Cant thank enough the kindness of everybody who donates, its fantastic.
We have many ideas for displays that we want to do and we have tried many different ones. I get involved right from the beginning and then I'm at the stadium two hours before KO with the other lads setting it up.
This year in particular we have had quite a few stumbling blocks that limit what we want to actually do, often fans will say they have seen a great display at Newcastle so why don't we try that.
But a few hurdles are - the shape of the south stand end, as in directly above 115 / 116 we have corporate seats so fans there don't get involved or in seats early ( although there are some great fans in there that I regularly speak to ). So we have the pain of corporate above us and away fans to the side of us !
If we hang banners from level two even just for 3 minutes as the players come on the pitch, we have complaints from fans below saying they miss seeing players warm up. Like wise if we use surfer banners or big held up banners on two sticks we get quite a few complaints. So we have had little disputes with security as fans have complained to them.
As the players come on the pitch unfortunately the SS lower is only about 70% populated due to queues outside etc, this makes any mosaics look a bit shabby, also suffers flop rather than being held up. it would be great if fans could be in seats as the players come out but we do have a problem at turnstiles.
We have fans in SS3 that want a better atmosphere etc, but the shape of the stand means we are miles apart so it is difficult for us all to sing & work together. Also at the moment security will not allow any flags in SS3, so all we can put up there are mosaic cards. We are working on trying to relax the riles a bit, fingers crossed.
A lot of these problems will be omitted if we rebuild the north stand with atmosphere fans in mind. Meanwhile we just hope getting in to the stadium is made easier so the stands are 100% populated as the players come out. I would say this is one of the biggest factors for us.
