Wallsendmag

This is how you play against Man City. Not that half arsed sit back shite we produced on Tuesday.

Just flicking through the channels there and seen these are live on TNT1. Losing 3-0 against West Ham in what I'm assuming is the womens FA Cup due to the advertising boards around the pitch. Very sparse crowd there. Maybe 6 or 700.

Anyone heard any new gossip about this lad? Things seem very quiet.

Hopefully he's back soon. Used to love reading his rants about these daft cunts.

Can anyone else relate to this? Nah didn't think so.

Aye I know him. I used to knock about with his wife Lisa who lived in Hadrian Park same as I did just around the corner from me in Cheadle Avenue. Already knew him from the Boys Club before they got together. and we used to always go round to Lisas parents house every New Years Eve. Nice lad. Very quiet. Quite shy really. Needless to say I hope he's a massive flop. PS those fees were lifted from transfermkt which is as accurate a source as you'll find.

Mason Mount £70m Fred £60m Van de Beek £40 Pogba was £100m as well.

Was still a bit surprised that they only brought 3k. When we played them in the 3rd Round back in 23/24 they brought well over 4k.

Just been reading an exchange on Facebook mocking Man City fans for not taking up their full allocation. A few of them have responded by saying how surprised they were at how bad the atmosphere was in the home end.

Form an orderly queue...

I was up in Level 7 for Southampton and it was absolutely shite. I mean really bad. Stuck it out till about the 80th minute and said to the bairn they'll have opened the gates by now so why don't we nip out and walk back into the Gallowgate and find a couple of spare seats in there instead? So that's what we did. And it was absolutely electric. Couldn't hear them in L7 though.

I'm just stating the obvious as well tbh. We have 49,000 seats available to home fans for your typical league game where the away team takes their full allocation. We now know 35,000 of those seats are taken by ST holders. You'll have approximately 10,000 that will be balloted to members. Out of those 10k you'd like to think maybe 80% would go to genuine members who try to attend as many games as possible, so maybe 8k there and the remaining 2k snapped up by once/twice a season fans and tourists/bots. The other 4k will be corporate hospitality/sponsors tickets etc. So the largest demographic of supporter by an absolute mile is the season ticket holder. They control what the atmosphere is like. Not the other demographics dotted about. If it's good it's pretty much down to them, and same goes for if it's shite. So in short our atmosphere is dependant on a large group of people in their early 50s. Traditionally your football atmosphere was generated by teens/20s and 30 somethings.

But how many of these members who would want to stand up and sing can access tickets on a regular basis due to the ballot? Even those who get them on resale are just dotted about. 35,000 season ticket holders, probably 32,000 of whom have absolutely no interest in standing/singing is where your core problem is at. And that's not going away.

No we can't. Chelsea aren't exactly known for their passionate fanbase but watch the difference tonight compared to last night.

How many people do you estimate want to stand for 90 minutes in a singing area? I actually don't think it's very many at all. The "backlash" isn't even a consideration for me. If it results in a few of the old timers taking a huff and wrapping it in then so be it. I'm just not sure the appetite is there from the wider fanbase. We've always had the largest % of fans who remain seated in the Premier League. Problem is they also don't open their mouths now either.

They go hand in hand. A team who would pretty much have been dead on their feet after the last 2 epic games, and the growing injury list meaning we are pretty much down to the bare bones could probably have done with a passionate, radged up crowd to help them through. They certainly didn't get any help from the stands last night.

You must have the best ears in the world then Or an absolutely incredible home sound system!

Aye you're right. It was only £20/£10 last night which prices most people in but then they can't suddenly access games they can afford. Generally speaking a huge amount of fans are priced out of going to the match these days and they can't suddenly decide to go on the very rare occasion that the tickets are affordable.

Had 2 texts of mates who were there last night both saying how bad it was. Spoke to 3 lads at work this morning who were there. They've all said how bad it was. Social media this morning is full of people saying how bad it was.

Aye it was but that was a Sunday early kick off with a very small away following. 13.30 kick offs on a Sunday are never any good. This was a Cup Semi Final under the lights ffs and nobody could be arsed! Thise players had just come off the back of 2 epic games which would have left them drained. They needed the energy of the home crowd last night to feed off and there was absolutely nothing coming from the stands at all. It was pitiful. There's not another stadium in the UK that for a Cup Semi Final you've got the fans sat there on their hands in all 4 stands as was the case yesterday. Stamford Bridge isn't exactly what it used to be but look at what that'll be like tonight and compare the difference. I'll get stick for this but I'm not arsed. Your ST holders are your problem. I was surprised to read we have 35k of them this week. I didn't realise it was as high as that. I assumed 30k. This means that when you account for away fans, corporate, sponsors etc there's probably little over 10k going to members ballot. Not even going into how many of those 10k are ending up in the wrong hands, that's a separate argument, but around 80% of the home supporters are aged ST holders. Probably 80% of those add absolutely nothing at all to the atmosphere. I don't think there is a fix here. You can't change who goes to the match. You can move people around. You can put in rail seating. Ultimately it's still the same people in there though. As I say last night, given the magnitude of the fixture, was the night it hit rock bottom.

Never thought I'd day this but I'm genuinely happy that I decided to simply stop going a couple of months back because I don't want to be part of that crowd any more. I'll be there next Wednesday, because of the opposition, and that's me done for the season. Given the size of yesterday's match, a home Cup Semi Final. Only the 3rd we've ever played in our entire history, that was probably an all time low for the SJP crowd. A flat atmosphere for a run of the mill league game is one thing but when it's happening for a Semi Final it's a major issue.

It was always daylight because it was done by the linesmans naked eye and the benefit of doubt was supposed to go with the attacking player. VAR came in and they could then give a factual offside decision, which is what they did tonight. By the letter of the law it was offside and the correct decision was made, albeit it took them much longer than it should have to get there!

Sounded shit on the telly. Mate who was there tonight (Leazes End) text me before there to confirm.

Thought he did ok today in the 1st half.