Throughout our history the Covered End singing and chanting has driven teams on, through good times and bad. This season there seems to be an undercurrent of the fans at that end of the ground to turn on the team and the management at the earliest opportunity. I understand that fans pay their money and in theory they have the right to show their discontent when the team is playing poorly, but all it does is put more pressure on the players. Surely our job as fans is to support the team even when in our hearts we know they are playing badly. Do you think that chanting "We're fucking shit", " You're not fit to wear the shirt", "Sacked in the morning", etc, will motivate any team. My gut feeling is that players on the field will think that I can't make a mistake, so play within themselves, rather than be ambitious and try something extraordinary, to avoid fans starting to pick on them.
Some people state that Thomas put that on himself with his preseason quotes of "We're going to blow this league out of the water" etc, but he is the owner, not the team.
I sit in the Alan Curbishley stand, and it is the noise from the Covered End that actually animate the fans in that stand, which ends up with more sound around the ground.
There must be many fans in the Covered End who don't agree with this negative chanting, amongst them must be leaders who can moderate the negative vibes.
I'm also aware that the small amount of booing for Taking the Knee, comes from the Covered End, where the rest of the ground applauses. A question for those like minded people in that end, is it the same people who are booing taking the knee the same people who are starting the negative chanting.
I just don't get it, support the team, through thick and thin (lots of thin at the moment!) If you're unhappy, discuss with your mates, moan in the pub, keep quiet when the defense allows a player to walk through them and then cheer them on when the ball returns to the centre spot.
I'm looking for long standing members of the Covered End to try to moderate the negative chanting for the sake of the team, and would like to hear from such people how they feel when the chanting starts.
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If you want a positive crowd atmosphere, you have to perform. Fans only reflect what's occuring on the pitch.