Naylor slags off Amex support

[Hamilton]

Fu Howtun? The famous 18th century Mongolian philosopher?

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

Fu Howtun? The famous 18th century Mongolian philosopher?

Yeah him

 

[Hamilton]

Yeah him

Well that all makes sense then

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

Edna is not the only female on Nsc.

Yes but she's in charge of them

 

[Bigtomfu]

Loosely translated as "If I write a piece slating the support, they will be so indignant and eager to prove me wrong, the atmosphere for the remaining games will be a veritable CALDERON of noise".

Which is EXACTLY what the club want.

Clever.

Sales bait for the paper version of a production that is a pale shadow of its former self.

Having said that, Naylor has a point of sorts. The atmosphere was fine in the first two seasons but has been a bit flat and intermittent ever since. Its not unique to the Amex though. Many new all seater stadia have similar issues.

That's a little unfair. Just as you may not hear the WSU from the North Stand, you need to realise that not much is heard from the North Stand when in WSU !

No they don't. They have 30 hooded chavs in a corner, with a drum and mic right infront of them. The rest of the ground never sing like I've seen at The Albion.

I beg to differ, one the last couple of televised Palace games the whole atmosphere has seemed noticeably louder with wide participation. Could be TV, but seems that way. We, on the other hand, are always limited at home and the away end always seem to be louder and constant.

Andy Naylor. A 'local' journalist who lost the club and due to dwindling print sales has no connection to the fan base.

The epitome of irrelevance in modern football.

I've not learnt a single exclusive following or reading his poorly researched prose in years. Such dull trite and boring analysis and interviews.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Edna is not the only female on Nsc.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Edna won't be happy you called her that

I shout abuse with the best of them, and I'm more than happy to join in with a song or two from my position in the WSU, frequently aided by (gin and) the poster formerly known as The Peanut Roaster, along with a few others.

I'm just far too ladylike to start them, obviously. But you hum it, and I'll sing the words

One point that hasn't been raised thus far relates to all-seater stadiums. This Safe Standing thing is all well & good, and I'd love to see it at the Albion. It may well be passed into law at some point, and I'm sure some clubs will take it up. I bet the Albion won't be one of them though, simply because they can charge considerably more for seats, therefore they'd be making a loss by installing these rail seat things.

In my opinion, the biggest factor in stadium atmospheres deteriorating since the implementation of the Taylor Report requirements has been the inability to watch from wherever and with whomever you want. Back in the Old Days- and I'm not one of those who'd claim the Goldstone was always a cauldron of intensity anyway- people could nonetheless turn up and congregate with like-minded sorts, such is the nature of a terrace. Singers naturally gravitated towards other singers, and could move around as much as they liked during games, and so the noise level was raised and maintained.

That's impossible now with all seater stadiums and, as a direct consequence of that, allocated seating.

If the club were to experiment with a few blocks of unallocated seating in (as the obvious example) the North Stand, then perhaps those minded to make the most noise would eventually end up in the same location and boost the atmosphere. I guess there would be some sort of restriction on capacity if that were to happen, and clearly there would be existing season ticket holders who'd be pissed off at not having their particular seats guaranteed.

The up-side, of course, is that if those who generate the noise wanted to guarantee their prime positions in order to do so, then they'd have to get into the seats earlier, which would perhaps ramp up the atmosphere before the game started. Look at those European games, where the fanatics are there for an hour beforehand, singing away*. The club might actually make more money if people felt they needed to get to the Amex earlier in order to secure their preferred spot.



*might also be connected to the legality in certain countries of being able to drink beer in your seat

 

[chaileyjem]

Andy Naylor. A 'local' journalist who lost the club and due to dwindling print sales has no connection to the fan base.

The epitome of irrelevance in modern football.

I've not learnt a single exclusive following or reading his poorly researched prose in years. Such dull trite and boring analysis and interviews.

I'm happy to defend vocally AN and the other journalists who regularly cover the Albion.. I think the criticism he gets on here is ridiculous. Its certainly not poorly researched, dull or trite.
The Argus pays for impressive Albion photography, reporting, journalism, it occasionally holds the club to account (pricing, player recruitment, performances), and provides 2-4 pages of Albion coverage in print,most of it for free online and on Twitter nearly 7 days a week. Of course AN sometimes gets things wrong and he's sometimes tetchy about NSC (who can blame him after comments like the above) but he often holds up his hands to that and is remarkably patient on Twitter especially with some of the reaction he gets.

At the moment the owners of the Albion are relatively benign but that might not always be the case in which case paid journalism with the motivation and resources to scrutinise our club is something worth supporting everywhere.
Do you just want local media to be purely the match reports and coverage provided via the staff who write for seagulls.co.uk ?

 

[Craven Wine]

Just seems unnatural to sing with passion when you're sitting on your arse! IMHO

 

[origigull]

When you normally go to away matches most are 'sit where you like' and people tend to lump together to sing. At home we have designated seats so singers are in little pockets and the noise dissipates some what.
Edit - Beaten by Edna.

 

[Nixonator]

Just seems unnatural to sing with passion when you're sitting on your arse! IMHO

How much of the north are actually stood up?

 

[The Wizard]

What a great time to make these comments though, anyone would think he has some agenda to be controversial to try sell some more papers. Oh...

 

[Thunder Bolt]

How much of the north are actually stood up?

About a third.

 

[chaileyjem]

What a great time to make these comments though, anyone would think he has some agenda to be controversial to try sell some more papers. Oh...

Everything Naylor or rather his Editor do is ultimately designed to generate more revenue either online or via print sales or advertising and sustain their business of paying journalists, editors, photographers to produce content about the Albion (and everything else). . And this is a single column amidst dozens and dozens of other pieces in a week.
Local journalism is in a fight for its life .
What exactly is wrong with that ?

 

[Working class pride]

Everything Naylor or rather his Editor do is ultimately designed to generate more revenue either online or via print sales or advertising and sustain their business of paying journalists, editors, photographers to produce content about the Albion (and everything else). . And this is a single column amidst dozens and dozens of other pieces in a week.
Local journalism is in a fight for its life .
What exactly is wrong with that ?

Nothing but when they write an article that is plainly daft then they lose credibility. I stopped reading when he said about Milton Keyes "the relatively short trip". For Albion fans its a 4 to 5.5 hour journey depending on if they are in Hastings or Crawley. The noise at Brighton is excellent and the turn out frankly superb and always has been going back to 34000 for Rochdale in the 3rd division. Naylor never has known anything about the Albion and looks like he never will. The argus seems to miss JV even now, although Brian Owen shows potential.

 

[Captain Sensible]

The point where I disagree with Naylor is mainly his Twitter feed comments. Although sighting Palace as an example in the article is really quite pathetic. Is that what Naylor wants, drums, and a handful of Ultras lalaing euro pop songs?

I disagree with him that the Atmosphere at the Amex is worse than most other grounds. I also disagree when he says our attendance against Reading was 'poor'. Was that fixture not moved twice? I also disagree with him because I believe this is a by product of modern football stadia & price of admission, rather than the support just being 'poor'.

Yes I would like the Atmosphere to be back at where it was for the 1st 2 seasons. But we have to ask why has the noise level dipped before we can make it better? I think the 1st 2 seasons the Amex was such a novelty and season ticket holders were all new to each other. Everyone got behind the team a bit more, there was singing and standing chest pumping songs from the West upper and the North was more cohesive than today. There wasn't an expectation level either as there was in the following 2 seasons under Oscar and Sami. This season has been one of surprise but also I still don't think any of us actually have that much confidence that we really believe we are going up automatically. We are almost waiting for a mistake or for us to screw up from a leading position.

So I think the seasons and how they panned out have had something to do with a quiet nervousness at the Amex. Also I think the Club have a bit to do here, change the fan zone build up, add a few home grown events like when we had the marching band doing GOSBTS. Also prices, reduce them a few quid, bring a friend along but actually allow you both to relocate so you can sit together. Encourage filling the north, encourage singing by calling the north the chanting zone, so those that are currently not joining in, don't feel embarrassed to do so, make it almost an obligation to sing in the North and above all allow them stand when singing. If you stand you have to be singing! It might make a difference.

There's plenty we can do ourselves. Just all get more vocal!! Maybe the piece by Naylor will stir a response on Saturday week. But I still don't agree with his views and I believe encouragement and a challenge to fans and the club to make the Amex a fortress would have been better than snide swipes on Twitter.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I don't understand why so many people make absolutely no noise.

Hearing the home crowd cheering is a great sensation and it is such a positive thing for the human spirit to join in. Some of our fans have never sung the names of Buckley, Vicente or Ulloa and I find that rather sad.

 

[portway]

Let's be honest though (having lived there)
Brighton, Hove, Portslade is a pleasent enough place to live but don't expect unbridled passion.
That's why the potential of MK is so much greater it's gritty, urban and bang on between London and Birmingham.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Let's be honest though (having lived there)
Brighton, Hove, Portslade is a pleasent enough place to live but don't expect unbridled passion.
That's why the potential of MK is so much greater it's gritty, urban and bang on between London and Birmingham.

Now I know you're on a wind up

How was that penalty for you? Are you one of the ones on MK Dons Fans TV that we've all so enjoyed?

 

[Taybha]

Let's be honest though (having lived there)
Brighton, Hove, Portslade is a pleasent enough place to live but don't expect unbridled passion.
That's why the potential of MK is so much greater it's gritty, urban and bang on between London and Birmingham.

Kinel , Ha ! if MK disappeared off the map , nobody would ever remember it was there or wonder what used to be in the bit between London and Birmingham .