I'm curious re the numbers because I wanted to get a feeling for the volume of vocality (is that even a word?) on here versus those who were at Oakwell last Saturday and Wednesday. Not surprisingly the Oakwell voice better reflects supporters feelings than what is posted on here. It also ouches on Loko's previous comments on the Trust attempting to gauge the majority of fans' views through a logical process rather than jumping on whatever other bandwagons are out there currently. (Loko - in no way do I want to create another Trust v Facebook Group debate so no need to comment! You have your sanity to manage!). After both of the last two home games I felt that the vast majority of the crowd, so maybe 8,000 or so (8000 because I do get the point that it wasn't 11000 on either occasion) were very much behind the team and their efforts. Throughout the game the support was evident and leaving the ground walking back to our car, I sensed more positivity than I expected. Despite the phrase "in adversity we find strength" being a bit of a cliche, I got the impression that the last two sets of 90 minutes + brought a togetherness between the fans and the players which hasn't been evident all season. This was reinforced by the reception the players received at the end of both games. These are just personal observations, but I think they are of some relevance when thinking of the remaining 18 remaining league games (clearly excluding the remaining 5 games in the Cup). There's not much hope of staying up but like many, many others if we go down I want us to go down fighting tooth and nail. Maybe this group of players will be able to restore some pride and show the same sort of effort they did in those last two games between now and season's end and, if we can keep the nucleus, give us some momentum for next season. ps - The much maligned Jordan Williams was exceptional on Tuesday. pps - The other thing I've noticed is more of a bond and togetherness between the players and the management team than under Schopp. Maybe, just maybe, given time, Poya could start rebuilding a group with some potential, particularly given his successful experience in Sweden. ppps - these comments are not made with the intention of opening up yet another debate on the ownership - as we all know, there are plenty of other threads covering that particular clusterfkc elsewhere.
My view based on those in the section of the Ponte I was in on Wednesday, is that "very much behind the team and their efforts" is an exaggeration. For the majority of the time what I observed was appreciation that the performance was a little better but some amusement and acceptance of how ineffective we are when attacking and and at times just apathy e.g. when they scored there wasn't really strong anger or frustration, just acceptance. As usual the right side tried to get behind the team and now and again it spread. Having said that I agree that in the final few minutes they were really behind the team as they pushed for a goal. On the question of there being a togetherness between fans and players, I agree to an extent. It was certainly better than some other games - Blackpool away being the best example for me. However there's going to have to be a huge change before this group of players can be described as 'fighting tooth and nail' imo. We had a go in the last 5-10 minutes on Wednesday but there'd need to be a huge change before I'd say we're fighting. We're not fighting, we're just not.
Opinions eh! Each to their own I guess. I thought there was more fight in both games than we've seen all season. I'm living in hope that it may continue. It did make a change to see at least a little unity.
