Fans Mentality

[ShorehamRevolution]

Do you think it makes a difference? A lot of positive vibes around this club at the minute, if you could travel back in time to a year ago you'd hear pro and anti Adkins conversations, you'd hear players being slaughtered etc and a general depression around the place but as we are now I've never known such a positive attitude across everyone from pessimist/optimists/old/young.
Does it rub off onto the pitch?

 

[Eyeball]

Do you think it makes a difference? A lot of positive vibes around this club at the minute, if you could travel back in time to a year ago you'd hear pro and anti Adkins conversations, you'd hear players being slaughtered etc and a general depression around the place but as we are now I've never known such a positive attitude across everyone from pessimist/optimists/old/young.
Does it rub off onto the pitch?

Of course it does
As negative stuff does too
So it must be the fans fault........................

 

[Rodley]

Do you think it makes a difference? A lot of positive vibes around this club at the minute, if you could travel back in time to a year ago you'd hear pro and anti Adkins conversations, you'd hear players being slaughtered etc and a general depression around the place but as we are now I've never known such a positive attitude across everyone from pessimist/optimists/old/young.
Does it rub off onto the pitch?

We're top of the league mate and putting in fantastic performances. If people aren't positive now, I suggest they need a new hobby.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Judging by the reaction of this crop of players to victory it does.

They way they all immediately address the crowd after a goal and salute the fans at the final whistle shows a togetherness I haven't seen in years. Late goals against Bury and Northampton when they all fell over themselves in front of the Kop bears this out. Win, lose or draw they feel it and I believe they feel it for us as well.

It's a night-and-day difference to what we had last season. The utter apathy around this place, neither the fans or especially the players wanting to be there.

Yes I know there's been criticisms of the atmosphere at times this season, but it's getting progressively better in my opinion and the restoration of our clubs identity is as palpable as the upturn in our results.

 

[BiggerBladeThanThou]

Thoughts manifest themselves into reality...the very reason we have had very few amounts of success is due to the ingrained negative, cynical, pessimistic, "it can't happen to me" Sheffield mentality....

 

[Fanny magnet]

Yes we were shite for the last few years because the fans were too negative but miraculously this season the twenty positive posts a day from blade too long has brought about lots of wins and good performances

 

[blade too long]

Glad someones noticed.

Players pick up vibes from the fans .the roar when the team run to the fans must be a massive difference to getting the disgruntled moans previous teams got. CW gets the crowd positive to feed the team ,every little helps

 

[Fanny magnet]

Glad someones noticed.

Players pick up vibes from the fans .the roar when the team run to the fans must be a massive difference to getting . the disgruntled moans previos teams got CW gets the crowd positive to feed the team ,every little helps

The massive cheers the crowd makes when the team score are much better than the bloodcurdling scream of one of Jack the rippers victims in old London town

 

[Sheffsteel]

Do you think it makes a difference? A lot of positive vibes around this club at the minute, if you could travel back in time to a year ago you'd hear pro and anti Adkins conversations, you'd hear players being slaughtered etc and a general depression around the place but as we are now I've never known such a positive attitude across everyone from pessimist/optimists/old/young.
Does it rub off onto the pitch?

Good post and I've often wondered if it does.

For example if the fans keep saying
"There's no point being in the playoffs because we know we won't win"
"Even if we are winning 3-0 at half-time we can't get excited because we're likely to concede 4 in the 2nd half@

If players get to hear this negativity (which they will) then surely it plants seeds of doubt.
Mental strength and postive outlook does make a difference in a competition.

 

[Bladesthorpe]

Don't agree, they think another win bonus in the wage packet and a hefty lump sum when we get promoted. Add to that the players who's contracts are due for renewal then what a great bargaining tool they have.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Chicken and egg for me, fans react to players who care and play good football and players feed off vibes, both bad and good. If dross is served up fans justifiably get annoyed and vent and make it harder for players, if it's going well crowds swell and become more enthusiastic giving the players a boost.

Fans are customers though so keeping them happy should be a priority.

Either that or it's all the fans doing, good or bad.

 

[super_pig]

Do you think it makes a difference? A lot of positive vibes around this club at the minute, if you could travel back in time to a year ago you'd hear pro and anti Adkins conversations, you'd hear players being slaughtered etc and a general depression around the place but as we are now I've never known such a positive attitude across everyone from pessimist/optimists/old/young.
Does it rub off onto the pitch?

it's a chicken and egg thing but i think it is the teams responsiblilty to initially give the fans something to cheer about

 

[Harrisblade]

Good post and I've often wondered if it does.

For example if the fans keep saying
"There's no point being in the playoffs because we know we won't win"
"Even if we are winning 3-0 at half-time we can't get excited because we're likely to concede 4 in the 2nd half@

If players get to hear this negativity (which they will) then surely it plants seeds of doubt.
Mental strength and postive outlook does make a difference in a competition.

Can't really be true though, can it?
After the first 4 games of this season there were NO positive vibes - yet we're now where we are.
Anything said on forums is supremely irrelevant - what emanates from the terraces during a match is the opposite and means a lot.
And you'll NEVER find a football fan anywhere that thinks " if we are winning 3-0 at half-time we can't get excited because we're likely to concede 4 in the 2nd half"
Not even me!

 

[blade too long]

it's a chicken and egg thing but i think it is the teams responsiblilty to initially give the fans something to cheer about

so fans should only offer encouragement if the team plays well
Im sure thats not the point of supporting

 

[super_pig]

so fans should only offer encouragement if the team plays well
Im sure thats not the point of supporting

heh. i knew that was coming. who dropped the ball first though?? fans will only keep encouraging if they think the team gives a shit. after a few years of constant disappointments people get disillusioned. this is normal

 

[blade too long]

heh. i knew that was coming. who dropped the ball first though?? fans will only keep encouraging if they think the team gives a shit. after a few years of constant disappointments people get disillusioned. this is normal

so if we go behind in any game which can happen no matter how good you , the players dont give a shit

so when oxford went in front , those 11 on the park didnt deserve any support
interesting

constant disappointment ?
do people deliberately only remember the bad days and start each game waiting for failure
rather than urging the team on to a result
if we were 4th bottom needing a win youd not encourage the team but wait to be excited by them ?

 

[Houston_Blade]

so if we go behind in any game which can happen no matter how good you , the players dont give a shit

so when oxford went in front , those 11 on the park didnt deserve any support


interesting

Depends if you apply the support to a game in isolation or to the club/squad. I'd argue that a bunch of shirkers like Adkins and co don't deserve unconditional support. The management team of Wilder and the players he's assembled/rejuvenated do deserve support. It's human nature to respond better to a better situation.

 

[blade too long]

Depends if you apply the support to a game in isolation or to the club/squad. I'd argue that a bunch of shirkers like Adkins and co don't deserve unconditional support. The management team of Wilder and the players he's assembled/rejuvenated do deserve support. It's human nature to respond better to a better situation.

its surely in a supporters nature , like pro footballers often say , take each game as it comes
go there ready to get behind them and only grumble when its irretrievable

 

[Tyler Durden]

Always refreshing to see BTL telling everyone how to support the team from 1500 miles away.

I'll make sure I remember these words of wisdom at Swindon on Tuesday night.

 

[super_pig]

its surely in a supporters nature , like pro footballers often say , take each game as it comes
go there ready to get behind them and only grumble when its irretrievable

fans fault then.. oh no.. it's all 'our' fault

 

[blade too long]

fans fault then.. oh no.. it's all 'our' fault

fault for what
Im questioning if fans should wait to support a team , that is all
surely its in the name ,,, support ers not sing when were winningers

 

[Houston_Blade]

fault for what
Im questioning if fans should wait to support a team , that is all
surely its in the name ,,, support ers not sing when were winningers

In a perfect world supporters would turn up in droves and raise the roof every game regardless of performance and club politics. If you can find me one example of that happening in English football please go ahead.

 

[blade too long]

In a perfect world supporters would turn up in droves and raise the roof every game regardless of performance and club politics. If you can find me one example of that happening in English football please go ahead.

dont expect that , but dont expect people waiting to be entertained before they offer encouragement either

 

[jt64]

It's always a positive or negative feedback loop. Simple as. The idea of trying to spur the team on when losing is alien to English fans but I've not noticed it for a while

 

[Fanny magnet]

so if we go behind in any game which can happen no matter how good you , the players dont give a shit

so when oxford went in front , those 11 on the park didnt deserve any support
interesting

constant disappointment ?
do people deliberately only remember the bad days and start each game waiting for failure
rather than urging the team on to a result
if we were 4th bottom needing a win youd not encourage the team but wait to be excited by them ?

I bet you type like Jerry Lee Lewis playing great balls of fire

 

[coolhandluke]

6 of one , half a dozen of the other . When both players and fans are on the same hymn sheet things are very , very good ...... just like they are now

 

[ucandomagic]

Real fans of real clubs support a football club, not a team.

When the team shows on the field the values that that particular football club is based on, then you get the relationship between players and supporters demonstrated at the end of the Oxford game.

It's not just about winning or losing. Of course you always get cheered for winning, but in the long run it's how you win or lose that matters to the supporters.

Lincoln are 5-0 down at the moment, but which set of supporters are prouder of their club.

UTB

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Realise there's been all these (well meaning) calls for support to be "better" and louder, but does it really work like that in real life?

We'd been progressively crushed. The sort of gloom hovering over the place was like depression. (And it's still not wholly been blown away.)

It was just completely unrealistic to think that we'd automatically become a positive fanbase all of a sudden by some magical click of the fingers. We're not MK Dons.

Hate using Adkinsian managementspeak, but there always was an "organic process" that had to be gone through. Fortunately though, it's been speeded up no end, thanks to the magnificent job done by Chris Wilder (with his Bladeyblade finger on the pulse of the club for one thing, but with sheer competence overriding everything).

Firmly believe that if we'd been in, say, 8th place right now rather than where we are, we'd have been relatively happy, given the type of approach/style/belief/mentality that Wilder's imposed & that the players have bought into. And we would have been relatively optimistic, & acknowledging real progress had been made.

Just that, as it happens, Wilder's taken us onto a wholly different plane. Fair to say the place has been transformed, by a sort of natural alchemy. Difficult to believe it's happened tbh.

 

[PokerBlade]

First and foremost it's the players. We've made some heroes of some very limited footballers but it's only happened to those we've seen willing to die for the cause. The likes of Laurent D'Jaffo, Santos, Uhlenbeek, Allison, they all had their cult followings because we saw them give it their all (well, D'Jaffo largely because he scored against Wednesday turned it around). I genuinely believe that our fans appreciate a hard worker, sometimes to a fault. What I've never seen them let pass by is some of the Clough, Adkins, and Weir games where they left the pitch without a sweat.

Let's be honest, it's easy for the players and fans to get the atmosphere going when you're up at the top of the table. It's taken them a while to bring the buzz back though and at 3-0 down to Southend I don't think the crowd was going to get on their feet for anything but the walk to the exit.

Still, I doubt there's a player that would dare walk into Wilder's dressing room after a match and not show the effects of a hard fought game. That goes a long way.

 

[madeinsheffield]

Even when we've been playing badly, if the team shows effort and work hard they get cheered on, then clapped after. We aren't mugs and at long last the management acknowledges this fact, then the players start playing better.