The fans today....

That's absolute rubbish. It's of no coincidence that the better supported teams throughout our play off games have won.

 

Maybe it should have been... but it wasn't.

 

This is the sort of thing the WST should be working with the club to fix, how to make is so those who want to stand and sing and those who prefer to sit can both (rightfully) enjoy games.

Shame they are too full of their own self importance...

 

So players played crap because of our lack of singing? Christ so how the fark did we get to the play-offs in the 1st place?

 

Treating Monday as an away day, I can't recall the last away match our vocal support was so poor.

We didn't do our bit. End of.

 

Peterborough away, packed terrace making one hell of a racket, we go 3-0 down
Millwall away, packed terrace singing constantly, we lose 1-0
Leeds home, full house, great atmosphere, we were awful
Leicester away, Watford making a ton of noise, we lose 1-0
Leicester home, cracking support all game, we're 1 penalty kick away from going out

The better we support the team the seemingly worse they do.

 

I see where you are coming from, but away days are normally hard core fans, last Monday was more of an occasion for a lot of Watford people.
May not like it but that is what it was.

 

And for every game you have given me I could give you a match in which our support pushed the boys over the line.

 

Very true - more of an outing. I did a post last week about exactly this.

Conversely, my colleague didn't think Palace were any louder until the goal. And he thought the same as us when he went there with his team. It's as if it seemed quiter our end because we was within it.

 

I must admit i agree with that.
I didn't think palace were that great until they scored and to be honest had we won we wouldn't be having so many posts on this.

Those of you that sing and want to stand should really get together and contact the club and get an area behind a goal where you can do that.
A lot of European sides do that. No idea if you would be allowed to do it, not sure what laws (health and safety) theer are

Search Riazor Blues on google and you tube. They are the main singing supporters for Deportivo. They are behind a goal same place always. They do banners for important games/anniversaries and sing all game.
They were started in 1987 by a few fans and now have about 1000 that regularly go to games and stand behind the goal.

 

Interesting.

First things first. I'm older than 50 and can hopefully not be classed a glory hunter but I know and respect people who have been following the club for longer than I and/ or have seen more games. I began going to games during the disastrous 71-72 relegation debacle and whilst having been to many of the memorable games I have endured numerous times of hardship and desperation following the team I love. I was there when we were 92nd in the league in 1975. I was among the 4,000 or so poor souls who watched us beat Newport County, a few days after being dumped out of the FA Cup at Northwich Victoria in 1977. I won't go on but during this time I have seen the end of terracing, moving through unreserved seating, to reserved seating and believe it was this final action which has created the problem because there is virtually now way that younger, boisterous singers can sit together at games anymore. We ARE a family club and that is one of GT's enduring legacies. We WILL have families and day trippers at the big games; maybe I am one of those now? We have all seen how Palace got around the Wembley 'problem' and all it takes is a bit of thought and preparation next time we are in a similar situation.

I'm more p155ed off with the manner of our defeat, than the defeat itself and still haven't really calmed down, however here's my two penn'orth from Wednesday's viewpoint:


1 When booking tickets, I opted out of going behind the goal, lower tier, as that was NEEDED for the singing fans. Quite frankly I am astonished off that others didn't think of this when buying seats in that area.

2 'Stand up if you love Watford' has got to be one of the most moronic rituals. Getting sneered at in this way by some pimply youth who has probably seen less than 100 games presses my buttons - and on one occasion I was THAT CLOSE to taking at a pop at some little cahunt near me who did this

3 We have performed way beyond anyone's expectation this season but ended up in the play-offs due to inexperience and inconsistency (albeit some of it through injuries to the defence) It was self-inflicted and we deserved it over the season, no matter how great we played for most of the time. However on Monday a bunch of players who already earn small fortunes compared to most who pay for travel and tickets to watch them, couldn't get themselves motivated to beat a mediocre opposition and win promotion to the 'glories' of the PL. It wasn't a cold wet February night in the North but there are people on here who think a couple of 'Yellow Army' chants would have made a difference to those players on Monday?

4 This season has been a zolacoater, for sure but it has ultimately been a sad and bitter disappointment because we got SO close to achieving the unexpected. It was within tantalising reach and we blew it, time and time again. Roll on next season!

COYH

 

Not to motivate them but to inject some confidence whilst they were being given a pounding. You're implying they were playing half-arsed, they played badly, they didn't play lazily.

 

I'm not sure why anybody is surprised by the lack of noise. I was one of a group of 16 in block 115 towards the back and we tried all game and I could see similar groups all over the lower tier doing likewise but those around us very rarely joined in. I didn't hear the upper tier at all but I'm not sure that Wemnley is all that great anymore for atmosphere. I didn't hear that much from Palace either. I could see their fanatics, or whatever they're called, singing all game but couldn't really hear them. The problem we have, is that we don't have that many singers full stop, but those that do sing tend to go away quite a lot which is why the atmosphere is always better at games like Hull, Charlton and a few others from last year. Although we only have 1300-1500 fans, most of these are fans who sing at any game. When we get big support like Man City or Wembley everybody is so spread out and mixed in with fans who are not bothered by singing then it's always going to be poor. If and I hope when we get a big game like this in the future maybe the club can put aside 2 or 3 blocks together for those that want to sing. This has obviously worked at Palace and appently Deportivo as well and their numbers seem to be growing. Other thing to note is that a lot of fans require things to be happening on the pitch to get up and sing and let's be honest we weren't at the races Monday. In our two big supported games this year we've been poor and this doesn't help. I'm sure if we had played well and created lots of pressure it would have been better.
I'm still gutted!

 

You could, but the one's I've highlighted were all critical end of season games that could easily have meant automatic promotion. The pressure games where the support WAS there and they simply didn't turn up. It's not down to the support.

 

I you make a more vocal support a regular thing then maybe the players won't get thrown off so much when the big games do come around.

 

That's a very good point.

 

Diamond, don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.

 

Good to see there are others who can remember the REAL bad times....if the Kirby Relegation Season was your baptism & you kept coming back, then you deserve a medal! At least I'd had the FA Cup games vs Man U & Liverpool, promotion to Div 2, FA Cup semi by then....

I'm 57 in a couple of weeks & my missus is over 60 & we were standing up & joining in/trying to start chants (in 116, row 41) during most of the game, but after a couple of minutes in I thought I was at a James concert so many times did I hear the shout "Sit Down"! However, it did sound quite loud immediately around us, but we could tell that other sections were singing different chants at the same time, so we got no real critical mass behind us. I'd also agree that the Palace fans (although louder than us) were nothing special until they scored & that was on the back of dominating large parts of the game, so lets not exaggerate the difference.

I think Zola's comments over the weekend that he wanted the players to enjoy the game & not let the pressure get to them was evidence of the fact that he was concerned as to their state of mind....as evidenced in the way the match panned out. Yet despite that & despite them having Zaha at the top of his game (after the 1st half at least), we were only a brilliant goal-line clearance from a shoot-out. Just a little bit extra from our key players would have seen us through & I think Palace will need a massive squad overhaul to have any chance next year.

 

I remember when we got relegated by losing to Walsall I believe 3-2, we went in to the Supporters club and someone put "old shep" on the juke box. It rather fitted in with the mood at the time

 

But the HF ultra group that Palace have were clearly the difference between the support today, they were organised and dedicated and unfortunately from what it sounds like all of the Watford fans that wanted to stand and/or sing were inconveniently placed next to people who wanted no atmosphere at all.

Clearly an ULTRAS group in Vic is needed. There was two matches in Wembley - on the pitch and off the pitch. Palace won them both...:sign15:

 

It was really embarassing to be honest. Admittedly due to the fact i haven't lived within a hundred miles of hertfordshire since i was 14 (I had a season ticket 07-08 ) i'm much more used to away games (Preston on a tuesday night etc. and last season when we only brought 105 fans to boro) however i could tell from the offset that i was surrounded by daytrippers (real daytrippers, i mean i actually saw prawn sandwiches daytrippers) and from the moment my brother got me to sit down at the beginning of the match it just didn't feel right did it? Usually if the other team wins with a 105th minute pen you'd be of the belief that your team deserved to win, but there was something about the atmosphere that made us feel defeated before it started.

 

Good to have had an inquest into this. Safe to say we are ALL agreed that the way we sold our allocation caused problems which, with a bit of forethought, could have been avoided.

This must never happen again.

I'll email the club and point them to this thread and suggest they put some thought into doing things differently, not only for when we play at Wembley again but for other Man City type games.

 

Just emailed the following to the Club.

We at the WFCForums.com site have been discussing the comparatively poor support at the Play Off Final on Monday. Please see http://www.wfcforums.com/showthread.php?47443-The-fans-today

The common consensus is that the problems were caused by the way in which our ticket allocation was sold. By comparison, Crystal Palace seemed to have made it very clear that certain sections of the ground would be 'reserved' for those who wished to stand & sing, meaning those who didn't knew not to buy tickets in those areas.

This simple but effective bit of pre-planning made a huge difference and we would urge you to consider a similar approach, not only for our next Wembley appearance but for 'Man City' type away games next season.

The same principle applies at Vicarage Rd and from the fans perspective the Cardiff experiment worked well. While we'd hope it will be frequently repeated next season, perhaps some consideration could be put into creating a permanent area for the 2014/15 season.

Regards,

 

We have a spokesman now then? Nice.

 

Well said

Couldn't agree more. I would just add if there was anyway we could sort this next season. Next season is going to be crucial !

 

Watford FC cannot issue tickets that encourage or condone standing as it breaches the ground regulations. For clarity, it was not singing that caused the arguments /fights amongst fans where I was - it was standing. And it was only Watford fans asking others to sit after they themselves had complied with requests from the Wembley stewards to do so.

Anyway, is there a special genetic reason why Watford fans are unable to sit and sing at the same time? The way people are talking on this thread it's as if there were 15,000 people who wanted to sing. Let's be honest, when the experiment was tried against Cardiff they struggled to sell 1000 tickets.

 

Reply from the club:

Thank you for your email.

Your views are very much appreciated, as is all feedback that we receive at Watford Football Club.

Your comments have been forwarded to the relevant department.

Thank you for taking the time to write in to us and also for your continued support.

Regards

 

Insightful as ever from the team at Watford football club.

 

Some good points made, could some of the “real supporters” explain why the Cardiff experiment was not a sell-out, or do we only have 1000 “real supporters”.

 

Tbh I don't think palace having a singing section made all the difference, as everyone else in their end still stood up. It is just demographics. The day trippers that went with watford were family or upper middle class biggots who only went to tell their friends that they've been to wembley. On the flip side palaces day trippers were mostly men aged 16-30 who just wanted to have a bloody good laugh. This is why we were out sung.

 

Please post more often.

 

You're both missing the point ...

Some people want to sing & stand and some don't. The consensus is that we create areas for each so that EVERYONE enjoys the game.

P.S 1000 for the experiment was a great start when you remember that most of us had to contact the club to switch their seats to be in that section. No need to be so dismissive of people trying to make a difference.

Edit - the above was addressed to rebel Ian and div 4.

 

Please don't assume you speak for the users of this forum.

 

Ditto.

 

Only people with good pitch control should be allowed to sing at football matches