WestYorksRoyalClyde1998WestYorksRoyal Last word on the fans at the game. I don't get to many games, but today suggests the toxicity you see on Twitter is also on the terraces; a sizeable minority are dickheads. The team did not deserve to be booed today, and if you can't handle losing maybe think of a better use of your Saturday than travelling the country. And there were even Tommy Robinson chants.
I think there is a lot of emotion around at the moment. 2 years ago we were preaching patience and dealing with bad results, that team ultimately got its rewards but here we are back in the same place 2 years later. That ultimately comes back to Dai. If the takeover completed like it should have last summer, it would not be like this. We would have offered contracts last season and been well ahead in our planning and budgeting for the summer transfer window. It seems like the fanbase right now is just a bit drained and doesn't have the energy to be patient again. The Dai years were mostly dire, but we had 18 good months on the pitch at the end. It's really shit to be back in the "be patient" phase again.
I saw this on Saturday evening and forgot to reply to it.
I've been to a lot of away games since we've got relegated to League One and it feels like since we've come back after Covid, a lot of our younger supporters (currently aged at most twenty-one) have developed a 'different' notion about what a football crowd should be: often spending a large amount of their time focused on antagonising the opposition fans; getting overly angry about minor things and having a generally anti-social attitude towards those they view to be in their out group at a given time. This may simply be a reflection on wider society, as that's seemingly what's being encouraged on social media at the moment.
I wasn't aware there were any (as I wasn't at nor did I listen to the game), but that would also contribute as to why there was Tommy Robinson chants.
At Leyton Orient a couple of seasons back, there was a group that effectively pushed me out of my seat before disappearing as soon as we conceded (after about twenty minutes) to go 'get a drink' - they didn't return for the rest of the game. There was nearly a fight at Charlton over the exact average age of our players. It feels like there's an increasingly nationalistic element among our younger supporters I've not really seen before. It just feels like there's a bunch of little things that are building up, but again that's reflective of society in general in my view.
There doesn't seem to be the ability to think critically about anything - take everything at face value; my first impressions must be true.
I left the Swindon game as soon as the final whistle went as I knew what was about to happen. I simply didn't want to be around it.
Luckily, as you've pointed out, it's a sizeable minority and the majority still simply want to get behind the team.
Fair comments, but the fact it's grown from tiny minority to a sizeable one is not good. Agree it reflects society at large, they're probably all watching Andrew Tate videos at home too. One supposedly good thing about sport is politics stays at home, it doesn't matter if they're Labour, Tory, Green, Reform, Remain, Leave etc., for 90 minutes you're all just supporting the same team. Last thing we want is the toxicity of people like Tommy Robinson getting into the stands.
When I was younger I much preferred away ends to home ones for the atmosphere, but I've had few experiences in recent years where I feel uncomfortable. I'm probably going to be moving back to the Reading area next year due to ageing parents, and will happily take my place back in the East Stand where the atmosphere is just more friendly and made up of people out to enjoy their Saturday afternoon (I imagine C1871 is similar to away ends).
I'm in the East Stand myself, where I've been since I've been for the past twenty-odd years now. Certainly a much more relaxed atmosphere there.
Club 1871 is potentially where a lot of these issues are stemming from; it's certainly caused more problems at home games than Y26 ever did when it was the area closest to the away fans.
I'm not putting the blame for that on the people who set it up or 'manages' it, but there appears to be a culture that's been created where the away fans are the focus: chants directed towards them; must charge towards them when we score; etc. At most games now, any positive atmosphere they did generate has been missing. No single person can control a group that large and the attitude seen by the sizeable minority could well be the majority in sections of Club 1871 on match days.
It maybe doesn't help the club has given them an unduly large amount of influence over the past few years, when compared to other stands and groups, leading to a sense of untouchability about some people who sit there.
