Whether you’re into your Joy Division or your Russ Abbott type of atmosphere there seems to be a view that atmosphere has an effect on the outcome of games. Home advantage seems to be negated without the crowds based on the Bundesliga experience. If atmosphere wins points should WFC be doing more? Ok there are no fans but what about all the Watford subs, the physios, Gino, Scott, Emma Saunders, Nigel, the Shakespeare lad and all the others? If you add them all up there must be at least 32 of them who should be able to string an Elton Johns Taylor Made Army out for 10-15 minutes. They could at least do a Come On You Horns at corners or the occasional We Hate Luton. I think it’s time for some of the squad members and ancillary staff to play their part. There could even be a singer of the season award. Even if it will make us look a bit odd it might be put opposition teams off and make them fearful of coming to COVID Vic. SORT IT OUT WATFORD.
Spot on Pob! I used to be involved with my local football team called Lostwithiel who played in the Duchy League in Cornwall, many leagues down the football pyramid. Me and a few other stalwarts used to watch them on our local playing field and quite often at away matches too. We rarely had 32 people watching, but we used to make some noise to support the lads, so why shouldn't all the WFC connected people in the ground give the lads some vocal support? Because even if they actually support other football teams their jobs could possibly be on the line if WFC were to get relegated, so that should give them even more incentive to make sure the boys win.
Crowd noise has been a damp squib in the Prem thus far, hopefully this serves as a reminder of the importance of the fans, though I'm not holding my breath!
Sounds good in theory, though when you have so few people shouting out in a 'big' stadium, mightn't it just serve as a distraction?
We could train to get used to the distraction whereas the away team would be utterly bamboozled. Plus it would get us loads of publicity for being unusual which would help with global branding, possibly. What’s not to like about Holebas singing “We all follow the Watford, over land and sea.....”
OK but holding your breath for 90 mins has been proven to be the best way to avoid spreading the virus.
Indeed. Can you imagine the television companies thought at one stage they could do without crowds when formulating their contracts with the PL ? Fans were a nuisance and not really needed. Turns out without fans these matches feel like a game down the park with one man and his dog watching.
They could easily mic up some of the 1881 from their homes when they're watching games and then play it loud to make it sound like a big crowd
I imagine our players will be sorely missing the odd drumbeat which makes it past the halfway line of the SEJ stand.
Wow those guys are way nicer than Boca fans. Been to the Bomboneira a couple of times in the hardcore section and above it. Genuine mayhem and carnage!
We could simply put the ground under continuous bombardment like Hammarby’s fans do when it’s the hockey season.
That's actually bandy, which is similar to ice hockey but with 11 a side and a round ball. It does have some history in this country, I believe Nottingham Forest originally played the sport before focusing on football
I used 3CR for Leicester. The experience isn't honestly any different versus 3CR games with crowds, so might be worth giving that a try if you're finding watching to be too jarring.
Apparently on 5live they are so close to the benches the commentary catches the eye or ears of the coaches and they have looked around once or twice. Maybe it does feel better on the radio ?'
Barely an atmosphere before Covid-19, unless we were winning and even then it would fade away back to silence after 5 minutes
Was something in the air even before kick-off at the Liverpool game, but yeah, we don't have the most atmospheric of grounds lol
Talking about atmosphere, even our home artificial crowd noise has been crap so far. It is mostly a low droning noise with very little defined Watford bias. Whereas other clubs are actually using their home crowd noise very well and pretty much constantly broadcasting very home bias crowd noise, which maybe is giving their players just a little bit of a boost.
It's dubbed over the top by the tv companies. The ground itself has no crowd noise while the game is being played.
Does anyone remember when they used to play chants through the tannoy on the old Vicarage Road terrace to try and improve the atmosphere? If we got a corner they tannoy would crackle into action and a feeble recording of “Come on you Orns” would crackle out, Pretty embarrassing.
If that is the case, the TV companies obviously don't like us, because as I said other teams get far better supportive dubbed sound than we do.
Wow that takes me back, I think it was during Colin Lee's reign of apathy. Crowds were so bad that you could practice social distancing on the terraces.