Is Anyone Else Feeling Meh About The Forthcoming Season....

[pauld]

Not really.....no, I don't claim to support from my arm chair....hell, I don't even really claim to support any more full stop. Plus 500+ games tells a different story.

I said I've been twice since Paul Hart took us down.

I went to as many games under KMac as I did Di Canio.....

OK, so not even a Johnny Armchair fan then. Just a glory hunter who can't enjoy watching good football for it's own sake?

[DRS]

To be fair DV has explained in great detail why he has lost the love. I been and seen him at enough away games when we have been absolutley dog shit in relegation scraps and he has been there so think armchair is a bit harsh..


Guarantee he has got himself a bird doing well at work and going through that fuck football stage that we all go through at some stage.

He will be back

[Skinny Pete]

The worst day out at football is better than the best day shopping - or whatever else people do instead of football

[Reg Smeeton]

To be fair DV has explained in great detail why he has lost the love. I been and seen him at enough away games when we have been absolutley dog shit in relegation scraps and he has been there so think armchair is a bit harsh..


Guarantee he has got himself a bird doing well at work and going through that fuck football stage that we all some of us go through at some stage.

He will be back

Yes it is to his credit to be honest about he's fronted up, but it is something I've seen down the years, whereby the seemingly most commited, become the first to drop off, whereas the Steady Eddie, who just enjoys his pint and 90 minutes keeps going.

[Batch]

Agree with his sentiment, nobody wants to watch a John beck style team, but I'd take it for a season or two to get into the championship over 'total football' and stay in league 1.

if things were that simple

[Ardiles]

Yes it is to his credit to be honest about he's fronted up, but it is something I've seen down the years, whereby the seemingly most commited, become the first to drop off, whereas the Steady Eddie, who just enjoys his pint and 90 minutes keeps going.

When you think about it, it's surprisingly easy to see why.  The most committed 'die hards' demand more from their football in the first place.  It's everything to them, and the buzz/rush they get reflects that.  But you can't sustain that over a long period.

Eventually, we all become the stereotypical, Arkell's Stand, rug-on-lap, thermos flask drinkers we all used to poke fun at.  (Either that or stop going all together.)

[A Gent Orange]

i'm the opposite. As I've got older I care less about the opposition and the grounds (and the passion!) so the quality of football we play is much more important. I love that we are doing something more interesting that Beck stuff hence I keep renewing. Another season of Hart would have killed off my interest (but for a different reason) but Di Canio didn't do that much for it either.

[RWB Robin]

I love it, and will be there as often as I can from my vantage point in Wales - home or away.  And I will, without guilt sit in the Arkells, not because I'm old and decrepit (tho I am), and have no passion (which I have oodles of) but because I can see the football!  The challenge is to make the Arkells as responsive as, well, the DR at least...and it showed in the Sheff Utd game that it can be transformed`into a wall of noise, if not a pack of baying hounds.  I will do my part, if others will....but i will never be a solo singer!!!

Bring it on......

[Ardiles]

I actually quite like the Arkells.  Relocated there from the Town End a few years ago when my boys started coming.  As you say, it's nice actually being able to see the game...something you can't always guarantee in the Town End.  And the view of Christ Church silhouetted on the horizon at sunset on a crisp November afternoon from my vantage point at the top of the Arkell's is a sight worth living for (even when the football on the pitch is ropey.)

[Power to people]

I've struggled Pre-season to get the get up and go I usually like pre-season seeing a couple of games against the local teams that just eases me back in, have missed that not really been up for watching all the premier teams, I will go to my first pre-season this year on Sunday.

I have concern about the players we have lost not having been suitably replaced and the size of our squad, how many we are going to concede and how we will score goals, but equally the transfer window is open until end of Aug and I'm sure Power will sign a few more.  There are probably a few he is waiting on for when the season kicks of and players find themselves not selected and realise they need to move on, he does seem to have his contacts for decent players.

Not happy about their press ban either as I used to enjoy reading pre match comments from manager and players and listening to interviews, now seemingly we are to have nothing about than crap on Fanzai which I have no interest in.

All in all I suspect the excitement will return once I'm sitting in my seat and we hear the team news against Bradford.

[BambooToTheFuture]

Come on you miserable fukkers!!

"Wise men say, only fools rush in, but I can't help.... falling in love with you. SA-WIN-DON!!"

Get it together. This is our mantra. Slap yourself in the face and hear those echoing concrete concourses, as you climb the short steps up and out to a view of luscious green turf.  Feel the fresh late summer air and bite those nails down to the skin. Where dismay and elation are but seconds from each other. Drama. Emotion. Success. Failure. Tense, with three minutes remaining, Robert hustles Liddle and releases Byrne with a cutting pass. Byrne ducks right, ducks left, cuts inside the box, lifts the ball over Sheehan with the outside of his right boot....GOAL!!! Obika slams home from six yards with Ben Williams completely at his mercy. STFC 1-0 Bradford. Parkinson looks furious as he was waving his arms at Roberts' challenge on Liddle. Cooper calm, with a wry smile, breathes in and looks to the sky, while new signing Traore and Robert dance in front of the Town End and Liverpool loanee Jordan Williams goes down in Town folklore history by cupping his ear to the Bradford contingent then miming "shhh" to them.

Come on this is why, we love football. For these moments. Regardless of how shit it can get. Even beating the likes of Fleetwood on a Tuesday night with seconds to spare is every bit as enjoyable as "those 3-0 Leeds beatings" or "that 6-4 reversal against Birmingham" when we were 4-0 down at HT.  We live through the peaks and the troughs, like in our day to day life, because (in most terms) STFC is part of our life.

"WE'LL NEVER DIE, WE'LL NEVER DIE, WE'LL NEVER DIE, WE'LL NEVER DIE..." !!

[pauld]

To be fair DV has explained in great detail why he has lost the love. I been and seen him at enough away games when we have been absolutley dog shit in relegation scraps and he has been there so think armchair is a bit harsh..

It was DV who used the term armchair, to describe people who (shock, horror) might actually enjoy watching football. All I did was point out it might be more appropriately applied to someone who didn't attend games. When he then clarified that he wasn't an armchair supporter because he didn't support the team in any meaningful sense any more I was happy to recategorise him as not even an armchair supporter

[scillyred]

Speaking as a true 'armchair fan' albeit having had 30yrs of live viewing - I found last year's televised matches largely dire & embarrassing - hopefully this year will be better

I can accept the financial restraints placed on the team - what I find really galling is driving past Reading & Brighton's new grounds, on my occasional trips to the mainland & realising that we have really stagnated over a long period of time.

[Exiled Bob]

.....or "that 6-4 reversal against Birmingham" when we were 4-0 down at HT......

2-1 at half-time. 4-1 down with about 30 minutes left.....

[Reg Smeeton]

Speaking as a true 'armchair fan' albeit having had 30yrs of live viewing - I found last year's televised matches largely dire & embarrassing - hopefully this year will be better

I can accept the financial restraints placed on the team - what I find really galling is driving past Reading & Brighton's new grounds, on my occasional trips to the mainland & realising that we have really stagnated over a long period of time.

Like when we won at the Ricoh, Bramall Lane and were involved in the epic 5-5 game.  OK the 3 others were shit....