Why are we so crap at home?

Quoted from GrimExile

It’s a good question and I think it’s us the fans that are the problem. We get on the players backs with (at times) some really nasty comments. I live near London and over the years I’ve been to nearly all if not all the grounds in London with friends. I’ve noticed the home fans are nowhere near as nasty as ours can be. Also ours is a small ground with the pitch right next to the stands, so the players can hear most of these comments. Would you be playing to your full capacity if that was happening to you? I also think it’s worth mentioning that the away support is the opposite. They shout and cheer their hearts out from start to finish. It therefore appears (to me) that those getting on the players backs only go to home games. Ok that’s a generalisation but I don’t think I’m far off the mark. UTM

This struck me the other week at Wimbledon. Despite giving two soft goals away the home crowd were tolerant and quickly got back to being vocally supportive. I was moaning more than them and it's not even my team! It is a Grimsby thing after all. And some of it is our fault. Made me question myself.

I thought given the abject display the fan`s stuck with the team on Saturday and gave good support especially 2nd half? Our home display`s have been poor for a long time I remember as a kid early-mid 80s we turned up and expected to win regardless of opposition and a home defeat seemed rare. I was bitterly disappointed with the lack of attacking options on Saturday and the substitutions where very underwhelming.I expect better but I always felt it was going to take whilst around Xmas for us to settle down and start on a run? I am hoping MJ can get us on a cup run and we pull out a plum tie that will be a good turning point.UTM

There is a small group near where I sit in the Pontoon, who seem to get more satisfaction (if that's the right word) from us losing, they are definitely more vocal.  "Rubbish" is their favourite cry.



I've noticed on occasions when we do start to get a bit of atmosphere going, we'll concede and it's sucked out of us again.

When I first started going as a kid, BP seemed hostile and uncomfortable towards away teams. Big cheers when we won the ball or made a tackle, grief whenever the oppo missed a shot or misplaced a pass. I mentioned unconditional support earlier on, maybe that was the wrong phrase, but it seems like we need to appreciate the away team are the ones who should fear playing at BP, not us, and we need to make it that way even if people don’t really want to give any praise to our players or manager.

That’s how it felt in the first few conference years, like it or not we were a big club down there and fans & players from some of the pub teams seemed to raise it against us and revel in it whenever anything went against us. I know it’s difficult for some to get that buzz against Yeovil or Morecambe, but that’s what’ll start helping us grind results out. Bring the opposition down.

BP can be very hostile when the home crowd get going.I can`t think of anywhere I have been to see Town where gates of 4k make so much noise when the home team are on top.The GY crowd want to give vocal support but seldom get the chance before the team are on the back foot of late.A home team coming out and setting a fast tempo will set the crowd off and if that`s what MJ wants to lift the player`s he needs to address how the team start games.

Last time I remember us ripping a opposing team a new hole at BP was in Mr Bignots short ill fated reign ?

Misery loves company. Perhaps because we have been so poor for so long, there is mostly only the cynical and pessimistic fans left going to games.  

There just seems to be this perpetual malaise around the place that is proving very hard to shift. I also think there is an ever aging fan base that have been raised on a much better standard of football and excitement level, and they are just sat waiting for something to happen. I'm often staggered by players inability to control a football, or see a simple pass and execute it. It seems an age since i saw a winger put over a perfect cross and a centre forward rise above a centre back to power an header into the net. I can only think of a handful of truly pulsating games from the last several seasons, and two of those were cup games against Scunthorpe and Huddersfield. Come from behind wins are rare as rocking horse sh1t. Games where we come out of the blocks from minute one and batter the opposition are even rarer. Avoiding relegation by the skin of our teeth last season, was actually quite thrilling in a scary way, and about the most excitement we've had for a while.

There is going to have to be a catalyst at some point. A moment or period that you look back on and think, that's where the tide started to turn. Something that reconnects the team with the fans. I think Jolley is trying hard to up the intensity levels but as yet it is a little patchy. I said in my earlier post that it's debatable whether it's the fans job to get the players going or the players job to get the fans going, but i think it's a mutual thing. They need to feed off each other. For that to happen, the fans need to trust the team. Trust they they are more often that not going to prevail, especially at home. 6 home wins last season, and only 15 in two and a bit seasons is not the stuff to build trust. An half decent cup run wouldn't hurt either.

I live in hope as ever.

Ah....the old 'chicken and egg' concept......back every few weeks for debate when there's no real on-pitch excitement or success.  

1

Quoted from chaos33

Ah....the old 'chicken and egg' concept......back every few weeks for debate when there's no real on-pitch excitement or success.  

I purposefully stopped myself using the words 'chicken and egg', though they were prominent in my mind.  

Quoted from ginnywings

Misery loves company. Perhaps because we have been so poor for so long, there is mostly only the cynical and pessimistic fans left going to games.  

There just seems to be this perpetual malaise around the place that is proving very hard to shift. I also think there is an ever aging fan base that have been raised on a much better standard of football and excitement level, and they are just sat waiting for something to happen. I'm often staggered by players inability to control a football, or see a simple pass and execute it. It seems an age since i saw a winger put over a perfect cross and a centre forward rise above a centre back to power an header into the net. I can only think of a handful of truly pulsating games from the last several seasons, and two of those were cup games against Scunthorpe and Huddersfield. Come from behind wins are rare as rocking horse sh1t. Games where we come out of the blocks from minute one and batter the opposition are even rarer. Avoiding relegation by the skin of our teeth last season, was actually quite thrilling in a scary way, and about the most excitement we've had for a while.

There is going to have to be a catalyst at some point. A moment or period that you look back on and think, that's where the tide started to turn. Something that reconnects the team with the fans. I think Jolley is trying hard to up the intensity levels but as yet it is a little patchy. I said in my earlier post that it's debatable whether it's the fans job to get the players going or the players job to get the fans going, but i think it's a mutual thing. They need to feed off each other. For that to happen, the fans need to trust the team. Trust they they are more often that not going to prevail, especially at home. 6 home wins last season, and only 15 in two and a bit seasons is not the stuff to build trust. An half decent cup run wouldn't hurt either.

I live in hope as ever.

I think this is only part of the malaise Ginny. The fans that still go and those that now don't need something for them to reconnect to the CLUB. The fans flocked back at the end of last season because the club was in trouble. It would have been the club that had got relegated not the team as everyone knew the vast majority of those players were gone at the end of the season. Yes, if performances were better, then turnout would be better, but the team and MJ cannot do it on their own. There's a massive cloud of non-progression hanging over our club and along with it a frustrated bitterness that has built up over what is now an extremely long time. That bitterness dilutes the loyalty. Fans of GTFC have shown a lot of patience over a very long period of time without getting anything at all back other than more of the same or the club just doing what it's always done. It's a shame because MJ deserves more patience than he's getting but it's much more complicated than a couple of poor home performances driving the home support down by 35%. At some point we need belief in the team coupled with belief in the club, then we'll be firing again. Will we ever get it? I doubt it in the near future because the board seem so settled in what they're doing. It's a shame because we're going to and have already lost generations of fans to the Premier League clubs. As long as one man lives out his dream of running GTFC and still insists we do our PR on the pitch, patience is going to wear thinner and thinner as the years and decades go by. It's no fun being a loyal Town fan and something has to change quickly for things to turn around. Putting all hope on a Jolley Revolution is unfair on MJ, and by the looks of it floating fans have had a look and summised after a couple of poor home performances that they don't like the look of everything the club has to offer, because all the club have offered is a Jolley Revolution and nothing else. They've dipped their toe in from time to time but with a winning home percentage of around one in four the chances are they've got a good chance of being disappointed when they've dragged their heels back to BP. Going out on an all dayer to an away match is a different matter, but there are signs that the away support we have prided ourselves is dwindling too. We've got so many problems at the club and it all needs fixing before we have a chance of the really good times of decades past returning..