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Point about St James Atmosphere


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Guest firetotheworks

Cant sleep so I thought Id raise a topic about a thought I had lately.

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to Barcelona for my birthday. On one of the nights we were there we went to See Barcelona VS Almeria.

Not a huge match I know, but it was a full house of 120 odd thousand, Ronaldinho, Henry, Xavi, Iniesta, Gudjohnnsen and Messi all played at some point. Barca won 2-0 and played some outstanding passing football. You'd expect some noise, yes?

 

I can honestly say hand on heart that it was quieter than our 0-0 draw against Villa at St. James. When I was at that match I thought the atmosphere was shit, but in fairness, so was the game. I went to the Neu camp expecting at least the level of noise at St.James, but Barcelona's home crowd dont really make any noise unless theres a chance, even if they're dominating and playing some incredible stuff. If youre a Barca fan then you're probably spoilt by expecting that kind of football, but there was no singing or chanting or anything like that, at all.

 

Im not saying that because a club that is much bigger in stature than us is quiet as a door mouse that we shouldnt try and raise our noise levels. But its also worth pointing out that we may be louder than we thought. Maybe it takes going away and coming back to realise that. Ive never been to an away game so I was curious to see if any have the same kind of outlook, or if the general consensus is that our home atmosphere is shite and that it must just be a Barca thing?

 

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away fans make noise cos they've been drinking all day and the underdog(more of them than us) thing comes out.

 

all seater stadia has stopped a lot of the atmosphere. when300 people were crowde into the area that now holds 30 you'd get lost,your voice would get lost with all the others,now when/if you chant you can hear yourself and can easily feel a prat because if you can hear yourself then everyone else can hear YOU.

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Cant sleep so I thought Id raise a topic about a thought I had lately.

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to Barcelona for my birthday. On one of the nights we were there we went to See Barcelona VS Almeria.

Not a huge match I know, but it was a full house of 120 odd thousand, Ronaldinho, Henry, Xavi, Iniesta, Gudjohnnsen and Messi all played at some point. Barca won 2-0 and played some outstanding passing football. You'd expect some noise, yes?

 

I can honestly say hand on heart that it was quieter than our 0-0 draw against Villa at St. James. When I was at that match I thought the atmosphere was s***, but in fairness, so was the game. I went to the Neu camp expecting at least the level of noise at St.James, but Barcelona's home crowd dont really make any noise unless theres a chance, even if they're dominating and playing some incredible stuff. If youre a Barca fan then you're probably spoilt by expecting that kind of football, but there was no singing or chanting or anything like that, at all.

 

Im not saying that because a club that is much bigger in stature than us is quiet as a door mouse that we shouldnt try and raise our noise levels. But its also worth pointing out that we may be louder than we thought. Maybe it takes going away and coming back to realise that. Ive never been to an away game so I was curious to see if any have the same kind of outlook, or if the general consensus is that our home atmosphere is s**** and that it must just be a Barca thing?

 

 

They must have been hanging from the roof as the Nou Camp doesn't even hold a 100,000, but I get your point about the atmosphere.

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and then there was the noise the Besiktas fans made in the home leg against Liverpool, chanting and singing purely non stop for 90 minutes.

 

I don't know where they got their energy from, but if the noise at SJP was even half as good as that the atmosphere would be amazing!

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Guest jimmy1982

If you talk to football supporters in France, Portugal, Spain alot of them tell you that the thing they like most about British football is the way the crowd stays behind their team for the whole 90 mins, even if they are losing. When I was working in France I heard this alot, and started to think of it as a bit of a myth, even being a bit embarrassed by the thought that if these people went to a premier league match at random the chances are they'd be disappointed by the atmosphere.

The tradition of supporting your team still exists (for instance I've never heard a roar before kick-off, as we get at SJP, at any match I've watched in Europe) but as everyone knows its been eroded by all seater grounds and a new generation of fans brought in by the Sky era.

I'm over simplifying it a bit and am probably totally wrong, but it seems to me that the difference is that even in the noisier European grounds I've been to the culture seems to be that the home fans should make a noise a) because they enjoy it and/or b) to intimidate the opposition. This seems to be the case in Turkey, where although they're making lots of noise and jumping up and down, they're not specifically urging their players on. Likewise in somewhere like Marseille, Betis, Sevilla - all these grounds have reputations for being noisy but the supporters will often be singing something like 'He who isn't jumping is not Marseilleise' which I wouldn't call supporting your team in the British sense. I'm not saying this mentality is totally absent here - Our 'Geordie Boot Boys' and 'La La La.... Geordies' songs are similar statements of regional pride, and obviously everyone just loves creating a racket if there's 2-4000 of yous hemmed into a small away section, but the act of directly supporting your team seems to be a bigger part of the British match day experience than in some other places (obviously I'm just going off the few first hand experiences I've had).

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The reaction during the game against Portsmouth from a few different people in the Gallowgate to the top of the Leazes was:

 

"We hate Sunderland" - we're not playing Sunderland, we're losing 3-0 and you chant about Sunderland.

 

"Oba Oba Fem" - granted he is a Toon favourite, but why chant for him when he isn't on the pitch? Not exactly inspiring those who are playing.

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Not again...

 

what do you mean not again

Why does the bloke try to pick faults with people who try to create an atmosphere...

 

If it wasn't for the Gallowgate there wouldn't be an atmosphere this season.

Yes the i know the 'Ultras' sing, as i sit in the North West Corner of the Leazes but the songs that go around the ground are nearly always started from the Gallowgate

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The reaction during the game against Portsmouth from a few different people in the Gallowgate to the top of the Leazes was:

 

"We hate Sunderland" - we're not playing Sunderland, we're losing 3-0 and you chant about Sunderland.

Because there wasnt alot to chant about the actual match, the Pompey fans were silent until they scored their 4th, and the derby was only a week away.

 

"Oba Oba Fem" - granted he is a Toon favourite, but why chant for him when he isn't on the pitch? Not exactly inspiring those who are playing.

After being 3-0 down after 12 mins I think the players were past inspiration. Plus Alan Smith was absolutely awful. It was only sang when Oba was warming up anyway.

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i dont know what it used to be like because ive only been to 1 game- spurs this season. no atmosphere where i was

(milburn a paddock) but the stadium in general had an imprssive atmosphere i thought. miles better than fulham, west ham and chelsea and better than white hart lane. not as loud as the nutters that go to the away games, but hey best atmosphere ive been to!!

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I think some of the chanting is crap,same old boring stuff,nothing like there was in the 60's where we sang things such as "come without  come within you'll not see nothing like the mighty wyn" there doesn't seem to be any imagination in the chants.

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I think some of the chanting is crap,same old boring stuff,nothing like there was in the 60's where we sang things such as "come without  come within you'll not see nothing like the mighty wyn" there doesn't seem to be any imagination in the chants.

 

That's just incomprehensible.

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If it wasn't for the Gallowgate there wouldn't be an atmosphere this season.

Yes the i know the 'Ultras' sing, as i sit in the North West Corner of the Leazes but the songs that go around the ground are nearly always started from the Gallowgate

 

Thats a load of bollocks. I sit behind the goal in the leazes and never hear the gallowgate. Theres a little corner that seems to sing, but any of the atmosphere in the leazes comes from level 7. All interaction with the away fans is from the leazes which creates some good atmosphere occassionally.

 

On the subject of foreign stadium atmospheres, those Turkish fans sound awesome (albeit probably dangerously insane). When Fenerbahce were hear last time in the UEFA cup they were mental as well, constantly jumping up and down in unison despite their team doing absolutely nothing.

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  • 1 month later...

Just been on SkySportsNews about noisiest fans (average decibels). Source was 118118 Survey.

 

Sunderland 129.2

Tottenham 128.2

Man City 127.4

Aston Villa 126.5

Everton 126.1

Chelsea 125.8

Middlesbrough 125.4

Derby 124.7

Newcastle 124.5

West Ham 123.8

Birmingham 122.7

Arsenal 122.3

Portsmouth 120.9

Blackburn 119.5

Bolton 119.1

Liverpool 118.9

Man Utd 117.5

Wigan 116.8

Reading 116.2

Fulham 115.4

 

Now Portsmouth don't even make the top 10, Middlesbrough are 7th and Liverpool in 16th?

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