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[Albion] If away was home...one of the best seasons ever...



Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
30,464
Hove
Nevertheless, when you're crap at home repeatedly you threaten to turn off revenue streams. Unhappy punters don't renew, don't buy merch or food and leave on 80 minutes.

It's lucky that doesn't appear to be the case then with a 90% renewal in the middle of a cost of living crisis and an unravelling conflict in the background.
 






DarrenFreemansPerm

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sep 28, 2010
17,446
Shoreham
Blimey all I’ve done is start a thread about what fans might feel if our away games and performances had been at the Amex.

And vice Versa.

Is that not a legitimate thing to talk about ? Why is that ? How much does points win affect atmosphere or last minute goals ? Some of those away games have been terrific as a fan to go to. Some of my favourite moments as a fan for years. Wouod our perception of the season be very different. ? With 33 points but most of em earned at home …

You might be surprised that you’re facing some kind of backlash, I’d hazard a guess that it’s because you generally spend your time roaming around this board telling everyone that the Albion is sunshine and rainbows and that nobody is ever allowed to have a negative thought towards the club. This thread comes across as a rather thinly veiled attempt to say “hey, we’re doing great, why are you moaning?” . The problem is, as you’ve said, all of our decent form comes away from where only a few thousand are present, at the Amex, where we’re supposed to have some kind of home advantage we’re often guilty of turning in limp performances seemingly devoid of direction or purpose. Well sadly there’s a lot of people who are ticked off with watching drab football lacking in goals and highlights. Obviously people would prefer to see more wins at home as that’s where the majority of supporters are watching, but sadly that’s not the case.
 


The Optimist

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Apr 6, 2008
2,772
Lewisham
If Everton, Brentford , Palace, West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Burnley, Watford ...had been home fixtures this season and at the Amex we'd all be saying this was one of the best (if not the best) PL seasons we'd ever had , the Amex atmosphere would be transformed and everything would be different.
Can you imagine 4 last minute winners/equalisers but in front of the North Stand.

You've made a similar point to one I've been thinking about recently. Even before our recent poor run there seemed to be that a few fans not overly happy with Potter, whereas our league position was bordering on being above all reasonable expectations for the season. And I think it boils down to fans want to see entertaining winning football when they attend matches. If you only attend home matches you have not had a good season's viewing. So I completely agree that if our home and away records were swapped we'd be in exactly the same position but our fans would be a lot happier.

Edit: I think fans who only attend home games (which is the majority) are right to want to see good home form over good away form. Taking it to an extreme 19 home defeats and 19 away wins would give us 57 points, which would be a very good points tally but an awful depressing season for home fans.
 
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Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
72,330
More than happy to confirm that CJ is a very genuine fan indeed along with his family. Perhaps not quite the same IRL as on here (but I don't think many of us are) but certainly not a club employee or Barber shill. Simply a fan who sees things from a club perspective first.

So, yes, Tom, please drop it.

Fair enough. Consider it dropped
 






Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,342
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
Are you actually suggesting the waiting list has gone because of the football rather than the pendemic, or hopefully I'm just reading that wrong?

Bit of both isn't it?

Read the "are you considering not renewing" thread. Almost no one's blamed Covid directly, while I accept that the post Covid, war ravaged inflation is far from ideal when on a family budget.

Kick off times, VAR and yes, our home form are all mentioned repeatedly. The growth in attendance of local Non League teams seems to support this.

But you failed to also mention the other point in my original reply. If you're leaving on 80 mins because we're 3-0 down to ****ing Burnley then you're hardly likely to say "actually lads, let's just grab a replica shirt when there's no queue and then head for a pie and a pint".
 


Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
30,464
Hove
Bit of both isn't it?

Read the "are you considering not renewing" thread. Almost no one's blamed Covid directly, while I accept that the post Covid, war ravaged inflation is far from ideal when on a family budget.

Kick off times, VAR and yes, our home form are all mentioned repeatedly. The growth in attendance of local Non League teams seems to support this.

But you failed to also mention the other point in my original reply. If you're leaving on 80 mins because we're 3-0 down to ****ing Burnley then you're hardly likely to say "actually lads, let's just grab a replica shirt when there's no queue and then head for a pie and a pint".

I didn't fail to mention it, just didn't feel the need to address every single point. The long and the short of it is, only 10% haven't renewed, that may break down further into VAR, Covid, cost of living, fed up with PL, losing 3-0 to Burnley, form at home. But, taken into account that generally since the Amex opened, (according to CJ) renewals have always been around the 90-95%, then it's not even like this season it's some kind of outlier, you might even argue that it's astonishing so many are renewing, some what at odds that coupled with these other factors, home form was going to see a big number not renew.

NSC is a skewed medium for having a right good moan about your football club. Enough do the same and it starts to feel like that's the general consensus, to the point where a normal fan who is quite happy with their club, loves going is called all sorts of things, just for being okay with his football club. No matter what we all think about the reasons, 21600 renewed. May well be a couple of 1000 waiting to fill those seats. It's not exactly supporting the narrative that the home form is so bad we're losing fans left right and center.
 






chaileyjem

#BarberIn
NSC Patron
Jun 27, 2012
14,613
You might be surprised that you’re facing some kind of backlash, I’d hazard a guess that it’s because you generally spend your time roaming around this board telling everyone that the Albion is sunshine and rainbows and that nobody is ever allowed to have a negative thought towards the club. This thread comes across as a rather thinly veiled attempt to say “hey, we’re doing great, why are you moaning?” . The problem is, as you’ve said, all of our decent form comes away from where only a few thousand are present, at the Amex, where we’re supposed to have some kind of home advantage we’re often guilty of turning in limp performances seemingly devoid of direction or purpose. Well sadly there’s a lot of people who are ticked off with watching drab football lacking in goals and highlights. Obviously people would prefer to see more wins at home as that’s where the majority of supporters are watching, but sadly that’s not the case.

I guess you lie in the bed you make - so fair play if it comes across that way. Too much sunshine and rainbows can make you sick.

But Our away form has been decent. Our home form has been poor. Our recent form has been terrible. Nobody is pretending otherwise.

But it’s genuinely just a Friday afternoon thread imagining if the 33 points were switched round. Would the atmosphere at the Amex / at home be transformed . I’d argue it probably would have . And again I’m not Saying anything other than that a few rare moments aside (Chelsea, palace, Leicester) it has - in real life - been pretty dreadful. I know I’ve been there …That’s all !
 










Paulie Gualtieri

Bada Bing
NSC Patron
May 8, 2018
10,624
If Everton, Brentford , Palace, West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Burnley, Watford ...had been home fixtures this season and at the Amex we'd all be saying this was one of the best (if not the best) PL seasons we'd ever had , the Amex atmosphere would be transformed and everything would be different.
Can you imagine 4 last minute winners/equalisers but in front of the North Stand.

Half the stadium would have missed it though?
 




dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Mar 27, 2013
55,550
Burgess Hill
Bit of both isn't it?

Read the "are you considering not renewing" thread. Almost no one's blamed Covid directly, while I accept that the post Covid, war ravaged inflation is far from ideal when on a family budget.

Kick off times, VAR and yes, our home form are all mentioned repeatedly. The growth in attendance of local Non League teams seems to support this.

But you failed to also mention the other point in my original reply. If you're leaving on 80 mins because we're 3-0 down to ****ing Burnley then you're hardly likely to say "actually lads, let's just grab a replica shirt when there's no queue and then head for a pie and a pint".

If poor results are the reason for non-renewals, isn’t that the very definition of a fair-weather plastic fan ?
 


Paulie Gualtieri

Bada Bing
NSC Patron
May 8, 2018
10,624
It would be nice to start seeing more of an atmosphere at home as running out of excuses to tell my 7 year old why the last win he has seen in person was Leicester.

Don’t know if I am on my own but really starting to detest the music choice leading up to kick off. “Put your hands up for Brighton” and Hey Jude is weak and uninspiring leading up to kick off.

I’d rather hear Right Here Right Now in full or take a leaf out Sunderland Charlies book and go full blown Darude Sandstorm to raise the adrenaline a bit l.
 




Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
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Jul 23, 2003
37,342
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
If poor results are the reason for non-renewals, isn’t that the very definition of a fair-weather plastic fan ?

Maybe.

But I can't help harking back to the Goldstone days. From 1987 till it went I was going with a group of mates. Meet up in the local in Brighton and play pool over a few pints. Get the train to Hove (no queuing) at about 2.15 and stroll up to the North Stand. Hand over a fiver on the turnstile, or less if you could get away with beer breath and fags as an under 18. We had some good seasons (87-88, the playoff season), some indifferent seasons and lots of seasons where we were absolutely crap, but it was no hassle at all. And before the really gory years kicked in at least we had as good a chance as anyone else in the league and at least we scored.

Now I'm thinking about tomorrow. I've just had to work out which train to get so that we definitely make it in time for kick off and me and my son to eat lunch as it's a lunch time kickoff, but not so early that he's completely bored. Factored into that is will our train from Portslade be cancelled, how big will the train queue be at Brighton and will people finally be able to use their mobile phone ticket without cocking it up.

Lunch will be a tenner for both of us but will only consist of a burger or pie and then we'll have to go through the whole travel rigmarole on the way home. Typically this can take over an hour to do less than seven miles. You or I could run it quicker. The club does spread the cost of this via DD but it means I'm still paying for football in the summer. Game by game I'd drop well over 50 quid for two tickets.

And what for? To consider that "only" losing 2-0 will be a good result, that a draw is actually a win. Not because the club is any more being taken to bits by the likes of Archer, but because our opponents are in the same division, but operate in a totally different stratosphere on every single other level.

No wonder people give it up.
 




Springal

Well-known member
Feb 12, 2005
24,785
GOSBTS
What did you do at Withdean ? From Worthing it was a ball ache, involved driving every game and not convinced we got back much quicker (maybe 30min) than the train to Falmer takes ? And that was with some horrendous games under Micky Adams mk2 in particular …
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
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Jul 23, 2003
37,342
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
What did you do at Withdean ? From Worthing it was a ball ache, involved driving every game and not convinced we got back much quicker (maybe 30min) than the train to Falmer takes ? And that was with some horrendous games under Micky Adams mk2 in particular …

Drank in the Welly before the game with [MENTION=238]Uncle Buck[/MENTION] [MENTION=687]Carrot Cruncher[/MENTION] and many others. Fleet of cabs at 2.30. Bus back to the Nelson (after a few years the Basketmakers) after. For the first two seasons I was living in the centre of Brighton and walked from there. Then I moved abroad for four years, followed by a season off when we had my son. After that same sort of pre-game and there was a train straight back to Portslade from Preston Park for evening games if you left just before full time or from Brighton after a pint in the Basketmakers on Saturdays.

Because it was always Saturdays, and mostly 3pm.
 


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