Tonight / Operation One End / Away fans relocation {merged}

[liamctid]

Right, just got back home after a lovely 3 hour drive on the m6.

My view from tonight:

There were a fair few lads that relocated to these SS blocks.

There were nowhere near enough there to fill the blocks, so the kids were put there as it would have looked better to have the seats full there then to have them around the ground and have the bottom tier behind the goal empty.

Premier League rules state that you must offer the away team a certain percentage of the stadium. If the club only gave them a smaller allocation because we wanted to experiment we would of been fined and our relationship with Wigan would be damaged. I know that doesn't mean anything to us fans, but on a board room level it means something. Therefore the club couldn't promote it, if this was the case.

There have only been two means of promoting this idea - this very forum, which was really spearheaded by IP and jrb, and TBAs facebook fan page. I would suggest that between those two mediums there is not a huge amount of people who could have been reached. Maybe I should of handed out flyers at Mary D's before the Everton game - oh well.

I stood and sang for nearly the whole game, my voice is a gone as it would be after any away game and I was at the back of 115. I looked down, and all I could see was Dads with there kids. We joined in with any songs which were sang by either side of us, to try and help it spread, which worked a few times.

I bumped into my mate who I know sits in 118 - 3 blocks to the left of me and he said 'I knew where you were, I could hear your voice all game' - which just about says all I need to about the infamous SS. And as for the singing section - silence for 15 minutes before breaking into a song about how shit Wigan fans are. Fuck me, I thought we were their to get behind our team.

I almost felt embarrassed a few times. I went to Stamford Bridge on Saturday and sat in what the equivilant of 221 would be. Villa fans miles away from us, and they didn't take a lot. And even when it was 1-1, the Mathew Harding stand (one end) was louder in fantastic voice. Yet so many on here would go on about how shit Chelseas support is. I took my mate tonight who took me to the Bridge on Saturday. He couldn't understand why our fans were intent in gloating towards Wigan fans in the upper tier at every opportunity - and neither can I. What he did say though is that he finds it amazing/brilliant the fact that there is so many youngsters that go and support City and see's that we are going to have a great support for many years to come because of our pricing and availability.

Sorry for the mini rant there.

On a side note, 43k at home to Wigan on a Monday night when they brought 40 fans is fantastic, so well done everyone for turning up!

 

[bluesoup]

have you watched the interview ??? he looks well unhappy to me, and what message does it send to the fans when he's out on his own 5 minutes before the start of an important half, when he should be delivering a motivational half time talk....

as far as i could see, he was sorting out what he wanted from bellers.

Indeed, I saw this too. RM was with Bellers who was getting ready to come on.

 

[borassic]

Liam. The reason the singing section is the best part ofthe ground is down to the away fans being next to us, it's part of the game to have banter between sets of fans and creates more noise than anything else thats currently going on in the stadium. The singing section is 50% kids having a laugh which is what footballs all about and I personally think it's the current bedrock for atmosphere at city. The rest of the ground is absolutely dire, south stand Included, when southstand do decide to sing the same song as us the stadium really gets going, doesn't happen often enough though.

 

[felixbg]

fair few were singing at the backs of 114 & 115, problem was very few joined in. the oh so silent south stand sort of looked over with a fair few applauding sarcasticly , and half of 115 seemed to turn round to see what on earth the disturbance was. it was like an away day down in london where a lot of the fans dont really know the score with regards to atmopshere. Also noticed a lot of 116 constantly looking up at the wigan fans, proving the point some people really are obsessed with 'bare banter' with away fans rather than getting behind the team.

 

[True_Blue69]

I presume last night will put an end to all this 'operation one end' rubbish now?

 

[Skashion]

you could tell it wasn't going to work after 5 minutes.

spot on, after the first 5 mins everyone decided to take a seat, que the singing for the next 10 mins from 111 'stand up if you love city' just to get them to stand!

i refused to sit for the first half, and i think there was about 5 in total in 113 that didnt sit. me, my aunt, a guy infront of me with his kids.

I was on the 113 aisle and I was stood up for every single minute as was the guy directly behind and those directly in front and a couple of lads at the bottom. It was dire though.

 

[bugsyblue]

Good effort lads and don't get too downheartened about it- a lot of blues appreciate the effort TBA puts in but like everything it will take time to catch on. Keep the good work and the vocal support will grow.

 

[liamctid]

Liam. The reason the singing section is the best part ofthe ground is down to the away fans being next to us, it's part of the game to have banter between sets of fans and creates more noise than anything else thats currently going on in the stadium. The singing section is 50% kids having a laugh which is what footballs all about and I personally think it's the current bedrock for atmosphere at city. The rest of the ground is absolutely dire, south stand Included, when southstand do decide to sing the same song as us the stadium really gets going, doesn't happen often enough though.

I just don't understand why we are so different to basically every other club in the division. I can only really think of Hull and Sunderland who have their main vocal supporters right next to the away fans, every other team has it on the otherside of the ground.

 

[PowderBlue]

it was a good effort and looked quite impressive. unfortunately the performance on the pitch in the first 6o odd minutes seemed to drain the enthusiasm from the crowd.

 

[squirtyflower]

Liam. The reason the singing section is the best part ofthe ground is down to the away fans being next to us, it's part of the game to have banter between sets of fans and creates more noise than anything else thats currently going on in the stadium. The singing section is 50% kids having a laugh which is what footballs all about and I personally think it's the current bedrock for atmosphere at city. The rest of the ground is absolutely dire, south stand Included, when southstand do decide to sing the same song as us the stadium really gets going, doesn't happen often enough though.

I just don't understand why we are so different to basically every other club in the division. I can only really think of Hull and Sunderland who have their main vocal supporters right next to the away fans, every other team has it on the otherside of the ground.

agreed
it seems ludicrous that we 'need' the away support there
is it because we spend most of the time looking at them instead of concentrating on supporting our own team