As it is the close season i think this is the best time to bring this up and start to orchestrate a change which is long over due. This change is the atmosphere, or lack of, at vicarage road when watford play. Too many times have we been the subject of jeers and jokes from away fans such as "your support is F***ing s**t"" and "you're supposed to be at home". Whilst i understand that this is a part of football and the banter, it is happening all too much in my opinion. I for one leave every game with a sore throat and a throbbing head as a result of shouting and singing but it is more than worth it to see the club i love!! There are many things we can do to fix this and none of them are difficult. 1) All join in chanting and singing for 90mins of each and every game! 2) Wear something yellow to each and every game!! 3) Jump and shout for 90mins each and every game Malky Makay said at the begining of the season and through out that the sucess of the team was because of the sense of belief he had instilled in the players and the belief that they could do the near impossible, but we also have to believe in them and show them we believe. People often talk of the 12th man, and this does work. A team who feels loved often plays better. There is a group on Facebook called The Yellow Order which is devoted to improving the atmosphere at home and away game. You might have noticed the banners and flags at games, and one of them is the drummer you hear at games. With your help and the help of TYO we can make the vic a fortress of noise and drown out the away fans. If you dont know the lyrics to the chants they are on the TYO page on FB or i can find them and post them on here. Come the start of the new season i would like to know that everyone on here is chanting and singing. COME ON YOU 'ORNS
I agree that often we are too quiet. The trouble seems to be acoustics. As I've told tyo, I sit in the Rookery screaming and chanting and I can't hear them and they can't hear me. Sometimes the Rookery is rocking and after the game the Vicarage road end say they couldn't hear us. I think it'll help if every we get to fill our corners in.
Having 4 stands might help..it was better in the 90s for example when we had the east stand open even though less people came. Maybe we just have more fairweather supporters than most who only come to watch the guy and not really fussed about making a noise.
In all the years I attended the Vic the complaint remained the same - the sound just does not carry and so there is no atmosphere. It is a large ground with "open" stands that let the noise go upwards rather than sent forward and down. I have been at the Vic road end before now and can see the Shrodells yelling for all they were worth but little noise came through The only real solution is to build a new stadium altogether if you want to make it "loud" That wont happen - but there is nothing wrong with fans attmepting to do the best they can as you say BHD
I remember in the eighties, standing on the terraces with a big crowd all singing and shouting, but the noise going no where. The same is still true today although I would say that the crowd is now a lot older and quieter. We need two things: 1) A new stand so the noise does not disappear and 2) A younger crowd (aged between 18yrs and 30yrs to make the noise.
Good point about the youngsters Yellowvoice - they are louder and have more energy - the club need to keep encouraging them with special days and ticket prices - once you have a fan you have them for life
Club cant do any more on that front ,active in local schools and community, kids for a quid games etc , It does help lay the foundation!
I think the crowd we have should be perfect for a good atmosphere, we have a spread of ages, from very young to rather old, from under 10 to over 60. The youngsters are excitable and can be hyped up to join in, and the older fans just want to support their beloved team. Then us guys and gals in the middle of the ages have no excuse not to join in. With our help we can make vicarage road buzzing each and every game.
As a non-season ticket holder ( I work too many Sats to make it economical) I have sampled most areas of the ground, though always Rookery for choice. It's true you can't really hear the Rookery from the Vic Road. Best place to hear the Rookery is Upper Rous SW corner. (Partly because everyone around you behaves like they're at a concert!) We all know that exasperating feeling that we're being outsung by THEM, a thousand or two in the Red Lion corner, and wonder why the remaining 10 thousand plus of us can't drown them out. It is a sad fact that the acoustics don't work well for us. But remember also, that's the other club's away support, condensed to its noisiest and most passionate element. At home games our noisy support is diluted round the ground. It does need leaders to get singing going plus enough noisy people around them to join in to make a critical mass. Some people can and will only sing with the protection of everyone else around them singing too. There is a significant proportion of people who come to games who aren't inclined to shout and sing until they really get swept along. Always was the case. It's also true it gets harder to be so noisy and fervent as the years roll by, so the baton has to be handed on to younger supporters. More power to them! BH Dan- don't take it too personally when they sing 'Your Support Is not very jolly good' and 'You're supposed to be at Home' etc etc. That's what away fans do- it's the law. Travelling 'Orns will know. I bet most other clubs have this discussion except for those few (eg Stoke) that have managed to build the expectation that every one WILL sing. How did they do that? Hmm...
GG- i am not taking it personally, i just think it happens all too often. We have the main body of chanters now in the Rookery and just need the middle section to join in so that the noise travels around the ground and we need some of the rous to get involved. I know the cucumber sandwich brigade wont in the upper tier, but why cant the lower stand? We did before we got moved. And to those who say "its the family stand, they wont sing" thats rubbish; the lower rous was before and it was noisy there!! Thanks to those offering support, I will not give up untill we have a buzzing atmosphere for 90mins every game!! whether we are 3-0 up or 3-0 down it does not matter!! We are the Hornets and we love you!!!!
It may have been noisy there, but I don't think you could really hear that from the Rookery or the Vic Road. Back to the acoustics issue. Or is that the other thread? Hmm... the Upper Rous. Best view in the ground from level with the half way line. I have a friend who had a season ticket there (sore point) and sat with him once or twice. As loyal a Hornet as you could find. Never uttered a word during games- too engrossed. A lot of people like that up there. Football as chess. I think one problem is that there aren't all that many rows of seat really, and it's difficult to get that critical mass of noise going. Plus the boxes behind you are rather like a theatre audience. Come on Yooou 'Orrrnnnssss!!!
Was up there for the QPR game view was excellent ,but it was noisy due to be surrounded by happy qpr fans! So it can be done!
I've stated this many times before on various old Watford FC message boards, there have been 2 reasons (partly connected) for the lack of atmosphere at Vicarage Road over the years and neither has anything to do with the 'lack of acoustics' at the ground now. The first reason is obvious, when the ground was largely terracing with a greyhound track around the pitch and the old very shallow-stepped Rookery structure. I used to stand roughly 2/3rds of the way back in there and would be something like 30 yards from the goal-line. What sound was made, under the Rookery roof, was very diluted by the time it came out and it was difficult to generate any kind of sustained atmosphere. I've also stood at the Vicarage Road end and been amazed at the lack of sound from the other end. The acoustics of the ground are so much better now, indeed the Vic is one of the few grounds where all-seating has improved this enormously - yet there is still a county cricket-match atmosphere for much of the time. Why? The second reason is the stringent lengths that the club went through in the early eighties to weed out the so-called hooligan element from the club's support - the very same element that tried to make the most noise in the Rookery. Use of heavy-handed policing and stewarding certainly discouraged many of the more noisy & colourful characters permanently from following the team. The club certainly succeeded in making itself a "Family Club", but at the considerable expense of much loss of fervour and noise. What we have now is a small minority of younger fans trying to start chants, songs and general noise, whilst the majority (in all stands, Rookery, Rous, Vicarage Road) sitting silently at best and at worst actively trying to stop any noise from those who do like to shout. The mix of the crowd (especially in the Rookery) is not (and hasn't been for the last 25 years) conducive to a great atmosphere - there are just too many old people, women, young children, folks from Chorleywood, the Chilterns, Cassiobury Estate etc. Yes, they have every right to sit where they like, but no, they do not sing, chant, shout or generally behave like football fans elsewhere - unless goaded beyond mute silence (about once every 10 seasons). The club encourages this mix of support - after all, the more middle-class (and therefore affluent) the fanbase, the more replica kit is sold. But no-one should be at all surprised by the cathedral-like gloom that pervades most home games. It's very difficult to see what can be done when the only people that are concerned about the lack of atmosphere are the only ones that can be bothered to make any noise! And we're in the considerable minority.....
tricky one Our fanbase is different - and I'd never swap that for anything (and we can get passionate - ask GT - does anyone remember the I'm Sorry apology in the 80s when he criticised the low noise levels at the vic?) And I'd never want to go back to the 80s and when I told people I watched football, they looked at me like some sort of wierdo But I'm right behind the next generation - football's always been about noise and singing - I think the roofs on each end make an enormous difference I'll sing along, but I'm just a bit too old to be leading it Mind you, if it's an away game, I'm completely different...
Need to take a leaf out of Stokes book for noisy fans ! Vic has raised a good point the stands are a fair way back from the pitch , unlike say the Baseball ground used to be very close to the pitch! Not a lot we can do about that one apart from a new ground! Though you can have a new enclosed (souless )pitch thats like a morgue ,like the Ricoh arena! Guess we need to encourage more friends to come , hopefully more people more noise!
