No Passion, No fight, No bottle & No pride (thats just from our fans)

[Albion Dan]

Just altered that for you for a rather obvious point.

'Until the second half'? Which is 45 minutes long. Half the match. The more important half, arguably. So that's okay then. Tell you what, why don't we all sing Palace Ultra songs instead and cheer them off the pitch.

If the players had given anything the crowd would have been entirely there of that I am 100% sure. As it was there was STILL loud chanting from the home ends it was just more sporadic. The team were playing utter toilet and after a while that is going to affect the support, last night it took until into the second half.

 

[Albion Dan]

Also, it is a MYTH that players need big vocal support to turn in a performance. Of course it helps, but plenty of teams have ZERO atmosphere at home and have been incredibly succesful. Wigan anyone?

 

[Seagull27]

If we'd been playing well and creating chances, the atmosphere from the home fans would have been rocking. FACT. Just look at how the fans reacted when the team rolled their collective sleeves up in the 2nd half against Liverpool and Leeds - wave after wave of Albion attack, and we were ROARING them on.

The build-up to kickoff and that first 15 minutes was as noisy as I've heard it there. But the more Palace got a grip on the game, the more anxious and frustrated everyone became, and the atmosphere went downhill from there. Its hard to create a wall of noise when the opposition is in almost constant possession and threatening to score. Our team absolutely STUNK the place out last night. If we had a hold of the frigging ball and were creating regular chances, the atmosphere takes care of itself.

THATS how it works.

Sort of what I just tried to say. But imagine, if we were playing shit like yesterday, if the crowd were to suddenly get on their feet and sing their hearts out, even when play is going against us. It could be the lift that the players need to turn things around.

The players were terrible last night, but in my opinion that's even more reason to give us as much support as we can.

 

[Nut]

Again get real. Derby Away support like that is almost always going to outsing the home support when they are obviously in the ascendancy on the pitch. I honestly cant think of one ground in this country where that wouldnt be the case. Until the second half there is no way we were getting badly outsung.

Yes and no mate. Agreed, when you go away you largely sing all game, especially at a Derby and even more so when you are outplaying the other team. Not ALL of the home support can be expected to do the same due to the large spectrum of people that make up the home support. BUT the point is that our supposedly vocal elements went totally quiet last night for whatever reason and that should NEVER happen in that fixture no matter what is going on on the pitch.

 

[Stat Brother]

I always felt the match would be one to many for the players, esp the defence.

I can't help thinking, with hindsight, the same applied to the fans.

The Leeds game was immense for football and atmosphere, I doubt we'll have many better nights.
But we were quiet/subdued/nervous whatever, so was the team, so it's chicken and egg time.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Ok, a third of a century ago it may have been different, It certainly wasnt like that in the 80's and 90's.

My point was that the rivalry with Palace started in the 1970's , us old 'uns will never forget the hatred and bitterness which is why I am so disappointed with the dismal vocal support (apart from the first 15 minutes) last night.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Walking to the stadium last night and soaking up the pre-match atmosphere in the WSU concourse I felt there was a general lack of an edge with the fans. I was expecting more singing, the fans to be more pumped.

Generally I think the vocal support has been pretty good from the fans, although it's clear there's a whole load of JCLs that don't sing and are still getting the Albion thing - that's to be expected, I guess.

I think the team misses a leader, especially one who knows what the fixture really means to the fans and can gee up the players for the final 10 minutes when we so often give vital goals away.

 

[Paddy B]

Rubbish mate, total rubbish. Firstly it was not rocking pre--match or the first 20 minutes, of course it was noisy when we scored but that was about it baring the odd song here or there, we let them off very lightly in regards to rubbing our rivals noses in it.

We were not outplayed in the first half, we just took our foot of the gas, but it was still a game against our RIVALS which = biggest game of the season and for years considering we havent played that lot in front of 20k+ in a long long time.

So you know what the people that sit near us are like do you? You know the looks we get for trying to get people and the team going do you?

It appears to me your view point is based on radio commentary and very little knowledge of what went on last night and the previous few fixtures at the stadium.

This isnt about bragging rights and ticket stubs, this is about pride, passion and the importance of lastnights game and whether you've been a fan a week or 40 years, we failed them lastnight in the BIGGEST game this club has had in years in my opinion, a chance to show them were not some tin pot club with plastic fans, a chance to lord it iver them when weve been in their shadow for too many years, unfortunately too many fans dont understand what yesterday meant or maybe they did and just would rather just watch and stay silent.

So before you come on here saying my opinion is fcuking pathetic, get your facts right pal.

I dont normally agree with the viewpoint "if you dont sing you're a disgrace" but on this ocassion I have some sympathy with most of this (except to say it was very loud before the game and up to the goal)

I am also in WSL and it was noticebly quieter then both Leeds and Liverpool. I do think nerves played a part (certianly did for me in the first half) but surely this was the game we (fans) give our all.

 

[Man of Harveys]

What Albion Dan, Commander and Lush all said.

Anyone who suggests that every game vs Palace or every game at the Goldstone was a non-stop cauldron of noise is fibbing; I've spent plenty of time at both.

BTW if people prefer fans to make noise entirely sheep-like and uncritically, head this way. I went to see a college American football game recently where the home team served up a thoroughly dismal performance throughout but where the graphics on the screen nonetheless relentlessly called upon the fans to "MAKE SOME NOISE" etc. To their eternal credit, by the 2H of the game plenty of them didn't.

 

[Storer 68]

It not JUST about the newbies, but it's getting boring now that me and a mate sit there desperately trying to get people going and gee'd up and make them come alive,passion isnt something we can install into people but it doesnt stop us trying.

We just end up getting strange looks of bewilderment!

but, as someone does this frequently in front of me in wsu, you just look like a total cock when one bloke, andit is invariably a bloke, stands up and just shouts a load of foul mouthed abuse at people who can neither see him doing it, or hear him doing it. Explain how that is supporting the team.?

oh and some of us are a long way past our twentieth birthday. we need more of a sit down now

 

[Brovion]

What Albion Dan, Commander and Lush all said.

Anyone who suggests that every game vs Palace or every game at the Goldstone was a non-stop cauldron of noise is fibbing; I've spent plenty of time at both.

...

Exactly. I wasn't at last night's game but the games I've been to so far I would say every one of them has been on a par with the very best Goldstone atmospheres of the 1970s. Then as now the fans would go quiet (or even boo) if things weren't going well on the pitch. Plus ca change.

 

[Storer 68]

I've been to numerous games at the Goldstone in the 1970's when all sides of the ground have been singing together. Most of the time it was only the North and South stands singing but the Chicken Run and West stands did get it going when they set their mind to it.

blimey, then it wasn't the "so quiet i could hear a pin drop" experience that i remember

 

[Storer 68]

Walking to the stadium last night and soaking up the pre-match atmosphere in the WSU concourse I felt there was a general lack of an edge with the fans. I was expecting more singing, the fans to be more pumped.

Generally I think the vocal support has been pretty good from the fans, although it's clear there's a whole load of JCLs that don't sing and are still getting the Albion thing - that's to be expected, I guess.

I think the team misses a leader, especially one who knows what the fixture really means to the fans and can gee up the players for the final 10 minutes when we so often give vital goals away.

well to me this was just another game. Not one I admit that I was keen on getting on the end of a second half performance of that shittines but had it been against Barnsley or Hull I wouldn't have cared - it happens. The older I get the more irrelevant the "So called" rivalry seems................................

 

[Questions]

WE`VE BEEN IN A GROUND FOR 12 YEARS WHERE HARDLY ANYONE SANG SO IT IS GOING TO TAKE TIME TO GET ALL THE SONGS BACK UP TO SPEC. I THOUGHT WE WERE OK LAST NIGHT.... not great tho.

 

[Seasider78]

It's very, very simple - and what's more it always has been: the atmosphere reflects what's happening on the pitch. If the game isn't going well, the atmosphere will start to suffer straight away. From what I could tell over the radio, the atmosphere was absolutely rocking last night until Palace came back into it, after about, what, 15-20 minutes into the 1H.

To somehow suggest that Albion fans should make a ton of noise while the team gets comprehensively outplayed in front of them is completely unrealistic and has never happened. Not at the Goldstone, nor I suspect at any other club. It just doesn't work that way IMHO.

And to blame it all somehow on people who are frankly sensible enough to prefer going to Falmer than to Withdean by labelling them nothing more middle-class JCLs is f***ing pathetic, of course. Not least it's a really tedious form of "I went to Gillingham/Withdean, aren't I great" bragging and nothing more.

Excellent post

 

[willingdon_seagull]

Ffs the mansex sounded great with the Albion chant ringing round the stands even if a bit boring, The stand up if you hate Palace was loud but have said before on another post you need more songs.
And for those saying Palace fans were quiet you need to go to the local hospital and have your ears looked at for balls of ear wax

Have to totally agree with this - despite the childish Mansex nonsense but it's banter, I know ;-)

Anyway, our chants are simple and yes boring and at times quite embarrassing? New chants desperately needed! Palace, as an example, had loads!

 

[Lush]

I almost think I'd have preferred a match like this from last night.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14982404.stm

 

[The Oldman]

My take on last night is that it was a game too far for both the team and the supporters. The Football League dealt us a cruel blow by having CP visit so soon after Leicester, Leeds and then the Liverpool match comes along. There was no real buzz about the crowd before the kick off and the pre match wind up did not seem to work. Were we the supporters and the players exhausted from the drama of Liverpool and Leeds?

There was an inevitabilty about a Palace win when we did not get a second goal in the first half and our players looked very tired in the second which made the crowd quiet, anxious and fearful. Dare I suggest too much crowd energy that did exist was directed at hating Palace rather than supporting our team and and for many periods of the second half people around me were more interested in staring at the South Stand rather watching the play.

I still feel gutted though. It will be interesting to see how players and supporters react to the next few games.

 

[TKC]

It was clear that we weren't playing at all well. Against most other teams that would be an incentive to sing and encourage the team, but because the result mattered SO MUCH everyone just got more and more nervous about losing. And you don't sing when you're nervous.

Spot on!

 

[El Presidente]

How many are like that?

But lets not get bogged down with the JCL stuff, our fans as a WHOLE let the team down.

I'm with you on this. I think after scoring in 7 minutes people expected the floodgates to open, and when they didn't, fans were not sure what to do. The North were definitely quieter than against Leeds (I was sat in exactly the same seat in the East), and the East themselves had taken a vow of silence, apart from isolated pockets.

No one comes out of last night with much credit.

I thought it odd that Calde was training by himself on the pitch at 6.15, he looked in good shape, so if he has had a bust up with Gus then that is criminal on the eve of such a big match.

23 years is a long time to beat your bitterest rivals on home turf, and now it's going to be at least.