Wandy

Yeah I think I might rejoin the trust just to be there. The current situation is intolerable and has to change.

Not a good look for today’s effort then.

We really shouldn’t be making too many changes for this. It’s only October ffs. Give Tripps, Burn and Miggy a rest and have Willock on the left and Gordon on the right. I will be livid if we effectively throw this game. This lot are there for the taking right now.

Yep, my mate says it was much better in the away end at Wolves when they beat us 2 years ago just before the takeover went through.

As I said in the memberships thread, my mate was there and said it was dire. He’s been going to every away game for years and is very, very pissed off with the way the nature of the away support has changed this season.

By the way, if you want a flavour of how other fans will talk about us if we actually start winning trophies, have a look around at the various other teams’ forums with regards to the penalty today. We will be utterly despised.

I’m livid with Pope for that clanger punch but overall it’s a decent point. Wolves are a much better team than their league position suggests. Bruno was superb but Tripps had his worst game of the season. We were the better side for an hour of that match though. Think it’s obvious that we are trying to spread our energy over the five games starting from today up to Bournemouth.

True enough. But apparently it was a lot worse today.

My mate was down there again today. Said it was garbage in the away end once again. Sent me vids of fans trying to start songs and just zombies all around him. Hate to say it but the powers that be might need to see our nasty side to get this ticketing farce sorted out.

Nah, I don't buy that, no matter what any bunch of stats say. It probably applies to the best teams as they have the pure talent to overcome the adversity of a home crowd. But atmospheres do spur on average teams to play above themselves, or at their very maximum level. You only have to see how we survived 18 months ago to see that. I'm also one of those who would rather watch on TV instead of sitting in a stand full of mutes within the stadium. I do wonder if it's mainly us who were brought up on the terrace culture of the 70s & 80s who feel this way. For me, going to the match in the 80s was always about the match experience rather than the football, because let's face it there wasn't much to be happy about on the pitch back then. It's always been about the culture for me, rather than the football itself. To this day I still consider myself solely a NUFC fan rather than a football fan. I rarely watch games involving other teams, and when I do it's usually to see how the result will affect NUFC's position in the league/cup.

If anything, they need to get even more involved in song/chant orchestration. Also, they need to make the club aware about how cheesed off people are with the match-going experience. Wor Flags are perfectly positioned to do this as they clearly have the ear of the powers that be.

Agree. Pretty much all of our songs are dreadful now. The fact that old classics are not heard anymore and people can't even sing the Blaydon Races properly is a clear indication that our fanbase at games has drastically changed.

Those 15k were basically the fair-weather element of our existing fanbase at the time. We might have averaged well below capacity in those pre-1992/93 seasons but there would still be the odd game where we'd get a big gate approaching capacity, ie the TW derbies and games against one of the bigger clubs. In 1992 we didn't just attract all-new supporters as we seem to be doing now. The extra fans back then were just those who were less dedicated but would still class themselves as NUFC supporters. As the club kept rising though under KK we undoubtedly gained "new" fans. I know of at least a few school mates who "supported" clubs like Spurs & Man Utd in the 80s and yet in the mid 90s I saw some of them at NUFC games. As you would expect, I gave them the maximum amount of grief possible.

There's levels of mediocrity though and I think "mediocre" of old was still much better than something that would be considered "good" these days. And there is no way that SJP went deathly silent back then the way it sometimes does now. Our songbook was so much better back then too.

Whilst I agree with your point about European games back then, the league game atmosphere pre-expansion was far better than what we have now. No idea why you remember PL games being average with the 36k capacity. Might have been another seating issue I suppose. My ST was in the then John Hall stand and it was always raucous in the area where I sat.

Yeah it was. It was largely full of fans who had been supporting the club through the grim times of the 80s and early 90s though. So basically an entirely different kind of fan. That's not necessarily a criticism, more an observation. In hindsight, it's absolutely true that SJP should never have been made all ST in the 90s.

Did you just fire off a random email through to them? Despite the debate going on about what makes for a good match atmosphere, surely everyone can now agree that the ability to choose your own seat must be brought back?

Yep. Ridiculous isn't it?. The Gallowgate is still the "Kop" end but it's nowhere near as good as it was in the 90s.

I'd be absolutely gutted if we brought drums into our atmosphere. For all the noise they made last night, it was still a horrible experience and not in any way something to admire. In a way, you can see why the German & French leagues have been left in the dust compared to the Premier League. Despite the noise, their atmospheres are completely devoid of drama and manufactured to the hilt. That comes through to the TV viewer and probably bores them rigid. Give me an atmosphere of 50,000 people wildly celebrating getting a corner compared to 80,000 robots banging a drum for 90 minutes.

No, the problem with the ballot is that it has taken away that element from match day experience that you "earned" your right to be in the ground. I've been going for decades too and there has always been an element that you needed to put the work in to get your place in the stadium. Whether it be standing in an actual queue at the box office for all-ticket games, or simply just arriving at the ground at 2pm to get your regular place on the terrace, there was a feeling that you had done your bit as a dedicated fan to be there. The ballot has completely destroyed that, and allowed people who simply could not give a fuck about the club to get a ticket ahead of people who are, to be blunt, better supporters. Bin the ballot and bring back the queue, with the ability to choose your own seat. If the club want to keep tabs on everyone via a paid membership scheme then fair enough. But members should still have to put the extra effort into getting a seat. It's the best way of separating the wheat from the chaff.

I’ve fully made my mind up now that this wretched ballot has got to be binned off and the old queueing system brought back. The ballot is a system that makes it too easy for half-arsed hangers-on to get a ticket while at the same time putting a block in front of dedicated proper fans who will put the extra effort in to get a ticket by queuing for as long as it takes. Day trippers just enter the ballot and forget about it, not arsed if they get a ticket or not. It’s fucking disgraceful and it’s about time the club were properly called out for it. That crowd tonight thought that by putting in a bit of effort against PSG the other week they didn’t need to try for a “lesser’ team like Dortmund. That’s the very definition of shit supporters.

Yep. Considering how much TNT bigged up the atmosphere pre-match that was really embarrasing. It genuinely sounded like we were playing away. No wonder the team never got going when you've got a crowd who just turned up to be entertained. So many plastics in there now and the only way it will be fixed is by creating more standing sections around the ground.

Yeah but the tone of your post was that those not in the ground cant really criticize those in it.

"Fans online" So anyone who couldn't get a ticket can't criticize the ones who did? It's been pitiful man.

Are Dortmund playing at home? 45 mins of noise from them and have barely heard a peep from our lot. Pathetic stuff.