Smiler I agree with you on the feeling of negativity at the home games and to be fair I think yesterday was an excellent result and credit goes to management and players for the way they have got results away from NYS this season. I am not warned biggest fan but I genuinely hope we win every game, this is the club I love. I do think we have the basis of a good squad and a few of the signings have been first rate we now have a top quality right back as a start. So it begs the question why are fans so down on Warnes team, there has to be a reason and it is not just they like a moan. In my few it is the man himself, I think there is something about him and the way he carries out his job that people do not like, I could be wrong but it is an interesting dilemma. Personally I do not like the level of entertainment in home games and I feel that a Paul Warne team doesn't have the fight to turn a game around, I know they have but when we concede a goal at home not many people around me have faith in our ability to fight for a result.
In my opinion its all about expectation. With all Warne's teams these last few years, there has been very little consistency, one week playing superbly, the next abysmal, that was the case during the promotion season, during last season and that seems to be the format this year. Winning games we expect to struggle with and then giving up the ghost when we are expected to win. The fans dont really know what to expect from one week to the next. Its more hope than expectation. Thats for the football technicians amongst us to debate the reason why.
I go back to the Porterfield squad of the 1980-81 season to compare . The crowds were up for it and the excitement started to build while having a pint in the Butchers Arms before the game, You could feel it when walking down to Millmoor and when you took your place in the crowd, reaching a crescendo as the game started. And the goals came, the goals came from every position on the park, forwards midfield even defenders. It wasn't a case of wondering where the next goal was coming from it was a case of who was going to score today. There was expectation, and in my experience that has never been matched.
There was promise of a good game and they delivered and that lasted as long as the team were together, it was more or less the same team week in week out that gave that consisancy and understanding on the pitch. As soon as Emlyn started making changes the magic went.
So in my view it must be the Manager and training, and the constant switching of positions and format of play that is the problem here which is the cause behind the negativity within the crowd. How to change it? I dont know, I've never played the game nor have I much time for reading a game, I just want to see flowing attacking football and a will to win.
All I ask for when I go to NYS is 100% effort and to be entertained. If we're lucky enough to come away with 1 or 3 points that's a bonus. Of late (and speaking as someone who had to miss the Bolton game) we've not seen much entertainment at NYS but the effort can't be criticised. As for PW, I speak with a lot of people who attend matches and I know of no-one who dislikes him personally and most people think he is an excellent ambassador for the club. However, I accept that he might not be everyone's cup of tea and it's probable that many people are at odds with him tactically.
Personally, and I'm no expert, I think it's a matter of us having the confidence to impose ourselves on our opponents. All too often we get sucked into a battle of attrition by teams who have pre-determined to 'park the bus' and hit us on the break. If we went into games with a mindset that we would score more than the opposition, we might find that these lesser but resilient teams would be forced to come out and play - at which stage we would have the quality to beat them. Easy to say but more difficult to put into practice I guess?
Marmite yes. I get tizer every Friday never read what Warney Wood Paul Davies says. All p*ss out of the same pot. I want excitement. Evans not bothered what you say about him his sides at our level were like watching Judd Trump!
gwru - you turn a decent debate into a self-serving, offensive and senseless rant ! Do me a favour, if you want to talk about bowls (or whatever game Judd Trump plays) start your own thread and keep such references off the ones relating to RUFC and Rugby!
I have very different memories of the Porterfield team of 80/81 season Calypso and i think i saw just about every game. They were a side who were difficult to score against and won many games 1-0 especially away from home.
I hope Warne is building a side that is hard to score against. we have currently one of the best defences in the league and that is how you win leagues. Very few teams in the lower divisions win the league with expansive football.
You're right Whiston there were many 1-0 wins but they were often away from home and usually Rod Fern on the end of it. But my view remains the same, the fans having that sense of expectation and excitement. When we lost there was not the type of backlash that there seems to be now. There was the realistic acceptance that 'you can't win em all' and if memory serves we lost 10 games that season and went up as Champions. Its chicken and egg I suppose, is it the football that excites the crowd ? Or is it the crowd that motivates the players? Well they often say that a positive and encouraging crowd is often as good as having an extra man on the pitch.
Judd Trump if you you've never heard of him or what sport he plays it's sad. What's been said it's about excitement at our level. Last home game it wasn't that cold but I felt cold waiting for the final whistle. Won't change under Warney. How can you believe in a manager who runs away to the away dugout.
Ignoring the obvious exception of the usual contributions from gwru and TH Miller, it is good to have a thread with some constructive discussion.
I also think that expectations have changed. Managers were given time to build something. Now any manager that loses a single game is fair game for criticism from supporters (all of us) who see a lot more TV and media analysis and think they know all there is to know. If they lose three in a row they are real candidates for the sack. That is the way it is.
The pressure on Warne is heightened by the fact that we have had two cracks at the Championship in recent seasons and there is a feeling that we are now a relatively 'big club' in League One and should be pushing at the top end of it. There is something in that, although it is easier said than done as some bigger clubs than us who have given some big name managers a go at it have found out.
Add to that that there are those in our fan base who have always seen and always will see Warne as a backroom boy, and in a sense he is on a bit of a hiding to nothing. If he does well (either in individual matches or over the course of a season) it is because we are supposed to do well. If we don't it will be his fault. That is not me having a go at anyone. I just think it is a matter of fact.
As far as home form is concerned, we expect to win at home and put these smaller clubs to the sword. The players will know that there is that expectation. I agree totally with Calypso's analysis. The players are visibly edgy at home at present. It has become a chicken and egg situation, and there is a danger of a downward spiral. It needs breaking. Either the players can break it by giving the crowd something to get behind or the crowd can get and stay behind the players even if they don't start games well and even if they occasionally lose. Since we all surely want the same thing, both should be possible and hopefully before we know it we might have a virtuous circle on our hands.
-- Edited by smiler on Sunday 3rd of November 2019 06:38:35 PM
It is a different world now 80/81 was a long time ago and I agree that the amount of media coverage as well as games we see makes it harder for all concerned. Also social media has created a world where everyone thinks their opinion matters and they are important, I hope on here we are old enough to realise that this is all just banter and none of us really have an important opinion except to ourselves. We live in a world where the sickness of social media is used to destroy people's lives and hound and push people to kill themselves and then celebrate the fact. I prefer to make a post on here and share how I feel watching the millers and then leave it there, a debate or discussion with a bit of banter
Its also a different game now as well derby. And you are right we didn't have the internet then even video recorders were few and far between. We got our info from the Green 'Un. I'm not being nostalgic, I'm just using the 80/81 season as an example to make my case as that was the time that I felt that almost overwhelming confidence in the manager, squad and dare I say it, the chairman at the time (how wrong I was on that point), but I'd like to bet that all the other Millers on the terraces at that time felt the same. The ugliness started under George Kerr
Also I was 24 and single and was often quite excitable. Lol
