36,699

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Wise words from Kipling which I try to live up to...<ok>

I love that piece RAW, loved it since i was old enough to understand it <ok>
 
BB I dont think its fair to blame the fans for not coming when the 'entertainment' on show is 3rd rate. When we constantly play 1 up front at home and try the big bluff of telling the world Sessegnon is a striker (when he clearly isn't), you can hardly blame people for giving up. Everyone knew we would be beaten today and everyone knew that we'd play 1 up front - even if Gyan was fit and had stayed.

I am fast losing the will to go to home games mate and only the fact that 2 of my direct debits have been taken keep me interested. Ask me if I am looking forward to next Sunday and I'd be lying if I said yes.

Its just a case of another day of endurance, not enjoyment.

BB I would go the other way it's the teams responsibility to lift the crowd not the other way round.
They are getting paid enough to do their job.

I just think the best way to lift a team is to back them.

Always have, always will.

Look at City , Forest , Leicester , Norwich and Leeds attendances in LEAGUE ONE.

We're a former yo-yo club, established 5 years, yeah the seasons been a disappointment to date, but the progress of the club has been magnificent in 5 years.

Short memories? Over expectation?

I bet both you lads went to Roker in the 3rd, i bet RAW, Syd etc did too.
 
Were the prices stupidly expensive today? I dont know what stops teams slashing the prices by a few quid, when they know attendances are gonna be crap. Would do wonders for an atmosphere
 
I've stated before that as the fans opinion sway to a majority of wanting Bruce out attendances will fall. Maybe to force the issue as Quinn and especailly Short know that it's all about bums on seats.
 
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Wise words from Kipling which I try to live up to...<ok>

If you can talk with crowds and keep your calm,
Or watch with kings - and lose the football touch;
If neither Mags nor bad managers can hurt you;
If all men agree with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving SOL
With ninety minutes' worth of distance run -
Yours is the SOL and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Sunderland supporter my son!
 
I just think the best way to lift a team is to back them.

Always have, always will.

Look at City , Forest , Leicester , Norwich and Leeds attendances in LEAGUE ONE.

We're a former yo-yo club, established 5 years, yeah the seasons been a disappointment to date, but the progress of the club has been magnificent in 5 years.

Short memories? Over expectation?

I bet both you lads went to Roker in the 3rd, i bet RAW, Syd etc did too.

BB I have sat through the 3rd division. I've patiently sat through the McMenemy, Butcher, Buxton, Crosby, Wilko and Sbragia eras too and I'm ****ing sick of failure mate. Sick to my back teeth of quoting the Kipling poem, keeping my head while all around me the club crumbled like a cheap biscuit. This isnt something new for me. I'm used to seeing ****e week in week out but it certainly doesnt mean I have to keep accepting it and like it.

After 36 years of waiting and watching utter ****e I just want them to get it ****ing right and not **** it up all the time. After 5 transfer windows of the Bruce regime I have seen almost 4 new teams bought and sold and we are no better than we were under Sbragia. Thats just not good enough IMO and I intend to keep saying so until it changes.

Patience they say is a virtue? Well I'm sorry but for me its become a millstone. **** patience mate, I want to see action.
 
So,

After 3 league games including 2 solid away points the fans are throwing in the towel?

It's a poor ****ing show, no 2 ways about it, weather looked smashing as well.

It's not the team that's in decline, it's the whole club, we can include ourselves in that, i'll include myself, even though i live 1300 miles away, and have attended 50% of the seasons home games to date.

Don't think you can judge us purely on the past 3 games mate. People have been watching (especially at home games) poor football for many months now. Don't quote me on this but I read a statistic earlier that said in the past 10 home games we've haven't faired well (to put it mildly). I've just been out on the lash with some good mates, season ticket holders who are debating giving their seats up if this run continues. Up until today I haven't been one to call for Bruce's head, today something changed. Something just isn't right, hope I'm proved completely wrong but I swear, I witnessed championship football on display today. Sunderland, and the north east in particular is one of the poorest in the country and to say we 'only' got 36+ thousand isn't necessarily a bad thing when we get served up crap, which we certainly did today.
 
Don't think you can judge us purely on the past 3 games mate. People have been watching (especially at home games) poor football for many months now. Don't quote me on this but I read a statistic earlier that said in the past 10 home games we've haven't faired well (to put it mildly). I've just been out on the lash with some good mates, season ticket holders who are debating giving their seats up if this run continues. Up until today I haven't been one to call for Bruce's head, today something changed. Something just isn't right, hope I'm proved completely wrong but I swear, I witnessed championship football on display today. Sunderland, and the north east in particular is one of the poorest in the country and to say we 'only' got 36+ thousand isn't necessarily a bad thing when we get served up crap, which we certainly did today.

just cos sunderland are s**** you have to include the north east teams to make yourselves feel better. newcastle aren't doing too bad and the smoggies are doing great on the resources they have. face it , the mackems mouthed off in pre-season on how they had strengthened the squad and how they were in for a shout at europe this term.
7th place is your best position since 1956. keep dreaming boys.
 
If you can talk with crowds and keep your calm,
Or watch with kings - and lose the football touch;
If neither Mags nor bad managers can hurt you;
If all men agree with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving SOL
With ninety minutes' worth of distance run -
Yours is the SOL and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Sunderland supporter my son!

Your support is ****ing ****... your support is ****ing ****...:grin: <party><somersault>
 
A: How many season tickets were sold?
B: isnt the whole stadium apart from the section beside the away fans reserved for ST holders
C: How much does that section hold, the one beside the away fans, for gate entry on the day.

My point is, it was all sections of the ground that looked empty, but most of those seats would have been season ticket holders, ok you can get into other areas on the day but if ST have bought up all the seats then surely they will have an idea how many ST holders didnt turn up, and how many paid on the day.

34,000 ST holders, 4000 didnt turn up, 6,000 pay on the door supporters, as an example.

We just dont know the makeup of the crowd on Saturday, but the Club will. So its up to the club to look at the figures and work out why.
 
The way things are going we will be lucky to average that, throwing hard earned money after bad rubbish.

We have a manager who is tactically inept & a board who continue to sell our best players yet fail to replace them.

And ****ing Cattermole is a bastard piss head liability.