In your opinion, the biggest problem at GTFC is?

Quoted from barralad

As a representative of a fans group I obviously couldn't (and do not) see the fans as "being the biggest problem" but I get increasingly frustrated on here that just because some people have a different opinion they are labelled as "part of the inner circle" or a "Fenty Fan".
When people are asking for a debate then the least they can do is accept that most if not all debates have two sides to them.
The survey results thus far are covering a huge range of opinions and each needs treating on its merits if we are to get close to making the right decisions about the way forward.
Oh and judging by the results of this poll so far it's a bloody big inner circle!!

Quoted from barralad

Yep..pretty reasonable actually. It amazes me still that people who are already anonymous won't put their heads above the parapet and argue their corner. You can spend a long time putting together posts only to see red (and green) markings but no development of the argument.
As I said last night if I thought fans are the biggest problem then any position held on an organisation trying to represent fans would be untenable but in the interests of debate here's a stab at a Devil's Advocate view.
Blundell Park used to be a fortress. Now, if I were the manager of a team coming to Town I'd tell my players to go all out for an early goal because any positivity generated by a decent start turns instantly to outright anger if an early goal is conceded. There's a guy who sits four rows in front of me (Not you Friskney!) and to my right who bellows Slade Out with the precision of an atomic clock every minute. Now I'd be the last person to claim that our new goalkeeper is likely to be a future international but the all too apparent nervousness in the crowd in defensive situations must transmit to the players and, as the situation has got worse mistakes are creeping into a defence that earlier in the season was pretty strong. The Morecambe game for me was a totally new experience. In 50 years of watching the Mariners I've never heard the players being booed back onto the pitch (and during that half a century I've witnessed plenty of first half performances that have been more meritorious of it than recent fare served up.). I was out in Cleethorpes with an ex-player last weekend and the conversation turned to the atmosphere at Blundell Park. He was quite clear that playing in front of a decent sized crowd coupled with concentration levels required mean that you do not pick up individuals comments during the game because of the level of background noise. He went on to say though that you do notice it when walking out at the start or after half time. I get the criticism of Slade but he spends half time trying to gee the players up to get back into the game. Said group of players then walk out to a crescendo of boos from their own fans. Go figure! Freedom of speech is a marvellous maxim- one which I can get Voltairesque about but with it comes a certain sense of realism and responsibility. Booing (or cheering!) are not reflex reactions. You have to consciously decide to do it which is a tiny step away from thinking "What am I trying to achieve by this action?" There will be people who say it doesn't make a difference which begs the question "Why do it then?"
There are an increasing number of people who are prepared to countenance the team getting hammered to hasten the end of the manager. When Newport's second goal went in someone behind me, unable to contain their excitement was heard to say "Yesss he must be gone now!" What the actual....
Last Saturday in the concourse under the stand at Colchester at half time I spoke to someone. The conversation went something like this. Me:- Well that was better wasn't it?" Him:- "A bit-but it shouldn't be enough to save him he's got to go" I didn't see them after Colchester equalised but I'm willing to bet there was relief on his face!
Now let's turn to Social Media (ironic really seeing as all of this is on a form of Social Media)..I flipping hate it. Back in the day if someone started spouting sh1te in a pub you had two realistic options 1. Punch them (OK maybe not quite realistic in my position) or 2. Walk away. Now it's in your face. I turned on my phone whilst sat in a cafe last Saturday looking for team news. I was surprised by the line up but a large group of people on Facebook in the badly misnamed GTFC Fans Group decided in an instant that it wasn't going to work. In most cases there were no elucidated reasons for these pronouncements but it's a feeding frenzy where anything (even slagging off the current players as a means to get at the manager) goes. These comments are by and large from people that you wouldn't come into contact with under any other circumstance.
It's got to the stage where fans are being called idiots (and worse) for continuing to support the team. To counteract that I'm fed up of seeing posts on Social Media along the lines of "I'm not going again until Slade is gone" I've been around long enough now to know that we have had far worse times than we are currently having. NO-ONE wants to see us back in the abyss and I'll concede that part of the problem is at the moment that that experience is still too raw and genuine fans are worried.
I've just read through what I've written and there are plenty of opportunities for people to drive buses through the gaps in my arguments. Let's have the debate and at least some acceptance that fans have some responsibility for their actions.
**Awaits arryarryarry's two line condemnation linking the whole post to a far worse scenario from the past**

Quoted from barralad

Yep..pretty reasonable actually. It amazes me still that people who are already anonymous won't put their heads above the parapet and argue their corner. You can spend a long time putting together posts only to see red (and green) markings but no development of the argument.
As I said last night if I thought fans are the biggest problem then any position held on an organisation trying to represent fans would be untenable but in the interests of debate here's a stab at a Devil's Advocate view.
Blundell Park used to be a fortress. Now, if I were the manager of a team coming to Town I'd tell my players to go all out for an early goal because any positivity generated by a decent start turns instantly to outright anger if an early goal is conceded. There's a guy who sits four rows in front of me (Not you Friskney!) and to my right who bellows Slade Out with the precision of an atomic clock every minute. Now I'd be the last person to claim that our new goalkeeper is likely to be a future international but the all too apparent nervousness in the crowd in defensive situations must transmit to the players and, as the situation has got worse mistakes are creeping into a defence that earlier in the season was pretty strong. The Morecambe game for me was a totally new experience. In 50 years of watching the Mariners I've never heard the players being booed back onto the pitch (and during that half a century I've witnessed plenty of first half performances that have been more meritorious of it than recent fare served up.). I was out in Cleethorpes with an ex-player last weekend and the conversation turned to the atmosphere at Blundell Park. He was quite clear that playing in front of a decent sized crowd coupled with concentration levels required mean that you do not pick up individuals comments during the game because of the level of background noise. He went on to say though that you do notice it when walking out at the start or after half time. I get the criticism of Slade but he spends half time trying to gee the players up to get back into the game. Said group of players then walk out to a crescendo of boos from their own fans. Go figure! Freedom of speech is a marvellous maxim- one which I can get Voltairesque about but with it comes a certain sense of realism and responsibility. Booing (or cheering!) are not reflex reactions. You have to consciously decide to do it which is a tiny step away from thinking "What am I trying to achieve by this action?" There will be people who say it doesn't make a difference which begs the question "Why do it then?"
There are an increasing number of people who are prepared to countenance the team getting hammered to hasten the end of the manager. When Newport's second goal went in someone behind me, unable to contain their excitement was heard to say "Yesss he must be gone now!" What the actual....
Last Saturday in the concourse under the stand at Colchester at half time I spoke to someone. The conversation went something like this. Me:- Well that was better wasn't it?" Him:- "A bit-but it shouldn't be enough to save him he's got to go" I didn't see them after Colchester equalised but I'm willing to bet there was relief on his face!
Now let's turn to Social Media (ironic really seeing as all of this is on a form of Social Media)..I flipping hate it. Back in the day if someone started spouting sh1te in a pub you had two realistic options 1. Punch them (OK maybe not quite realistic in my position) or 2. Walk away. Now it's in your face. I turned on my phone whilst sat in a cafe last Saturday looking for team news. I was surprised by the line up but a large group of people on Facebook in the badly misnamed GTFC Fans Group decided in an instant that it wasn't going to work. In most cases there were no elucidated reasons for these pronouncements but it's a feeding frenzy where anything (even slagging off the current players as a means to get at the manager) goes. These comments are by and large from people that you wouldn't come into contact with under any other circumstance.
It's got to the stage where fans are being called idiots (and worse) for continuing to support the team. To counteract that I'm fed up of seeing posts on Social Media along the lines of "I'm not going again until Slade is gone" I've been around long enough now to know that we have had far worse times than we are currently having. NO-ONE wants to see us back in the abyss and I'll concede that part of the problem is at the moment that that experience is still too raw and genuine fans are worried.
I've just read through what I've written and there are plenty of opportunities for people to drive buses through the gaps in my arguments. Let's have the debate and at least some acceptance that fans have some responsibility for their actions.
**Awaits arryarryarry's two line condemnation linking the whole post to a far worse scenario from the past**

Quoted from 1mickylyons

Genuine fan is another point which Bigdog makes WTF is a genuine fan?

Is it the guy who blindly follows his team to Colchester in hope of the team arresting an alarming run of results and getting back to winning ways because he only lives for that NEXT 90 mins?

Is it the guy who has done the above for decades but been broken by the lack of progress and now feels the only course of action is to stay away in the hope he can make a difference via his non attendance?

Neither of the above are the majority the majority are the other 2500 who turn up and when Town win all is well when they lose the world will end.

Town have a fanbase of around 4-5k regular fans and upto 10k floating fans nothing other than topping the Prem will keep them all happy but you can do a lot more to harnass and build up that 5k.Recent events are not the right way of going about it.

Quoted from barralad

Yep..pretty reasonable actually. It amazes me still that people who are already anonymous won't put their heads above the parapet and argue their corner. You can spend a long time putting together posts only to see red (and green) markings but no development of the argument.
As I said last night if I thought fans are the biggest problem then any position held on an organisation trying to represent fans would be untenable but in the interests of debate here's a stab at a Devil's Advocate view.
Blundell Park used to be a fortress. Now, if I were the manager of a team coming to Town I'd tell my players to go all out for an early goal because any positivity generated by a decent start turns instantly to outright anger if an early goal is conceded. There's a guy who sits four rows in front of me (Not you Friskney!) and to my right who bellows Slade Out with the precision of an atomic clock every minute. Now I'd be the last person to claim that our new goalkeeper is likely to be a future international but the all too apparent nervousness in the crowd in defensive situations must transmit to the players and, as the situation has got worse mistakes are creeping into a defence that earlier in the season was pretty strong. The Morecambe game for me was a totally new experience. In 50 years of watching the Mariners I've never heard the players being booed back onto the pitch (and during that half a century I've witnessed plenty of first half performances that have been more meritorious of it than recent fare served up.). I was out in Cleethorpes with an ex-player last weekend and the conversation turned to the atmosphere at Blundell Park. He was quite clear that playing in front of a decent sized crowd coupled with concentration levels required mean that you do not pick up individuals comments during the game because of the level of background noise. He went on to say though that you do notice it when walking out at the start or after half time. I get the criticism of Slade but he spends half time trying to gee the players up to get back into the game. Said group of players then walk out to a crescendo of boos from their own fans. Go figure! Freedom of speech is a marvellous maxim- one which I can get Voltairesque about but with it comes a certain sense of realism and responsibility. Booing (or cheering!) are not reflex reactions. You have to consciously decide to do it which is a tiny step away from thinking "What am I trying to achieve by this action?" There will be people who say it doesn't make a difference which begs the question "Why do it then?"
There are an increasing number of people who are prepared to countenance the team getting hammered to hasten the end of the manager. When Newport's second goal went in someone behind me, unable to contain their excitement was heard to say "Yesss he must be gone now!" What the actual....
Last Saturday in the concourse under the stand at Colchester at half time I spoke to someone. The conversation went something like this. Me:- Well that was better wasn't it?" Him:- "A bit-but it shouldn't be enough to save him he's got to go" I didn't see them after Colchester equalised but I'm willing to bet there was relief on his face!
Now let's turn to Social Media (ironic really seeing as all of this is on a form of Social Media)..I flipping hate it. Back in the day if someone started spouting sh1te in a pub you had two realistic options 1. Punch them (OK maybe not quite realistic in my position) or 2. Walk away. Now it's in your face. I turned on my phone whilst sat in a cafe last Saturday looking for team news. I was surprised by the line up but a large group of people on Facebook in the badly misnamed GTFC Fans Group decided in an instant that it wasn't going to work. In most cases there were no elucidated reasons for these pronouncements but it's a feeding frenzy where anything (even slagging off the current players as a means to get at the manager) goes. These comments are by and large from people that you wouldn't come into contact with under any other circumstance.
It's got to the stage where fans are being called idiots (and worse) for continuing to support the team. To counteract that I'm fed up of seeing posts on Social Media along the lines of "I'm not going again until Slade is gone" I've been around long enough now to know that we have had far worse times than we are currently having. NO-ONE wants to see us back in the abyss and I'll concede that part of the problem is at the moment that that experience is still too raw and genuine fans are worried.
I've just read through what I've written and there are plenty of opportunities for people to drive buses through the gaps in my arguments. Let's have the debate and at least some acceptance that fans have some responsibility for their actions.
**Awaits arryarryarry's two line condemnation linking the whole post to a far worse scenario from the past**

Quoted from headingly_mariner

I certainly don't think it helps getting at the players in the ground, I try my best to be encouraging, I was brought up with "hard luck" and "keep going" when a player tried something that didn't come off, there's a lot of groaning and moaning now. I also think people who contact the players to slag them off on twitter are idiots as well.

I think the general atmosphere in the ground is so sour because of the feeling about the manager and the board. The relationship is so broken that the slightest hint of a poor performance sets people off. I don't see how it can be fixed by the current regime, instead of trying to fix it they've continued to blame fans. To improve our situation we need a set of aims we can rally round and a board we can trust.