Are we losing something?

[Postman Pat]

Threads like this one from Saturday show me why we still are a club for the fans

Craig Noone and the Albion brilliant OFF the pitch. PLEASE READ

Seeing Craig Noone's tweet that he got excited when he spotted a fan in town wearing a shirt with his name on the back, so much so he had to take a picture, shows our players are not Billy Big Balls, they are as excited about this as the rest of us.

You say you didn't see any faces you recognised on Saturday, I have seen so many old friends at the Amex, people I went to school or College with, people I used to drink with, family members I haven't seen in a while.

I put on a post on Saturday that there were 9 members of my family in the ground in various places, some are JCL's, Some JCB's, all welcome and all had a great time.

The sight of so many people in Brighton and Hove in Albion shirts is heart-warming. Many under 18's the next generation of support.

The atmosphere on the North Concourse after the game when we went top was almost electric. Fans of both clubs mixing and chatting without the meerest hint of trouble.

I really hope that over the next few months you get that burning back in your heart for the club, these are exciting times, and the club still needs every fan whether they are die-hard fans from the 60's, JCB's from the Goldstone, JCL's at the amex, or people that have been following the Albion all their lives and going to the odd game when they can(like me).

The way this season is shaping up, all games will be big ones. Enjoy the ones you make.

The future is bright, the future is blue and white.

 

[NMH]

As people get older you hear them say "things weren't like this when I was young, we could buy this and that for a few pence and still have change" etc.
But they were piss poor in those good old days, get very little for their money if truth were told, and if they knew what they would be getting in the future for a similar percentage of their income and the comparitive luxuries they could enjoy - they'd be begging for time to hurry forward to these times.

We live in the most amazing period in history, and with the ability to complain to a wider audience ...in less time than we could ever hope for.
Result.

No hard feelings mate, but feel free to adjust your perspective to keep up with the age we live in.
Standing on terraces getting soaked, or pressed among a load of smokers under a dark corrugated roof may have had a nice aspect to it looking back - but rose tinted specs make loads of things look better that are in the past.

 

[1swedegull]

Im loving every minute of watching the Albion train build up a massive head of steam and the Gus Bus providing the connections ... Onwards and Upwards ... for 14 years weve struggled, scrimped, whooped at a player thats cost us 300k now we are on the map ... We aint lost something at all but gained a hell of a lot

 

[Biscuit]

You don't need loyalty points to get a ticket for a home match. Just got here and pick one up for £20. North Stand Chat double what you stated but Falmer and the squad are worth it.

 

[Blues Rock DJ]

Not being disrespectful but being close to the club and players in the lower leagues? Really? I've followed Albion home and away in the lower leagues and as much as I love the club I've very rarely had a friendly response from players and as for club officials and directors? Apart from dick knight and perry, have you forgotten Archer, Belotti and the like?
As supporters we've worked so hard with actions and with our emotions to be in the position we are at the moment. Why shouldn't we enjoy and rejoice in the good times we're currently experiencing. And long may it continue all the way to the premier league.

Does your memory not go back as far as the 'Seagull Special' trains to away games, where the players and manager ( Alan Mullery, at the time) mingled with supporters??

 

[simmo]

Mr BathSeagull

You want to try getting to the Amex more.

The atmosphere is banging where I am (WSU) and it looks just as good if not better in the North Stand. The new stadium is not souless like the Emirates where people are frowned upon for daring to make a chant. It is better than any away game at the moment (which I always prefered to home games at the Withdean). Not only that the football on the pitch is superb, the skill levels shown the sharp inter changing of passes, the continental way of play is sometimes a joy to behold and not the big hoof up to a lump of a centre forward looking for a flick on. Do you know what I remember under Mark Mcghee where Kuipers (I am sure instructed) at every goal kick basically hoofed the ball just in front of the dug outs where all 10 outfield players plus opposition were congregated in about a 10M sq area looking for nod ons.

Also as well the club has lost none of it's "community" spirit to me. In the last 2 weeks I have met Inigo Calderon twice walking away from the stadium and had a chat with him on both occasions also on Sat I met and started had chatting to Martin Perry. Jeez you watch these prem big nobs speed of at 5.15pm on a Sat night in their tinted ferrari's but it isn't like that at the Amex at all. The only thing that has changed is Gus is getting more and more better players in and yet these players excluding CMS seemed to have slipped under everyone else radar, it is Gus' skill that he got (and has improved) Noone (for an eg) for £250K, all of the Premiership could have got him and so could have half the Championship for that money, but Gus did and at the moment I would say Noone is worth at least 8/10 times what Gus paid for him. There are others too that Gus has improved Dunk, Bridcutt, Calderon, Barnes, El Abd the list goes on and on and apart from less than 80 minutes from each we still await to see what Hoskins, Buckley and Harley can do, but what we have seen from all 3 so far looks very promising.

After years of utter mediocrity sometimes in the bottom flight at places like Gillingham, playing sh1te football, how can you not be enjoying it now? I don't understand what it is that there is to not enjoy....unless it is too much bother to try and get a ticket to see the entertainment that is put in front of you.

 

[Brovion]

Does your memory not go back as far as the 'Seagull Special' trains to away games, where the players and manager ( Alan Mullery, at the time) mingled with supporters??

Mine certainly does! Back in those days we all felt we were one and the same: players, directors, management and fans, we were all in it together just seeing how high we could go. And that is EXACTLY how I feel at the moment; if anything now that I'm older and given what we've been through I'm feeling it even more than I did then.

 

[Brovion]

For bathseagull and anyone else who thinks we've 'lost something', have a read of this thread:

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?159407-Your-ALBION-mojo

THAT my friends is when we had 'lost' something! We've found it now!

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Part-time fans moaning about ticket allocations. Next!

*Doffs cap*.

 

[Steve Foster]

Anyone who thinks they are missing something could go & watch one of our non league Sussex sides on a Saturday (when the Albion are playing away).

As for BHA I have a big smile on my face when I go to the Amex, a big smile during the game & a big smile afterwards. I don't care that the prices have gone up. Fed up watching my team in the open, dirty stadiums. Give me Falmer any day!

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

I agree with all of your points and as I said before, it's not so much about not being able to get tickets, or thinking they are too expensive, or thinking the club is out of touch. It's an intangible feeling of just not getting as much of a buzz as before.

For what it's worth, I think it could be partly down to the fact that I missed the Donny game (even though I had a ticket - had some interesting travel problems on the way). That broke my heart and I missed out on the first day, first view of the pitch, flags, tears, party atmos etc. I still struggle to look at videos and photos of that game without filling up. I went to Pompey the following week which was obviously class and then Peterborough last Saturday and while I obviously loved finally getting to a game at Falmer, I spent a good 15 minutes in the concourse before the game and didn't recognise ONE face that I saw. Then when I took my seat the overwhelming feeling was one of having arrived at a party a day late.

I appreciate a lot of the constructive comments on here and I'm sure it will change. I still love the club, of course and I look forward to continuing to do so for many years to come.

As a STH in the WSU we have a great bunch in the row behind us. They even shared their sweets at the Sundeland game which Wilko LOVED (lemon Percy pigs since you ask) so its all about meeting NEW people.

I will be honest with 20,000 people there it would be difficult to recognise people and besides maybe you should find out where they are sat so you can get a ticket for that area.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Loyalty points aren't needed for some away games. Russ didn't have enough funds to book online for Cardiff away and have the tickets posted or phone up to book and pick up at their ground. Lost out on loyalty points but he and a mate still went knowing it was POTG. So for him it wasn't all doom and gloom and they were well excited by the 3-1 win.

 

[Sheebo]

Need 60 for Liverpool, Leeds or Palace...

Leeds and Palace will make 'general sale' I bet you. Or will make it down to fans with 20 points. That's one home game isn't it?

Poor excuse even as a non STH to claim you can't get tickets - it's a piece of piss - get organised!

 

[Sheebo]

As a STH in the WSU we have a great bunch in the row behind us. They even shared their sweets at the Sundeland game which Wilko LOVED (lemon Percy pigs since you ask) so its all about meeting NEW people.

I will be honest with 20,000 people there it would be difficult to recognise people and besides maybe you should find out where they are sat so you can get a ticket for that area.

What about the ruffians to your left?

 

[Sheebo]

For bathseagull and anyone else who thinks we've 'lost something', have a read of this thread:

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?159407-Your-ALBION-mojo

THAT my friends is when we had 'lost' something! We've found it now!

Top bounce that mate - thanks. It was all rather doom and gloom back then - I'm glad everyone on that thread now seems to have the mojo back - courtesy of Poyet / Tano / Bloom / Knight etc etc

 

[JCL - the new kid in town]

It is certainly an exciting time to be a fan but the experience is different since Gus took over. Previously you would go to games and although you always hoped for a win, it wasn't the team winning that brought you back every week. Now there is almost more disappointment when we don't win because its almost expected. I also think that because the battle to survive and get a stadium is over you can almost lose the togetherness that was felt in the years of wilderness and travelling to Gillingham with only a few others fans knowing that you could sahre your misery. Is it perhaps the lack of depression that makes people feel differently about the club and feel that their relationship has changed?

 

[tooting2]

defo you my man if you not in love with the albion at the moment you will never be am a non season ticket holder myself but have only game i have missed home or away was the sunderland game and that was because of work commitments if your not a season ticket holder you have to accept your not going to get a ticket for every single game getta grip man and support our brillant team till the end

 

[alan partridge]

I moved house when i was 11. We moved about 200 yards, possibly to be in another school catchment area. Thanks to my father's untimely demise and his insurance paying off our mortgage, we moved into somewhere slightly bigger and a slightly newer built. One of those streets exploded a tad in the second world war, unless someone made that tale up (not of the second world war, i believe in that) of that street being remade. I went to school that day from one home and returned to another, but of the course the second one, which of course my family still live in, just off sunny Upper Lewes Road, could only be thought of as a house, an oddly taller edifice, a chiselled sculpture of an item i couldn't recognise or name, an empty building despite the furniture from house 1 being the same. It took some 6 months, i'd say, before house 2 was home. The routines stayed the same and our family relations sustained their lack of visitation, but it was eerier than before and perhaps even ghostly in spite of me not for one second thinking my ghoulish father had made his phantomic return to tease us after life even. It wasn't until curtains were accidentally torn and a mattress or two singed with teenage smoking that it began to become mine, ours, lived-in.
It seems that only in waste, when the cracks of abysses first appear and life unquestionably grows in and through it do we begin to accept our surroundings. Beforehand, we might have a modelled imperfection, but an innate faultiness soon casts itself atop it and leaves it with fingerprints and besmirchments. I suppose we'll have that in the near future at the Amex and have it as ours more.

Thread closed.

 

[Seagulljohn]

Ive followed the albion since i was 6 when Dad took me and my brothers to the goldstone every other sat. I remember teen age years doing a paper round just to pay the £6 train and £6 to get into north stand. One of my brothers turned to pompey but my other brother, no matter where he was posted with the army (in this country) would always meet me for home games on a sat. Ive been to wembly, ive been to cardiff, ive seen the team lose, ive seen them win, hell ive seen promotion once or twice, but ive never lost heart in the club, with the following, with the feeling of excitement on match day, be it canvey island or liverpool.

The only time ive faulted with my love was when my brother was killed 6 years ago.It just didnt feel right being at the game without him. I remember my mates taking me to bognor for a pre season friendly against the albion a year after my brother died. A few of them knew the bognor team and they managed to get me a signed shirt from the albion boys in memory of Rob. To me thats what makes this club so special. The genunie love of the team, the fans and the game. For gods sake do you think any one wanted to play at the withdean

We been the almost has beens, weve been champions, weve been the joke BUT theres never been a better time to be a Brighton fan as there is now. When people ask me what time am I and i reply Brighton, I get comments like ahh great new ground, great form so far etc not Who?? or oh dear.

Lets just love the team, gus, and the plain good old albion spirit again !

coz we never know just how long the good times will last . . . . . .

John

 

[bellsize seagull]

defo you my man if you not in love with the albion at the moment you will never be am a non season ticket holder myself but have only game i have missed home or away was the sunderland game and that was because of work commitments if your not a season ticket holder you have to accept your not going to get a ticket for every single game getta grip man and support our brillant team till the end

re read the very first e mail of this long thread before replying.....when does it say not in love as you say and why then use it as a chance to tell everyoner what games you have and have not been too ?