So what comes first?

So, yet another appeal for the fans to get behind the team.

This is becoming almost as predictable as the wheeling out one of the players each week to tell us what they will do in the next match, why they will do it and why this time they will do it different.

I have always believed in the concept of the fans being the twelfth man. The best example of this for me was the match that we played against Middlesborough at home when in the Premiership.

If you recall, January 2005 and 4-1 down and with 12 minutes to play, the crowd responded with a spontaneous chant of ?We're gonna win 5-4!?.

Yeah right.

To my mind, the crowd, including us normally silent ones in the Riverend responded to what they saw the team trying to do on the pitch. They were fighting and battling and giving everything. Even at 4-1 down.

That day, we proved that we were the twelfth man because we could see the team really trying. For themselves. For each other. For us. We were there with them all the way. Not quite the 5-4 hoped for but still a very creditable draw.

Now try getting the crowd to raise themselves to do that when they see the team giving yet another apparently lackluster performance.

You have to ask, what comes first?

The team putting in 100% or the crowd giving it their all from the off?

Last week against Burnley, the fans did get behind the team from the start because of the way the players began the match. This carried on until we scored. Then as the team gradually relaxed their early control of the game the crowd reacted fairly predictably by lowering the vocal support until it reached the same level as what they saw was being produced on the pitch.

So, for me, the catalyst to spark the fans into action and to keep the fire going is the team and what they are producing on the pitch.

Therefore, get the players instilled with some spirit to fight for survival for every minute that they are on the pitch. Then we, the fans will respond as the twelfth man (woman or child). Otherwise, most will keep their heads down and wait for the inevitable to happen in May.

Posted By: Obi_Wan_Kanari, Feb 28, 11:37:27