Atmosphere 2024/25

  • Thread starter Thread starter jrb
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M18CTID said:
Just to add to this, on at least 2 occasions during the selling process - either due to a glitch or a cock-up on City’s part - the 1894 singing section seats were available to buy for any qualifying supporter even if they weren’t signed up to the singing section. That shouldn’t have happened - the seats should’ve been greyed out for everyone who wasn’t signed up to the singing section. As such, loads of fans ended up buying tickets in there who weren’t signed up.
This stopped a large number of predominantly younger fans who were signed up from buying tickets in there. That’s because a lot of those younger fans were members only rather than season ticket holders so only qualified for a ticket towards the end of the sales process. By the time they did qualify, the singing section seats were pretty much sold out.
I actually think your estimate of 350-400 is an over-estimate and I reckon it was nearer 250-300 so that effectively diluted it by around 50%.
By all accounts the singing section for the semi-final was a huge success even though the numbers were capped at 200. Maybe that’s because all 200 who were signed up got tickets in there so it ended up being pure singers.
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Im sure in '81 we didnt have a dedicated group with 'tabbards' on and a vuvuzela! Yet we still sang!
 
Joelsim said:
Hi, first post, and full disclosure, I’m a ST holder at Palace.

I was reading this thread with interest as from our perspective the SF and the F at Wembley were stunning days out that will live forever in my memory, in particular the atmosphere created.

The hf05, Holmesdale Fanatics, Fanatics, Ultras or whatever you want to call them have been going since 2005. They number around 500, unfortunately there isn’t the space in the seating at Selhurst to make it much bigger. They started down in the corner in The Holmesdale block B near the Arthur Wait and moved about 4 years ago to block E behind the goal. This upset some people who were moved from their long-standing seats in block E, so we’re now kind of stuck with organic moving when the older folk don’t renew or whatever.

Anyway, the Fanatics are a decent bunch, they don’t cause trouble - we have very few Police at Selhurst unless it’s Brighton, Wet Spam or Miiilllll coming, as those of you who come to away games will know. They are a unit in the sense that they like to be part of an ultras group, they’re proud to be hf05, and they just want to make noise, as well as collect for local causes - they do plenty of work in the community including food banks and things like that, and whilst they’re not to everyone’s taste they are generally appreciated by the vast majority of our fans.

Anyone who’s been to Selhurst will know that they never shut up, they sing all game long, it’s rare that there’s silence - I think the last time I can remember this was when they refused to sing for the first half of a game when Parish put in new digital advertising boards which replaced their ‘Holmesdale Fanatics’ banner above them. It was pretty strange.

What they do do well though is create a focal point for the singing, taking Wembley as an example…we all knew that the ‘singing section’ had been set aside for blocks 133 and 134, so anyone who wanted to be part of the noise should buy their tickets as near to there as possible, and unsurprisingly those £125 seats in the lower sold out in minutes. Of course this meant that there was always going to be a wall of noise supporting them and the drum beat - as one of you said our drummer is very good, check out the Bournemouth version for someone who’s clueless. If you’re ever in that section at Selhurst the drumming’s hypnotic, like chilling out after clubbing.

So it’s always a constant hum, then add a few thousand like-minded in the same area and it becomes huge, best done when it’s rising and falling with what you could term the natural atmosphere in peaks, the drumming gets faster and the volume increases bringing more fans in. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste, and we have a few dissenters on our forum too. But you know as Villa know that when coupled with an occasion it can be extremely effective, and furthermore it is clearly a 12th man, I don’t know whether you noticed but at the start they set the tone with our usual goal song ‘We love you, we love you, we love you and when you play we follow, follow, follow, cos we support the Palace, Palace, Palace…’ and they just carried on. I watched the game back yesterday and they did 6 different songs in the first 18 minutes, the best ones are the more simple ones with fewer words. Then of course when we score it goes nuts. Now, recently we got spanked by you guys and Newcastle, and those games hinged on moments like a disallowed goal. On Saturday and against Villa the noise increased after a bad moment to try to pick the team up.

Anyway, with regard to balaclavas and suchlike, much of it is image related or to ensure that when letting pyro off they can’t be identified easily.

The other thing they do well is the tifos, examples being the Maxi Jazz tribute (non-exec director and lifelong fan) against Forest, and tickertape style or whatever, there have been many that you’ll find on Google. We’ve got a shitty little ground so stuff like this works really well for us, and we’re only a small club, about 30th in England on ground size.

So, to wrap up, and of course heightened by the importance of the game on Saturday to us as a club - first major trophy over and above a ZDS, and our first chance at Europe - we were always going to win the war on creating noise, it’s what we do best and what we see at Selhurst every week on a smaller scale. It doesn’t come through on the TV quite as much as they moved the microphones away from the drum as it gets in the way of the commentary. Some may think it’s ‘cringe’ but it works for us.

Good luck in your UCL quest, and not just because I don’t fancy playing you in the Europa - you and Arsenal are the two teams I hate playing against as you don’t let us have the ball. Luckily in Glasner we have a manager who is adept at working the best strategy out, which against you was to just let you have it, know exactly where to be defensively and then break at speed.

Now I’m going to go and watch some more content. This is where I was on Saturday, it was tremendous, sore throat at the end of it. Cheers all.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

It certainly clears up a few misconceptions on here about the (Palace) Ultras.

Your support was great on Saturday.

I thought we slightly out did you with the display. Obviously that's a matter of opinion.

Congratulations on winning the FA Cup.
 
jrb said:
Thanks for that.

It certainly clears up a few misconceptions on here about the (Palace) Ultras.

Your support was great on Saturday.

I thought we slightly out did you with the display. Obviously that's a matter of opinion.

Congratulations on winning the FA Cup.
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Thanks mate, appreciated.

The display was probably Palace-centric. Explained here.

 
Tolmie scores said:
Im sure in '81 we didnt have a dedicated group with 'tabbards' on and a vuvuzela! Yet we still sang!
Click to expand...
I realise i'm in a minority but I thought the atmosphere from City fans was decent on Saturday, at least in my block 518. Not the best, not as good as the semi, but definitely not the worst we have had at Wembley. I think you can get a varied experience of noise at Wembley. I have always found the upper tiers (with the cheap tickets) ok for atmosphere. I was singing all the way through. But perhaps it was just the pre-match five pints in Baker Street that distorted my reality.
 
bobbyowenquiff said:
I realise i'm in a minority but I thought the atmosphere from City fans was decent on Saturday, at least in my block 518. Not the best, not as good as the semi, but definitely not the worst we have had at Wembley. I think you can get a varied experience of noise at Wembley. I have always found the upper tiers (with the cheap tickets) ok for atmosphere. I was singing all the way through. But perhaps it was just the pre-match five pints in Baker Street that distorted my reality.
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It's clear from your post and from others that there were definitely pockets of fans all over who were trying to get things going but all too often - as can be the case at times at Wembley - the songs didn't spread. The singing section has come in for a fair old panning on this thread but as someone who was in there, it was also the case there too. Fans starting songs off but they weren't spreading much beyond our section, whereas against Forest they were. If Palace hadn't been so loud I doubt we'd be going in as hard on ourselves about Saturday's atmosphere in our end. Of course it wasn't great by any means but to say it was our worst at Wembley is a bit of a stretch IMO.
 
paulchapo said:
It happens a bit, like the standing/singing section. The problem at Wembley is the buying criteria so everybody just has to grab a ticket where they can when they are in the window to buy one. That means groups who are together at our ground are separated. When they actually get to Wembley they just seek each other out, choose one area and cram in there. That then leads to friction when the people in those seats don't take kindly to a load of lads squashing into their space.
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Tbh..Apart from away games where our support is up there with the best..superb..anywhere,particularly Ethihad,it's shite,where you have huge sections of the crowd ,just passive..I hope somehow though,we can generate a special atmosphere for Kevin on Tuesday night,not holding my breath mind..lol
 
Joelsim said:
Hi, first post, and full disclosure, I’m a ST holder at Palace.

I was reading this thread with interest as from our perspective the SF and the F at Wembley were stunning days out that will live forever in my memory, in particular the atmosphere created.

The hf05, Holmesdale Fanatics, Fanatics, Ultras or whatever you want to call them have been going since 2005. They number around 500, unfortunately there isn’t the space in the seating at Selhurst to make it much bigger. They started down in the corner in The Holmesdale block B near the Arthur Wait and moved about 4 years ago to block E behind the goal. This upset some people who were moved from their long-standing seats in block E, so we’re now kind of stuck with organic moving when the older folk don’t renew or whatever.

Anyway, the Fanatics are a decent bunch, they don’t cause trouble - we have very few Police at Selhurst unless it’s Brighton, Wet Spam or Miiilllll coming, as those of you who come to away games will know. They are a unit in the sense that they like to be part of an ultras group, they’re proud to be hf05, and they just want to make noise, as well as collect for local causes - they do plenty of work in the community including food banks and things like that, and whilst they’re not to everyone’s taste they are generally appreciated by the vast majority of our fans.

Anyone who’s been to Selhurst will know that they never shut up, they sing all game long, it’s rare that there’s silence - I think the last time I can remember this was when they refused to sing for the first half of a game when Parish put in new digital advertising boards which replaced their ‘Holmesdale Fanatics’ banner above them. It was pretty strange.

What they do do well though is create a focal point for the singing, taking Wembley as an example…we all knew that the ‘singing section’ had been set aside for blocks 133 and 134, so anyone who wanted to be part of the noise should buy their tickets as near to there as possible, and unsurprisingly those £125 seats in the lower sold out in minutes. Of course this meant that there was always going to be a wall of noise supporting them and the drum beat - as one of you said our drummer is very good, check out the Bournemouth version for someone who’s clueless. If you’re ever in that section at Selhurst the drumming’s hypnotic, like chilling out after clubbing.

So it’s always a constant hum, then add a few thousand like-minded in the same area and it becomes huge, best done when it’s rising and falling with what you could term the natural atmosphere in peaks, the drumming gets faster and the volume increases bringing more fans in. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste, and we have a few dissenters on our forum too. But you know as Villa know that when coupled with an occasion it can be extremely effective, and furthermore it is clearly a 12th man, I don’t know whether you noticed but at the start they set the tone with our usual goal song ‘We love you, we love you, we love you and when you play we follow, follow, follow, cos we support the Palace, Palace, Palace…’ and they just carried on. I watched the game back yesterday and they did 6 different songs in the first 18 minutes, the best ones are the more simple ones with fewer words. Then of course when we score it goes nuts. Now, recently we got spanked by you guys and Newcastle, and those games hinged on moments like a disallowed goal. On Saturday and against Villa the noise increased after a bad moment to try to pick the team up.

Anyway, with regard to balaclavas and suchlike, much of it is image related or to ensure that when letting pyro off they can’t be identified easily.

The other thing they do well is the tifos, examples being the Maxi Jazz tribute (non-exec director and lifelong fan) against Forest, and tickertape style or whatever, there have been many that you’ll find on Google. We’ve got a shitty little ground so stuff like this works really well for us, and we’re only a small club, about 30th in England on ground size.

So, to wrap up, and of course heightened by the importance of the game on Saturday to us as a club - first major trophy over and above a ZDS, and our first chance at Europe - we were always going to win the war on creating noise, it’s what we do best and what we see at Selhurst every week on a smaller scale. It doesn’t come through on the TV quite as much as they moved the microphones away from the drum as it gets in the way of the commentary. Some may think it’s ‘cringe’ but it works for us.

Good luck in your UCL quest, and not just because I don’t fancy playing you in the Europa - you and Arsenal are the two teams I hate playing against as you don’t let us have the ball. Luckily in Glasner we have a manager who is adept at working the best strategy out, which against you was to just let you have it, know exactly where to be defensively and then break at speed.

Now I’m going to go and watch some more content. This is where I was on Saturday, it was tremendous, sore throat at the end of it. Cheers all.

Click to expand...

Fair play to you all. I've mentioned elsewhere that Selhurst is a place I'd like to attend as a neutral to see what it's like as the atmosphere seems different on TV to anything else in the PL.

Whilst I'm not sure I'd want it every week, especially the drum, it was impressive on Saturday not because of a few hundred blokes in white t-shirts (what's that about?) but because choosing simple songs with a coordinated effort to get them going meant you had 30,000 singing most of the time.

Whilst I didn't want to lose and am still fuming about our performance, I'd also said before the game that I wouldn't begrudge you the win. Football can be many years of lows, which every true fan should suffer, as it makes the highs so much better.

Hopefully goes without saying, but best of luck in the Community Shield!
 
Blue Since 76 said:
Fair play to you all. I've mentioned elsewhere that Selhurst is a place I'd like to attend as a neutral to see what it's like as the atmosphere seems different on TV to anything else in the PL.

Whilst I'm not sure I'd want it every week, especially the drum, it was impressive on Saturday not because of a few hundred blokes in white t-shirts (what's that about?) but because choosing simple songs with a coordinated effort to get them going meant you had 30,000 singing most of the time.

Whilst I didn't want to lose and am still fuming about our performance, I'd also said before the game that I wouldn't begrudge you the win. Football can be many years of lows, which every true fan should suffer, as it makes the highs so much better.

Hopefully goes without saying, but best of luck in the Community Shield!
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Thanks fella. If you do go to Selhurst don't sit in the seats at the back, the view is crap due to the TV gantry. Try first 30 rows, not 40-50 for sure. One of these pics is from right at the back. I sit in the same stand, row 32 and the view is excellent, but further back is really shite.

The Fanatics usually all wear black, but all wore the white T-shirts and black shorts on Saturday.

 

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Funnily enough my roots are up there. Dad born in Salford, mum in Breightmet, spent 9 years in Bolton then moved South in 1979. Went to Burnden Park a few times in 1978/9 when it was Worthington, Whatmore, Reid, Allardyce.
 
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jrb said:
I appreciate it isn’t for everyone, but when that amount of (Palace) fans take part in a march to the stadium, you know they are going to create a great atmosphere.



It’s interesting that the Police are now allowing such marches to take place and to go ahead.
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Never see this lot at the Etihad or outside the M25 in general
 
I went to the 2-2 in December and didn't really notice the ultra section and it wasn't an intimidating atmosphere at all, just seemed average as most of the ground didn't join in apart from after the goals, but that's the same at every ground and that's not being bitter as I thought it was an impressive wall of noise on Saturday....just wasn't at Selhurst park
 
Palace needed something to happen atmosphere wise. Their attendances were shite, there wasn't much of an atmosphere at their games and the fanatics have done a good job. It's a modern approach, they do good work in the local community but they're 100% looking for social media clicks with what they do as well.

The drum is okay, it's certainly not as bad as elsewhere. Their songs are simple and easy to join in with and compared to what Selhurst Park used to be they're miles better thanks to that group. Wembley was pretty incredible. When you think Forest also hadn't been in a long long time, outnumbered us but yet were largely out sung by us - Palace have shown what can happen with a decent sized group of fans orchestrating things.

However...it's also important to add that they still travel in low numbers and aren't particularly good away from home. They've stepped up in home games and at Wembley but we're miles better in away games.

I think the biggest thing City can improve on is song choice. Our songbook is still fairly complicated for the neutral and home games. If you've got a singing section audible around the ground it would work, but not when different songs are started at the same time.

Blue Moon, we're not really here... that's about it when it comes to the simple stuff that isn't about a player. I know we're not at Maine Road anymore but haven't heard an airing of super City from Maine Road for a long time. That used to be another one that would spread.
 
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