‘A Block Ultras’

[BUTOR]

1 hour ago, Mad Cyril said:

Fair play to any efforts to create a loud positive atmosphere.

But believing it will be terrifying for opposition players or especially fans is pure fantasy.

Name somewhere where you have ever been terrified by the noise a home section make??

I have seen atmospheres startle players and supporters and change games, countless times. That feeling of pure intimidation doesn’t necessarily exist anymore (there were times and places where you would have every reason to feel terrified) but atmosphere can hugely impact a result. 

[Lanterne Rouge]

2 hours ago, Mad Cyril said:

Fair play to any efforts to create a loud positive atmosphere.

But believing it will be terrifying for opposition players or especially fans is pure fantasy.

Name somewhere where you have ever been terrified by the noise a home section make??

A packed-out mem or so I`ve been told. One player was apparently so terrified he asked to be subbed early.

[Mr Popodopolous]

38 minutes ago, Bouncearoundtheground said:

I have seen atmospheres startle players and supporters and change games, countless times. That feeling of pure intimidation doesn’t necessarily exist anymore (there were times and places where you would have every reason to feel terrified) but atmosphere can hugely impact a result. 

On a lower scale but Bilic mentioned the impact of the crowd in November.

Not as the sole factor but certainly a factor.

My interpretation there is that the team were up for it plus the crowd could see that they were up for it which got them into the game which in turn further lifted the players.

Which is proof were it needed that positive vocal support makes a difference.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[CodeRed]

4 hours ago, italian dave said:

 

One final thought : in my younger days when I probably contributed more to the atmosphere that I can manage now, I did so in the East End. Because that’s where you went. And for two decades or more that’s where you went and that’s what everyone knew.

Over the past two decades the opposite has been the case. Just look at the posts on this thread. It’s been one end of the Williams, it’s been part of the Atyeo, its been Dolman block A/B, it’s been the South Stand, it’s been S82, and now it’s E34. It’s all over the place. And I wonder whether that’s part of the problem. Just settle on one place and stick with it and grow it from there. 

To be fair most of those moves have been dictated by the club/redevelopment......The EE was pulled down - then the Williams - Fans went in Atyeo but were moved sides by the club, then the Atyeo went away only. 

[italian dave]

30 minutes ago, CodeRed said:

To be fair most of those moves have been dictated by the club/redevelopment......The EE was pulled down - then the Williams - Fans went in Atyeo but were moved sides by the club, then the Atyeo went away only. 

Oh, sure: I was just suggesting it was a factor, whoever and whatever was behind it. 

[fisherrich]

4 hours ago, Mad Cyril said:

Fair play to any efforts to create a loud positive atmosphere.

But believing it will be terrifying for opposition players or especially fans is pure fantasy.

Name somewhere where you have ever been terrified by the noise a home section make??

Many a game I have seen players bottle it as a team - including Bristol City.
Leeds, Millwall, Villa immediately jump to mind in recent years.
Even smaller grounds with a “wall of noise” can impact on players. 
Trust me, it makes a difference.

[pongo88]

7 hours ago, fisherrich said:

Which just demonstrates how completely out of touch with true fans the club is. Some of the comments on here by so-called City fans amazes me. Good on those lads that have decided to do something about the crap atmosphere this season.
Football is not like rugby or basketball. Passion, atmosphere, tension, a bit of edge is what football on a Saturday afternoon is all about for the working class man. Too many prawn sandwich/day trip fans are going down just to look at there phone for 90 minutes.
Get up, shout, sing and support the City. Boils my piss FFS!

I hope the Dolman A and B block becomes what it used to be in the 80s. A place where away fans dread. 

This is a very sad post.  People who have different opinions to yourself have as much right be classified as City fans as anyone else. They are not “so called City fans”. Every City fan is entitled to his or her opinion provided it’s expressed in a polite manner. 

[W-S-M Seagull]

7 hours ago, fisherrich said:

Which just demonstrates how completely out of touch with true fans the club is. Some of the comments on here by so-called City fans amazes me. Good on those lads that have decided to do something about the crap atmosphere this season.
Football is not like rugby or basketball. Passion, atmosphere, tension, a bit of edge is what football on a Saturday afternoon is all about for the working class man. Too many prawn sandwich/day trip fans are going down just to look at there phone for 90 minutes.
Get up, shout, sing and support the City. Boils my piss FFS!

I hope the Dolman A and B block becomes what it used to be in the 80s. A place where away fans dread. 

The clubs concern rightly will be that existing A block season ticket holders were severely disrupted yesterday. 

Being forced to stand to see the game.

Fans with no tickets in that block being in their seat. 

So whilst these fans may act like superfans, they are anything but when you consider the impact they've had on their fellow fans. 

If these fans wanted to do this, then do it with consultation and dialogue with the club. Not piss off your fellow fans. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

31 minutes ago, fisherrich said:

Many a game I have seen players bottle it as a team - including Bristol City.
Leeds, Millwall, Villa immediately jump to mind in recent years.
Even smaller grounds with a “wall of noise” can impact on players. 
Trust me, it makes a difference.

Can you list a couple of the games in q that involve these opponents? I agree with your underlying point btw that crowd noise and positive support can swing the games but in recent years I can think of at AG vs these opponents:

1) Leeds 2015 under Cotts Turned round a 2 goal deficit late on.

2) Aston Villa- 2016. 1 down, we win 3-1.

3) Leeds 2016- We won 1-0 but thought the atmosphere good that night.

4) Millwall it's hard to think of- the 3-2 at the start of 2022 maybe? We were a goal up and then turned round from 1-2 to win 3-2. Weimann hattrick day!

On the flipside, the game at Leeds in 2018 we were 2 up, they were crap. Something innocuous sparked their fans into life and we were hanging on by the end!

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[Mr Popodopolous]

Watching the North London derby and while there doesn't seem to be any great Tottenham standing area (not to say there isn't) the away fans are merely separated from the home with a line of stewards at either side.

Quite different to Ashton Gate these days? Seems like overkill somewhat with us. Whether it's the club or the SGSA/SAG it seems wildly risk averse.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[lenred]

Just now, Mr Popodopolous said:

Watching the North London derby and while there doesn't seem to be any great Tottenham standing area (not to say there isn't) the away fans are merely separated from the home with a line of stewards at either side.

Quite different to Ashton Gate these days? Seems like overkill somewhat with us.

Mentioned it a few times - this happens at a lot of Prem games, including at derbies like this with a lot of needle. We have massive massive overkill at our place - although was very pleased to see it go well yesterday and for it to be widely acknowledged how good the atmosphere was by Nige and Twentyman and Honor on Radio Bristol amongst others.  Hopefully the club will start to get it.   

[Mr Popodopolous]

9 minutes ago, lenred said:

Mentioned it a few times - this happens at a lot of Prem games, including at derbies like this with a lot of needle. We have massive massive overkill at our place - although was very pleased to see it go well yesterday and for it to be widely acknowledged how good the atmosphere was by Nige and Twentyman and Honor on Radio Bristol amongst others.  Hopefully the club will start to get it.   

All subject to what SAG etc accept in the medium term as well but I agree with the point- showed a few friends (who support other sides) some still pics from E34 that I found online and they were quite impressed!

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[spudski]

43 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

The clubs concern rightly will be that existing A block season ticket holders were severely disrupted yesterday. 

Being forced to stand to see the game.

Fans with no tickets in that block being in their seat. 

So whilst these fans may act like superfans, they are anything but when you consider the impact they've had on their fellow fans. 

If these fans wanted to do this, then do it with consultation and dialogue with the club. Not piss off your fellow fans. 

Couldn't agree with you more...where is the respect for their fellow fans?

It's there way or the high way...they couldn't give a shit.

They'll be the first to stand up and be noticed for applauding a life long fan who's past away...symbolically clapping for a minute. Whilst they've abused them, stood in front of them, told them to move, generally acted like self entitled dicks, who have no respect for the elderly fans who've supported home and away for years. 

Witnessed it numerous times especially on away games. 

[pongo88]

As the Atyeo stand holds approximately 4,000+  it could be possible to give approximately 2,500 to away fans and approximately 1,000 to home fans with a segregated strip between. It would involve slight modifications to the stand entrances and concourses for segregation. I always thought the problem was cup matches where the opposition has to be allocated 15% of capacity, but it seems that the allocation is up to 15%. The actual allocation has to be agreed with the local SAG. To me this seems simple. Approximately 1000 standing in the Atyeo  plus the existing group in the Dolman / South stand corner with neither group blocking the view of those who want to sit. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

23 minutes ago, spudski said:

Couldn't agree with you more...where is the respect for their fellow fans?

It's there way or the high way...they couldn't give a shit.

They'll be the first to stand up and be noticed for applauding a life long fan who's past away...symbolically clapping for a minute. Whilst they've abused them, stood in front of them, told them to move, generally acted like self entitled dicks, who have no respect for the elderly fans who've supported home and away for years. 

Witnessed it numerous times especially on away games. 

The two positions do seem quite hard to reconcile really.

Me? I'm a fan who woukd be happy standing but will sit too- happy with either, probably have a leaning towards standing.

The solution by @pongo88 seems an interesting one and would solve some issues. If it's the Dolman side of the Atyeo and the existing section, could thst also solve a couple of issues? Capacity of Atyeo is 4.2k I believe.

Seats being taken of existing home fans that's something that won't be allowed to continue I'm sure.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[spudski]

3 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The two positions do seem quite hard to reconcile really.

Me? I'm a fan who woukd be happy standing but will sit too- happy with either, probably have a leaning towards standing.

The solution by @pongo88 seems an interesting one and would solve some issues. If it's the Dolman side of the Atyeo and the existing section, could thst also solve a couple of issues? Capacity of Atyeo is 4.2k I believe.

Seats being taken of existing home fans that's something that won't be allowed to continue I'm sure.

Sadly my experience when especially attending away games, has been one of disdain towards City fans who have abused and have given total disregard to fellow City fans. Many elderly who can't stand. I just find them self entitled and anti social with no respect towards there fellow City fans who have supported home and away for years.

The first thought should be to make sure these elderly, less mobile, are looked after. They are fellow fans who are the foundation of this club. Yet they literally couldn't give a shit about them.

There are a lot of our fan base I have no respect for and dislike...

[Barrs Court Red]

It’s funny how people view entitlement, like the old boys who felt they had the right to push infront of families to get on the AG2 Saturday evening. 

Boomers and their ilk couldn’t give a **** about anyone but themselves, so it’s no surprise youngsters follow their example.  

[OliOTIB]

Specifically thought that the two sections (A-Block and S82) really improved the atmosphere yesterday. The seating issue has to be sorted somehow but heard many say how there moving to a block next season, therefore need to get more in S82 to continue the good atmosphere. Obviously this will differ depending on the performance, but the S82 group are staying put with their drums, flags etc and if we have all of our rowdy ‘youth’ with their CP goggles next to the away fans it does make the stadium louder. casing the dolman into noise which does encourage those centrally or further towards E34 to sing when before the sound may not of reached them, or at least they may not of had the encouragement to join in. Really enjoyed myself in S82 yesterday, one of the better atmospheres bar the empty seats! Nice to see the group in there remain faithful and in full backing of the team. 

Edited January 15, 2023 by OliOTIB

[Clevedon Red]

9 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Before the inevitable diktat comes from the club on Monday morning stating that "fans are reminded they must sit in their allocated seat, we will be imposing additional checks in blocks A and B of the Dolman for the Blackburn game" they may want to consider the largely positive comments on this thread, and around the ground regards the atmosphere.

Also, they may want to reflect that since vocal fans have moved to that area (really since the second half of the Swansea game) we do appear to have experienced an uplift in performance on the pitch. And I'd add that having vocal fans close to the away support, appears to have had a bit of a neutralising effect on the away support, which is surely to our advantage as the home team. 

There was an increased presence before the game checking tickets and sending people back to where they should be sitting. Admittedly they only asked to see tickets of those that looked under 30ish I guess.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Clevedon Red

[Phileas Fogg]

57 minutes ago, spudski said:

Couldn't agree with you more...where is the respect for their fellow fans?

It's there way or the high way...they couldn't give a shit.

They'll be the first to stand up and be noticed for applauding a life long fan who's past away...symbolically clapping for a minute. Whilst they've abused them, stood in front of them, told them to move, generally acted like self entitled dicks, who have no respect for the elderly fans who've supported home and away for years. 

Witnessed it numerous times especially on away games. 

How do other clubs manage then on away days? Loads of teams, especially the bigger clubs, have 100% standing in away ends aside from the first few rows.

[Davefevs]

11 minutes ago, Clevedon Red said:

There was an increased presence before the game checking tickets and sending people back to where they should be sitting. Admittedly they only asked to see tickets of those that looked under 30ish I guess.

No danger of you being asked then

[Mr Popodopolous]

22 minutes ago, Clevedon Red said:

There was an increased presence before the game checking tickets and sending people back to where they should be sitting. Admittedly they only asked to see tickets of those that looked under 30ish I guess.

What I would say is that, if people are snaffling season ticket holders seats or those of those who paid for matchday tickets that won't stand. Objectively speaking that won't stand.

The other stuff is more up for debate but that won't do the cause of those who want to do it correctly any favours.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[spudski]

15 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

How do other clubs manage then on away days? Loads of teams, especially the bigger clubs, have 100% standing in away ends aside from the first few rows.

I have no idea...I can only speak from my own experience of witnessing fans abusing fellow fans because they were unable to stand. 

You look after one another surely? That's what being a club is...being together, respecting one another. Looking out for one another.

 

[1960maaan]

15 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

No danger of you being asked then

Ageism ?

Reported 

[BigTone]

7 minutes ago, spudski said:

I have no idea...I can only speak from my own experience of witnessing fans abusing fellow fans because they were unable to stand. 

You look after one another surely? That's what being a club is...being together, respecting one another. Looking out for one another.

 

Yeah right

[W-S-M Seagull]

3 hours ago, spudski said:

Couldn't agree with you more...where is the respect for their fellow fans?

It's there way or the high way...they couldn't give a shit.

They'll be the first to stand up and be noticed for applauding a life long fan who's past away...symbolically clapping for a minute. Whilst they've abused them, stood in front of them, told them to move, generally acted like self entitled dicks, who have no respect for the elderly fans who've supported home and away for years. 

Witnessed it numerous times especially on away games. 

I'm disgusted by how our own fans treated our own fans yesterday. I used to sit top of A/B block 20 odd years ago and I suspect if I were to go back there now there would still be the same faces there. 

These entitled fans probably don't even know it was once called A block and that it once had wooden seats and exiting the stand was far worse than it is now. 

I think this is a wider society issue. Back when I was in my youth would you have been able to have done something like this. We had respect back then. 

[sglosbcfc]

I remember ex Spurs legend Steve Perryman commenting that Ashton Gate was the most partisan stadium he had visited when he took his Brentford team there as a manager in the mid 1980s. 

[Super]

On 15/01/2023 at 00:48, OliOTIB said:

Was in S82 today, thought the atmosphere was class tbh considering there was a few empty seats due to the A block change. 

Have tbh I heard nothing from s82 all game.

[Super]

12 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

The clubs concern rightly will be that existing A block season ticket holders were severely disrupted yesterday. 

Being forced to stand to see the game.

Fans with no tickets in that block being in their seat. 

So whilst these fans may act like superfans, they are anything but when you consider the impact they've had on their fellow fans. 

If these fans wanted to do this, then do it with consultation and dialogue with the club. Not piss off your fellow fans. 

Best post on this thread. I enjoyed the atmosphere but people who have paid money for a season ticket should take priority. Pretty poor that some on here don't seem to care about these fans.

[youwhat]

13 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

The clubs concern rightly will be that existing A block season ticket holders were severely disrupted yesterday. 

Being forced to stand to see the game.

Fans with no tickets in that block being in their seat. 

So whilst these fans may act like superfans, they are anything but when you consider the impact they've had on their fellow fans. 

If these fans wanted to do this, then do it with consultation and dialogue with the club. Not piss off your fellow fans. 

As an ST in A it was a bit annoying to have to reclaim the seat.  As it was standing it ended up oversubscribed so there were 2 or 3 a seat.  We gave up in the end as couldn’t see much.

When we scored it was pretty chaotic with a lot of people rushing to the bottom corner and across seats.  I saw a couple of people getting crushed and some youngen with a bleeding nose.  People with young-ish kids ended up moving after that.

The one steward there was pretty much fighting against the tide and probably wondering if the job was worth all the hassle

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against trying to create an atmosphere somewhere or even against standing but it will come into conflict with existing STs.

Edited January 16, 2023 by youwhat