Doesn't surprise me

Sorry Nacho - can;t agree with that. If things aren't going our way (which is pretty often) then our fans will walk out at 70-75 minutes. When we played Sheff Utd at home, the crowd were on the players backs from the moment Sheff Utd scored until Rodwell's goal - we had 3 minutes after the goal and the ones that were left got behind the team and the team played much better.

Crowd are the 12th man - our crowd are normally the 12th man for the opposition at the moment

 

I'm not buying that there's anything worse about our set of fans compared to anyone else's if they were in our exact situation.

Maybe if the team on the pitch could win a ****ing game once in a blue moon the atmosphere would pick up.

 

Chicken/Egg scenario though. As I say, against Sheff Utd from their first goal until we scored the entire ground was on the players back for everything. When we scored, the crowd got behind the team and the team played well - albeit for 3 minutes

If we win, the crowd get behind the team
If the crowd get behind the team they play better

I personally can't see another club who have been slowly descending like we have over the last 5 years which has chipped away at a lot of the optimists as well as fuelling the pessimists' fires. The ones that went (Leeds, Portsmouth) it happened rather quickly to. Just hope we can steady the ship in the Championship

Sad thing is, my favourite season in recent memory was the cup final season with Poyet 2013/14 Enjoyed that season more than any I can remember since our yoyo days - that's the only season that really stands out to me - the cup run and relegation escape was unbelievable - 6 months later we sacked the manager (rightly so IMO) but the crowd turned on him very quickly the next season. Some have turned on Grayson too. One of the biggest clubs in the division and a smaller budget than Burton Albion FFS! What do the fans expect?

Rant over - I'll stay optimistic for the time being!

 

Can see both sides here.

A fair amount do leave early after seeing 75mins off ****, but in their defence, they return week after week just to suffer again.

Its good that this board has the stayers,.but if people want to **** off, its up to them.

As Nacho says, i dont think its any worse than it would be at any other club with fans hoping (wishing) for a bit off success. Or even mediocrity would do.

 

It's not just that we're bad, there are lots of bad teams out there, it's the endless procession of false dawns followed by hope being slowly and painfully crushed. It never ends. Yeah the fans are in a dark place now but I think if anything they've been more patient than the club deserves.

It's hardly like we're the only side in the world to get on their players' backs, you see it happen all the time in every league. Let's see what happens at the next Palace home game when they're 3-0 down at half time.

 

Whose responsibility is it to turn the fans around? The answer to that question may solve the issue.

 

It’ll be a pom pom massacre with severed cheer leaders all over the place!

 

I was agreeing with you.

 

I know I was just quoting you while I ranted, wasn't disagreeing with you.

 

Exactly, the that people think it's acceptable support tells me it's beyond savable. I think our fan base has probably changed forever now. We used to stand out from others. Away support has been carrying our rep for years.

 

Still no explanation was to why we play with less fear away though. Moyes season aside we've had more cutting edge away for most of the last 5 years. Away fans tend to give a better support imo,

No team should be better away than at home, home is supposed to be an advantage which is why 95% of team pick up the points they need at home. Not us. 1 point at home this season. 6 away. Our home fans are toothless. Any fan not willing to give until they receive are **** fans imo, I'll say it. We'd fair much better if they ****ed off with their nerves, abusive attitude and their willing to abandon and made do with the 10 to 15k who don't do that ****.

 

Prime example - season before last - can;t remember who we were playing - Watmore ran past his man and took a shot when he should really have passed to Defoe who was more than 60% (IMO) to score - crowd around me goes ballistic at him.

10 minutes later roles reversed - Watmore in a "tap in" open goal position - Defoe edge of the box takes a shot which was like Borini's Southampton free kick - SAME people "Unlucky Jermaine" and applaud him. That to me is horrendous. You have a young lad learning the game and he gets barracked and an old head who he should be learning from doing EXACTLY the same getting plaudits for doing the same!

That, to me, is our support in a nutshell at the minute

 

Watmore's treatment on the whole has been shocking. Further testament the **** houses we've become. But the behaviors of fans abusing the lad is probably down to the team not performing going be those think everything is down to the team. Certainly not the people throwing the abuse, they have no control of themselves and completely at the peril off results which control their behavior and validates it.

We're all just robots-like being who can't think or control our behavior as it controlled by our environment meaning we can never be culpable

 

We need to move from the stadium of light the place is cursed, it must be. Maybe the spirits of the miners who DID put a shift in are jealous, and many suffered due the terrible conditions etc, and all these players have to do is kick a ball around, they need to be told the harsh reality and get themselves motivated, they don't deserve to be even on the same area at the moment.

 

I think there is certainly something about modern stadia that has an effect on the atmosphere. Like was said earlier, the atmosphere at Roker Park was different. I get occasional use of a West Ham season ticket through the future Mrs Norton Cat's family and I've noticed the change in the atmosphere since they've moved to the Olympic Stadium. What I have never noticed there though is the immediate grief a player gets for one small mistake like they do at our place. Admittedly, they've not been as bad as we've been recently but there just isn't that tense and fragile atmosphere there- even when they're losing. I think its been like that at the SoL since the end of the Bruce days though so it's not that recent a thing. I definitely think there is more to it than just recent crapness.

 

When I started watching Sunderland, we used to lose very few games at home, two or three a season, and only win the odd one away, and this was pretty much the same for most clubs if I remember correctly. Things have changed drastically of course and now teams are much stronger playing away than they used to be, with some teams using tactics designed to put pressure via the crowd on the home team, which they don't face when playing away. It has caught us out more than most imo. and for me it is down to the poor standard of our mid field players. I like others was expecting our mid-field to be a strength in this division, but it has not been so, we are so poor in this department that it is affecting the whole team imo. This is just my opinion but for me Catts, N'Dong, Gibson and Rodwell are shocking and will not steady this ship any time soon

 

I'm convinced it's the atmosphere personally.

 

Do you think our support would be a tad different though if we had Man untd results, there is nothing but total ****e played at the Sol why the **** would expect a fan to get behind that, I totally agree with Nacho on this one

 

How on earth can you say that when there's been an average of 42000 watching that garbage.

 

Nobody is arguing about the numbers?

We are saying the support is ****e and them lot of 'supporters' might as well not turn up. I'd rather have 20k that are going to get behind the team than a big attendance that gets on the players backs