Yeah impressive numbers wise for the distance but their vocal support was nothing special. Could hear a pin drop at times even in the second half when they were on top
The problem is this is just one of many business interests the owner is involved with. Only getting involved in the running of the club when things have hit the fan isn't good enough. Poor appointments are no doubt costing him a lot of money but with the brain team he employs what do you expect? With no vice chairman running the club what are the plans for the January transfer window? The biggest problem is how do you recruit the best players when they've seen the predictable, boring system adopted by an inexperienced coach?
Their fans didn’t go totally quiet after our goal. My lad commented on how they sang louder than. Us heard a bloke in front of me saying to his young son that Portsmouth must think they were at home. Was surprised to hear some chants from the South Stand in the last 10 minutes or so.Some might not have heard it if they were further away, we were in Upper W2.
It was loud. When they sang the 2,000 of them made noise than 20,000 City fans. We have instances where 1,000 and less City fans have come out louder than home fans. Pity we can’t get 3 or 4,000 at home to do the same.
I know, but couldn't resist it. Not that anyone is interested but the debate about our lack of vocal support goes way back to my first ever season. We blamed the acoustics in the South Stand at Boothferry Park, they'd be twenty or thirty of us singing, and 2,000 stood in silence, it used to infuriate me. Then again I've heard us being thunderous in vocal support, just a pity it only happens every Sheffield flood.
BP was spoilt by having half of the stand behind goals seated. If the North Stand had been left all standing it would have made for a great Kop with a great atmosphere. East Stand would have but when fans moved into it the police seemed determined to stop it. When they put a fence into separate fans it was better but in the last days at BP the capacity was only 1,800. People blamed the acoustics in the corner at the MKM for away fans sounding louder which was why the wanted to move into North Stand as they said the acoustics were better in the North Stand. Doesn’t seem to affect teams level of noise for away fans in that corner. Barmby was in Parker’s after the game. Wonder what he thought of it.
When away fans are gathered in one location, they're going to sound loud..I wonder if they are as vocal at home, doubt it...Last time I was there that bloke with the bell had to wake them up. City are loud away because of the same reason. Its not rocket science.
They were louder than our fans gathered in one location space in the North Stand and all those in the East Stand. We don’t have enough opening their mouths at home. Maybe if some others joined in it would help. I was in West Upper and the loudest noise was people eating boxes of food.
I won't disagree with you. I had one season in the Upper West. If I shouted 'Come on City' two dozen heads would turn around to see where the sound was coming from. As I said, all away fans, gathered in one section is bound to be loud. We currently don't have a lot to sing about. Maybe if that Simons effort had gone in for 2-0 it would have been a different story.
Looking back at Tim's comments yesterday, the most alarming thing to me was his response to what actually went wrong in the second half. All he could say was that we lost focus and that's understandable with young players. I think that might be a reasonable thing to say if we were talking about letting our guard down slightly or making minor mistakes, but for the total collapse in performance we saw that simply isn't a good enough answer. It's essentially saying it's ok for that to happen, and that it might happen more often. In mitigation, he had clearly lost his head by that point in that interview, and maybe with a clearer mind he'd be able to give a better answer. But that inability to keep his composure time and time again is another worrying sign. He needs to be in control.
There were a number of occasions last season where things were tweaked and we saw much improved second half performances after flat first halves, or subs were made to try things. We saw Philogene and Zaroury swap wings, we saw Delap deployed as a striker or on the right wing, we saw any number of changes. I recall against Swansea for instance going in at 2-0 down and thinking the game was done and Rosenior swung the changes at HT and we came away with a 2-2. Could you imagine Walter managing that?
If Walter can't keep his head when being asked pretty reasonable questions, what hope do we have of expecting the players to keep theirs?
The post match interview made the second half even more alarming. It wasnt a 5 minute patch where we couldn't live with Portsmouth's press - it was most of the half. So much so, he changed the entire midfield but we played the same and nothing changed. That's not a young side losing focus, that was a side being completely overawed by the opposition and not being flexible enough to realise that something more drastic needed to change. The fact that when he was asked about why the crowd were frustrated and he switched the conversation to how good the Portsmouth fans were immediately was another telling point. I don't expect him to come out and say 'yes, the fans have every right to be annoyed as we were awful' but to completely miss the point that we didn't do anything to combat Portsmouth's press in the second half was inexcusable.
He also brought on Omur and Palmer who are hardly youngsters, with Coyle and Pedro (later Bedia) also on the pitch who are also not young.
