A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:49 pm  

Ok, last night wasn't a great start to life in the new ground and I, like most fans, have some serious concerns regarding our club and some of the playing personnel. Having said that.......

....... some of the f***ing idiots stood behind the sticks in the south stand should be ashamed of yourselves. You know who you are, the same clowns (that look like the Bash St Kids!) that stood behind the dugout at The Willows with fat geordie bloke. What benefit does singing (amongst other things) "same old Salford, always losing" achieve? If you don't like what you're seeing either keep quiet, or better still don't bother attending at all. Your constant abuse of the players only has a detrimental affect on them and probably gives them the impression that the whole crowd is against them. Do you intentionally stand at the front of the terrace for this purpose? I've stood in The Shed for over 20 years and I've never known our "fans" to be so bad as the last few seasons. Don't get me wrong, we've had enough reasons to be downhearted over the years, bad mismanagement, players stealing a living etc but the move to Barton is our last chance to get this right before we fade into oblivion. Unfortunately, last night didn't go to plan but we have to believe that things will improve and get behind the players.

We know that our "hardcore" support is around 2500-3000. By hardcore I mean the fans that turn up regardless of how the team is playing because they love the club and rugby league is in their blood. The "floating" fans are those that are going to make our crowds. The fans that have lapsed due to years of underachievement or the new breed of fans that will only support a winning team in a shiny new stadium (see MCFC for prime example). I know 4/5 people that chose not to attend due to the weather or prior arrangements last night. There are people out there we just need to get it right on the pitch. If we get ahead of ourselves and start spouting top 8 nonsense we're setting ourselves up for a fall. I honestly believe 9th/10th place is achievable given that most of the teams around the bottom are much of a muchness. We lost last night to a decent Cas team who should be in and around the top 8. Had DJ's try in the first half been given it MAY have been a different story. Considering our lack of go forward in the pack (Feka aside) it was amazing how long we were actually in the game. We are going to need to have to punch way above our weight this season to turn things round. Our pack is lightweight but our backline, IMO, has the potential to score tries. We're going to have to play an expansive brand of rugby to utilise the pace we've got which will ultimately result in more dropped ball than normal. Cas played the conditions better last night (bar Ashurst's try which I thought was superb btw) and it was always going to be the team that adapted to the conditions that was going to win.

I don't see last night as the death knell of our club as some on here obviously do, however, I'm not blinkered enough to suggest all is rosy. All I'm asking for is for some perspective. This is a long term project and we're not going to be attracting 10,000 crowds overnight. The club has to play their part (and internal changes do have to be made, marketing etc) as do the players and just as importantly the fans have to stand up and be counted. Saints may hand us a beating next week but Widnes is winnable and Hull and Broncos at home are again games we have a chance in. If we can come out of the first 5 games with 2/3 wins and avoid a pummelling at Saints then we've got something to build on. We've got to stand united though and the last thing the players need right now is a public execution by their own so called "fans".

Apologies for the rant but I needed to get it off my chest and I never want to see our fans turning on our players. To end on a positive note a massive shout needs to go out to Feka who shone again last night . He put in a couple of huge hits and ran the ball in with plenty of fire in his (slimmed down ) belly. If the rest of the pack can emulate his improvement we may, just may, find a way to compete up front.

Cone on you Reds!!!

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:02 pm  

Bore off and take a look from outside the box looking in! It is same old Salford, new ground, same people running the asylum! As for having ago at fan, end of the day they pay the monies so they are free to cheer, moan, jesture as they please! One would suggest if YOU don't like it get some ear plugs! As for the game didn't attend as new it would be a damp squid, which it proved to be! From the "fireworks" display to the man and his wheel barrow then to the the games tatics, only once they started bringing Patten into the line and giving the ball some air did the team look remotely like troubling Cas. I know... we being dominated by the forwards, no go-forwards, oppostion getting over the meter line every tackle.... lets keep these tatics and hope for a penatly or error from the opposition. Then again even when we get a penatly there is no gaurentee it's going to be kicked into touch! Open your eyes sweet cheeks, people having been going on for a long time how bad it is at SCR yet the same group on indenial cronies refuse to see it! Comical

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:09 pm  

At last, sanity on this board.



oops too soon

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:16 pm  

thats what I like about Salford "fans" the ones that don't go blame the club for the poor players we have, perhaps if the ones on here did attend and put their money where their mouth is we might be able to afford better players, or as one non-attender states make John Wilkinson richer, YCNMIU, fan sof other clubs must come on here and wonder about some Salford "fans" and what sort of world they live in.

Look I go to United and there are idiots who sit near me who for the last 5 years have spent most of the game saying how crap United are how crap SAF is how crap the players are and that is despite in that time United winning the league 4 times, League cup twice, European cup once, world club cup once and the Charity shield 4 times. So it is just not Salford fans, unless these are the selfsame people who will never be happy, I can see them winning £6m on the lottery and moaning because the week before somebody won £6.1m.

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:17 pm  

SaleSlim wrote:

SNIP

Couldn't agree more, don't actually see what it achieves myself. Silence would be more more apt if you don't like what you see.
I'd say that up until say 3 or 4 minutes from the end there was still a game to be won and motivating the players would have helped much more than slagging indivuals off, one particular person is always having a pop at Patton who for me was one of our best attacking options last night yet still he slated him at every possible oppertunity.

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:23 pm  

programmethrower wrote:

As for the game didn't attend as new it would be a damp squid

Why am I not surprised...

Oh, and it's 'damp squib', not 'damp squid'.

Good post SaleSlim. I said last night that the game wouldn't be an indicator of what we're actually capable of this season (or perhaps not - we may have been worse in normal conditions!) but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Some of the knee-jerking is ridiculous. To be honest, I really don't know why some people bother going. We all get annoyed and frustrated, but some people seem to speak with such vitriol about the club that they come across as literally hating this team.

It was disappointing that the weather put paid to what should have been a landmark event for the club, but they've got to move on and try to attract people to the next fixture.

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:30 pm  

SaleSlim wrote:

I've stood in The Shed for over 20 years and I've never known our "fans" to be so bad as the last few seasons.

Was talking about this after the game last night. 12-4 down with 30 mins to play was apparently a 'disgrace' according to some of our fans. I remember when we used to get behind the team in these sort of situations. Not sure when it all changed? Maybe we are still suffering from the slumber of the Mcrae factor.

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 2:29 pm  

PT, by your response I can only assume that, when you decide to attend games, the numpties I mention in my previous post are the ones that you like to associate with? It defeats the object slating the players for 80 minutes. I'm giving the players the benefit of the doubt after last night and I actually thought that the first 40 minutes we coped admirably with the conditions (bar the kicking). I don't think we dropped the ball for the first half hour even if we did struggle to make yards down the middle. 2 or 3 players had a 'mare and I doubt Gleeson will drop the ball more all season than he did last night. We defended a couple of the tries poorly but still had our chances to win despite all the negatives.

One final point.... is there any chance we can co-ordinate the singing? Assuming the south stand is to be the "new shed" we need to get it up and running asap. There were signs last night that this could be achieved but still far too much singing over each other to make a collective racket. I don't belong to any of The Shed "cliques" so will happily join in with any singing as long as it's getting behind the team. Let's drop the us & them attitude and start working together!

"One heart, one soul, one voice" That should be our motto

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 2:31 pm  

Bigpev wrote:

thats what I like about Salford "fans" the ones that don't go blame the club for the poor players we have, perhaps if the ones on here did attend and put their money where their mouth is we might be able to afford better players, or as one non-attender states make John Wilkinson richer,

Why give him you're hard earned....He'd only mismanage it...Give him £5 million and we'd still be wooden spoon contenders

Re: A message to the "fans" : Sun Feb 05, 2012 3:35 pm  

These same people also go to away matches and slag the players off at every opportunity. We may not be the best but abusing the team never achieves anything.