by swearing (excessively) or drinking / smoking in seated areas

 

Thrown out of The Milton for swearing . That's some claim to fame!

 

Ha, you attended a lot of hospitality at football grounds? Just because you can afford hospitality does not give you better manners or intelligence than the guy sitting in the regular seats.

I quite often find the more you pay to sit in a seat the worse the people are around you

 

I am ready for it tonight. A couple of large glasses of scotch before the game and anybody who swears at Pelle will have a little old bearded man with a walking stick to contend with and if they start getting hard I shall set my most potent weapon on them. She'll sort them out. She frightens our dog and he is a nasty little blighter. He's bitten me more than once but he wouldn't dare bite her and he knows it.

 

One of my favourite quotations says it well - worth reading now and again.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

 

Not true for holidays. Once went on a cheap holiday and spent a fortnight surrounded by people who embarrassed or offended me...especially in the way they talked to the locals. I require people to be polite and quiet...best to pay a bit more to get that.

 

Well if we can highlight the bad, we can also highlight the good. The fans were great today.

 

... but wasn't there

 

In short, be a doer and not a viewer. Makes a mockery of being a football fan, doesn't it..?