At Dortmund, the away fans are jammed in a corner at the opposite end of the ground to the yellow wall. This has zero impact on the yellow wall which was still loud and bouncy throughout the match. We don't need to move the away fans. We need to work on making our own fans more vocal and bouncy.
I move around during matches, especially if I end up near 'an expert' who knows exactly where the team are going wrong and shouts instructions non-stop. It's amazing how often I end up near little groups of supporters who are constantly turning round to chat, talking about their new conservatory and passing sweets around. Even worse when they sit there whinging about the atmosphere with absolutely no sense of irony ... .... but the worst is when you scream 'Ha'way the Lads!' and people turn round to tut and roll their eyes
The Dell people apparently allegedly supposedly had all kinds of people studying ideas for the stadium, changing the badge, involving the Uni, etc etc etc. I've previously mentioned, about a million times, how surprised they were at the scruffy approaches to the ground, pedestrian and car congestion. One aspect doesn't seem to have progressed much at all, major transport links. I'd love to know how the lack of trains affects the numbers of, say Brentford, fans going to SJP and the SOL. Getting a train/Metro back to to Newcastle CS/Ponteland after a game is abysmal ... ... not having a trainline from Durham to Sunderland is poor as well. The club needs to exert pressure on whoever is responsible.
I was main stand Roker wing and we were always loud because of the away fans. We reacted to them even when losing and often the clock opposite and then the Fulwell followed. It is true to say having them behind goal at SOL was **** but there’s corner sections, or the German route of both tiers of a corner that works magnificently
I sit near the back of the monty stand upper, level with the edge of the D and the away lot normally drown out the south stand due to the roof amplifying the sound. I wonder if some light weight baffles on the roof would quieten them because I get sick of hearing the same old stuff especially the library song.
There’s also this. I reckon them playoffs reawakened the beast, and we will be a lot noisier next season anyway. A lot of love and fire came back this season and we will carry that over. Nothing generates atmosphere like a team not prepared to quit. That’s what we had in the playoffs.
Hi Smug, I did post some stuff on one of the Portugal match day threads, maybe you missed it. No startling news but this is what I posted: please log in to view this image Not sure if this is the best place for this, I don’t want to derail your thread RTB but here we go. Enjoyed a great afternoon/evening training session and ’meet and greet’ with the players, staff and management yesterday. The training was intense and impressive with a temperature in the shade of 30c. The lads look super fit and the team spirit was great and very obvious with lots of obvious banter between the players. After the session the players mingled with us and were very friendly and happy to chat and have photos taken. Photo above is my partner with Enzo, after a hug for the photo she told him he was very sweaty, naturally he apologised , what a gentleman. I had the opportunity to have a good chat with Kristjaan Speakman, we’ve already seen massive progress with the squad but there’s still more to come, he’s been out of the country for nearly two weeks, still working on the squad. It’s obvious from what he said that he still has a big role to play in recruitment. David Bruce gave a little speech to us at the barbecue afterwards. He’s a very impressive guy and totally SAFC. We know that there are big improvements being carried out at the SOL, he said, we’re spending more on these improvements than anything since the stadium was built. He also said that there is tremendous pressure on him and the senior management to absolutely maximise every revenue stream so that they can hand the proceeds to Kristjaan and Florent toimprove the squad, a pressure that’s amplified by qualifying via the play offs. In speaking to him personally I was very impressed by his passion for the club and hisunderstanding of what it means to us, heemphasised that only the very best is acceptable in every department, his philosophy and that of Kyril. Kristjaan also talked about up scaling every thing at the club to meet and exceed Premier League standards. He also said that that although there are already over eighty members of the on field operations staff, there are still a lot of positions to be filled once they can recruit the best people. I also had a good conversation with Steve Wood , head of safety, who talked about the organisation at the club and how it has massively changed and grown in the past three years, with a big boost this summer because of promotion. My overriding feeling after this event confirms what I already thought in that there’s a massive community feeling about the club and a commitment to engage fully with the supporters, the city , local businesses. Kyril is not here for the fun of it, every decision he makes is about building the club to becompetitive at the top end of the Premier League but to do it in a way that is sustainable to guarantee the club’s future. As part of the process he has, and continues to bring in the very best people to support him. One comment my partner made was that the club didn’t feel like it was filled with suits, justreal football people with a shared passion for SAFC One tiny bit of ITK, although Chris Rigg hasrecovered from his niggle, he won’t feature in tonight’s game. Oh, and the stadium will be extended, probably already known by many. One last thing, many have said we just need to get promoted then if we go back down we will be in a stronger financial position. That is definitely not the way Kyril and his team are thinking, yes safeguards are in place if that should happen, but the plan is most definitely to stay in the Premier League and build from there. David Bruce said he’s looking forward to our first European trip with his mates, it won’t be long!
