Supporting the team

Quoted from 935

Hi All,

Really interested in everyone s views on this...

Few players are contracted beyond this june/july-

Clearly the boo-boys are getting to them- scott kerrs tweet- Omg! Everton are losing at half time! Wonder if they get booed off? There excrement now, all of a sudden they've had a excrement season!!

if many fans are on their backs, professionals or otherwise, where is the incentive to play well??

Fair points.Players are humans after all and need support.For me constructive criticism is the way to go if the effort is forthcoming.Having said that if players dont care and put minimal effort in then criticism is warranted

Quoted from Rick12

fair points.Players are humans after all and need support.For me constructive criticism is the way to go if the effort is forthcoming.Having said that if players dont care and put minimal effort in then criticism is warranted

Whatever else you can say we have a squad who are prepared to put loads of effort in..

Quoted from Sussexmariner

Not really mate....

Ever since I was a kid I had one dream and that was to score the winning goal for Town in the FA cup at Wembley. Failing that was to replace Freddie Mercury as the lead singer of Queen. Both never happened but it wasn't because I never had any "positive mental attitude" it was because A, I was excrement at football and B, had no musical talent and couldn't hold a note to save my life.

A. Terry Barwick     B. Maybe not in Queen but plenty of non note holders have made a career in pop.  

Another factor that is overlooked when assessing current support levels and booing levels is the overbearing weight of ten or more seasons of either downward spiral or ultimate failure, yes the last three seasons have seen a positional rise but only in terms of our divisional table but we have not won anything, just failed to go up or pick up a trophy which when you look back in the future you will pretty much forget what years we have lost at Wembley or in a semi final, or a play off.
Take Arsenal....they set out their season to achieve top four, we seem to have set ours out to get in the play offs, that should not be seen as the benchmark for a good season, Hurst has said in a few interviews in the last couple of weeks 2 or 3 wins will seal it....with 6 games to go he is actually saying its ok to lose 3 games!!
Another thing which irks me lately is the fact Hurst actually uses the fact Halifax, Woking were the form teams so it was never going to be easy...well hey Paul...we will no doubt be playing a team in form in the play offs !!

Quoted from barralad

Whatever else you can say we have a squad who are prepared to put loads of effort in..

good to hear Barra  

Some interesting points and I agree that one thing we do have now is 11 people who put in a complete shift and compete for the full 90 minutes, something we have lacked in the not too distant past.

The other point i would make in respect of supporting the team is how we play & when we lose in games, for example, when we lost at home to Macclesfield I went home in an oK mood, reason I enjoed the match, we lost to a cracking free kick that should not have been awarded and showed real fight in coming back from 2-0 down. Plus mentally thought it was a blip and our good form of the previous two months would return.

After recent game v Hereford, when we drew 1-1 did not lose but went home in foul mood because we played poorly against a poor side and it wasa culmination of poor perfomances since Christmas and rising levels of frustration & season is coming to a close & we need to secure a play off place.

But in my 50 years never booed the team but regularly groan aloud when things go wrong but think thats true of the majority and same watching England on tv where, like many, I regularly sit shouting abuse at the screen something I do not do when actually attending games.

To be fair to Fenty, he has always backed whoever is managing, but I am concerned that our form seems to drop whilst others improve after the transfer window. Like others, booing is a complete no-go, but Kerr and others must accept that, ultimately, it's the fans that pay their wages.

For me, the biggest issue is that many fans can't see us getting out of this league and PH isn't exactly inspirational in the press is he?

Quoted from ginnywings

I'm one of those that hated Slade. Others thought he did a good job. Hurst is another Slade in my eyes. Again, it's all about opinions.

Agree with this, but with one caveat - at least under Slade we appeared to have a gameplan and you could see what he was trying to get the team to do.  Plus at times there was at least a bit of excitement with Reddy running at the opposition defence etc.  

Under Hurst I haven't got a clue what our gameplan is - unless the gameplan is to be dull and uninspiring, in which case he has actually achieved it!

I do not boo players either. It does not improve their performance.  This does not been I will not be critical of individual or the teams performance/results.  Hopefully, in a constructive and understanding way - 90% of the time.  

At work, most people are not too bothered if the company does well or not.  As long as they have a job in the future.

For GTFC, we are all very passionate in our desire for the team to succeed.  We voluntarily spend a great deal of money (hopefully) watching the team progress.  Our loyalty and emotional attachment is long-standing.  Over 50 years in some cases.

Therefore, it is not surprising that feelings run high at times of stress or perceived "poor performance". Unfortunately, some fans at any club will not be constructive in voicing their criticisms.  We will still be here long after the players and manager have left.  You might divorce the wife but you are stuck with your football team for life.    

Do we still sing 'we love you Grimsby we do....we love you Grimsby we do we love you Grimsby we do ooooh Grimsby we love you'

Attack Attack AttackAttackAttack.

its a vicious circle. ...we cheer the players they up their game, they up their game we cheer.  Personally id rather be a supportive influence than a negative moaner.  I do understand people pay good money and all that crap and in many ways I dont think we will ever get rid of some negativity towards the players especially if things dont go towns way.  Coukd this be because of the10 years of decline.

Quoted from GrimRob

I accept there are a few people to whom attacking football is more important than winning, but they are a small minority. Both Slade and Hurst put bums on seats (and the average attendances prove it) by virtue of their win ratios because most fans are more likely to turn up if the team is challenging for promotion. Woods and Buckley espoused the beautiful game but they were sacked because of league position (and the consequent drop in bums on seats)

Personally I go home happier with 3 points however it is achieved than I do with 1 point and I never go home happy with no points. I'm happiest of all if the game has been end to end with lots of chances and we've won, but that's a nice to have. If I want to be entertained I watch something like 20/20 cricket where nobody gives a toss about the result but there's lots of twists and turns.

Attendances are down this season, by about 300 per week. People are gradually starting to realise this season that the football is god damn awful and not worth watching just for the win. Most 'part time' fans (extra fans than the average) go for entertainment, most aren't happy to see us play excrement and win. My brother went for the first time in years on Saturday, he won't be coming back because he thought it was terrible, yet we won. As I've said countless times before, there comes a time when the results aren't worth the excrement you have served up in front of you for 90 mins. No doubt everybody turns up looking for a win, but if it's this awful for this long, whats the point? We get to try and scrape into the league above (and my god it will be scraped) and then what? Play more excrement football? How long does it go on for until it becomes more than just going to get a result.

I don't think fans are being fickle, I don't think it's a lot to ask for the 3rd/4th best budget in this league to produce something worth watching as well as getting a win out of it.