Tonight's Emotions.

[Superspy]

I'm not normally one for starting threads but I had to get this one down in writing. I don't think I've ever been to such opposite ends of the football emotional spectrum in a single game. What we saw tonight was absolutely incredible.

I'm not ashamed to say I went into this game thinking we were going to get absolutely battered, and being a goal down in 37 seconds didn't really do a lot for my confidence on that one. Being 2 down inside the opening quarter of an hour just had me sat shaking my had, and given the way the game panned out I'm ashamed to say that I thought to myself "if this is 4-0 by half time I'm going to seriously considering going home" (justification being that me and the mrs are both at work tomorrow and needed to eat etc). I didn't even celebrate the first goal, as impressive as it was, because I just thought "that'll be 5-1 instead of 5-0 then". I was feeling so cynical at that point, that just as the hoof went up immediately before we scored that first goal I just said "what's the point in that". Needless to say Stacey was amused at the outcome.

Queue the second half. I have no idea what DS said to the guys at half time but it clearly seemed to work. When the second goal went in I was back to cautious optimism, with a side order of screaming my head off and trying to get behind the lads. Coming into the last 5 minutes, after the red card, I was thinking that extra time suited us more than them (obviously) given the extra-man advantage. What happened next was surreal....firstly, was the clock running early or something because I'm sure we played almost 10 minutes of injury time, 5 of which were played before the board even went up? Then to have a goal line clearance from them, followed by THAT shot off the post and straight back to Woods, followed by a break and us scoring (a winner no less) in injury time...I just didn't know what to do with myself. Trying to answer the phones at work tomorrow with this throat is going to be interesting.

That game is going to live on in my memory for a long time to come. Cup game or no, that was absolutely epic.

Anyone care to add anything?

[Chris Black come back]

Great post.

Small point though: you and your missus could have availed yourself of some of the top quality pies now on sale at the ground...

[godlike1]

I'm not normally one for starting threads but I had to get this one down in writing. I don't think I've ever been to such opposite ends of the football emotional spectrum in a single game. What we saw tonight was absolutely incredible.

I'm not ashamed to say I went into this game thinking we were going to get absolutely battered, and being a goal down in 37 seconds didn't really do a lot for my confidence on that one. Being 2 down inside the opening quarter of an hour just had me sat shaking my had, and given the way the game panned out I'm ashamed to say that I thought to myself "if this is 4-0 by half time I'm going to seriously considering going home" (justification being that me and the mrs are both at work tomorrow and needed to eat etc). I didn't even celebrate the first goal, as impressive as it was, because I just thought "that'll be 5-1 instead of 5-0 then". I was feeling so cynical at that point, that just as the hoof went up immediately before we scored that first goal I just said "what's the point in that". Needless to say Stacey was amused at the outcome.

Queue the second half. I have no idea what DS said to the guys at half time but it clearly seemed to work. When the second goal went in I was back to cautious optimism, with a side order of screaming my head off and trying to get behind the lads. Coming into the last 5 minutes, after the red card, I was thinking that extra time suited us more than them (obviously) given the extra-man advantage. What happened next was surreal....firstly, was the clock running early or something because I'm sure we played almost 10 minutes of injury time, 5 of which were played before the board even went up? Then to have a goal line clearance from them, followed by THAT shot off the post and straight back to Woods, followed by a break and us scoring (a winner no less) in injury time...I just didn't know what to do with myself. Trying to answer the phones at work tomorrow with this throat is going to be interesting.

That game is going to live on in my memory for a long time to come. Cup game or no, that was absolutely epic.

Anyone care to add anything?

Ditto............;-)

[Superspy]

Great post.

Small point though: you and your missus could have availed yourself of some of the top quality pies now on sale at the ground...

Haha, good point, but we'd already decided on KFC

[hoolahoop]

Great post and I'm sure there were many of us going through the same emotions tonight..................well done to our supporters btw who raised the tempo to recently unheard of proportions.
They smelt blood and that scared the opposition to death , we need that more often it works. 

[RobTheRover]

Yes,  the support was excellent in that second half. My throat is killing now.

[Filo]

2 quotes from the last two home games before last night that I made on this forum

One thing that appears apparent, is that this group of players are not going to roll over, like we have for the last 18 months.

It`s one defeat FFS! Yes a poor performance there`s no doubt, bu for me, it`s how the players react to that defeat in the next game that counts, it`s whether or not they show the desire to put things right.

Top marks for the players on both points for me well done!

[DearneValleyRover]

Only thing to pick up on as I agree with the OP is that Woods actually got his fingertips to Simpsons shot to push it on to the inside of the post and deserved the luck of it coming straight back to him, cracking save.

[bobjimwilly]

Was an amazing night of football. Proved that our fans can get behind the team when they want - only 4500ish there last night and we made more noise that I've heard in literally years 

[steve16190]

I second that Bobjimwilly!! Noise kicked off after syers first goal and it just kept getting louder and louder, hull fans were trying bless them but for once we out sung the opposition. why cant we be like that at the start of every game when its 0-0,

[Donnywolf]

I'm not normally one for starting threads but I had to get this one down in writing. I don't think I've ever been to such opposite ends of the football emotional spectrum in a single game. What we saw tonight was absolutely incredible.

I'm not ashamed to say I went into this game thinking we were going to get absolutely battered, and being a goal down in 37 seconds didn't really do a lot for my confidence on that one. Being 2 down inside the opening quarter of an hour just had me sat shaking my had, and given the way the game panned out I'm ashamed to say that I thought to myself "if this is 4-0 by half time I'm going to seriously considering going home" (justification being that me and the mrs are both at work tomorrow and needed to eat etc). I didn't even celebrate the first goal, as impressive as it was, because I just thought "that'll be 5-1 instead of 5-0 then". I was feeling so cynical at that point, that just as the hoof went up immediately before we scored that first goal I just said "what's the point in that". Needless to say Stacey was amused at the outcome.

Queue the second half. I have no idea what DS said to the guys at half time but it clearly seemed to work. When the second goal went in I was back to cautious optimism, with a side order of screaming my head off and trying to get behind the lads. Coming into the last 5 minutes, after the red card, I was thinking that extra time suited us more than them (obviously) given the extra-man advantage. What happened next was surreal....firstly, was the clock running early or something because I'm sure we played almost 10 minutes of injury time, 5 of which were played before the board even went up? Then to have a goal line clearance from them, followed by THAT shot off the post and straight back to Woods, followed by a break and us scoring (a winner no less) in injury time...I just didn't know what to do with myself. Trying to answer the phones at work tomorrow with this throat is going to be interesting.

That game is going to live on in my memory for a long time to come. Cup game or no, that was absolutely epic.

Anyone care to add anything?

Ditto except that I was going to the Pub whereas you were going home !

[danumdon]

Massive mood swings from the ridiculous. to the sublime for all i think. It just goes to show you don't need to be the best team to win, bit like a Wimbledon from the eighties, plenty of fight and determination coupled with no small amount of skill and application.

All day i was thinking this match was going to have something about it and it didn't disappoint. very well done to all, now if we can just bottle the attitude and mood from the half time talk and the second half we might be onto a winner

Hare and tortoise very much to mind.

[DonnyRTID]

Excellent post Superspy, sums up the emotions of every Rovers fan that attended.
Last night was the start of a new era. RTID

[steve16190]

The start of this season was the start of a new era DonnyRTID!

[donnybez]

The atmosphere was unbelievable! Ill confess i was considering the traffic and time of arrival home (I live a fair bit away you see) when we went 2-0 down but then super Syers wonder goal and from then we had a lifeline. Cant believe how that 2nd half played out it was like a football dream...

I have to admit fortress keepmoat certainly was there when we got the 2nd half on and I loved that atmosphere, something we should try and bring to every game regardless of score or time or team we're up against

We have to make it uncomfortable and pile pressure on the away team otherwise like bury and hull to some extent, they come and play from the off

[RobTheRover]

Ok,  so here's the challenge folks. How do we start a match with that atmosphere?

[pubteam]

Ok,  so here's the challenge folks. How do we start a match with that atmosphere?

Play like that from the start, I assume.

Whether you like the style of football encouraged by Saunders or not, nobody can deny that it gets you on the edge of your seat more than the 'tippy-tappy' stuff we used to play. I can't remember many times a raucous atmosphere was created by us passing it around amongst the back four. It might not be seen as stylish in modern football, but putting crosses into the box, putting the opposition under sustained pressure, pressing high up the pitch and going 100% into every 50/50 ball to win it gets people excited. People like to see sheer determination and effort and doing anything to score a goal. We did that in the second half last night, and I think that's why we saw such ferocious backing from the stands, even though there weren't many in.

[donnybez]

Well drummer didn't kick on till we scored

Try doing that roar thing Millwall fans do? That would intimidate any team coming at us and lets face it, would you really wanna play football in front of that lot or any bunch essentially screaming at you?

Get good ol John Ryan back in South Stand for a game?

To be honest, it seems to me that the south stand always has to be the starter for the rest of the crowd to join in, so its hard to see a way for us to really do much... i guess we could get the bloke and his horn back as that seemed to only add to the atmosphere

Otherwise i've got nothing short of a west stand wide cattle prod...

[mattco]

I was in West Stand as usual, and I can't remember as much noise as there was last night in second half.  Fantastic.

[Northants Nomad]

Ok,  so here's the challenge folks. How do we start a match with that atmosphere?

Start by getting the bloke with the mic to pipe down. Seriously, he kills any atmosphere because people can't talk, we can't chant, he just drowns us out, so we start every game mute having given up trying to talk over him. Also, the music that plays when he is not jibber-jabbering is also too loud to allow any chanting. And no, I'm not an old fart moaning about the music being too loud - I mean simply, if you want atmosphere, let it develop itself.

Also, it really pees me off when they read our team out with all this "Fred Bloggs, sponsored by The Fat Bloke Pies off The Market". It means that it takes ages to read out our team sheet. Any idea of 'getting behind the boys' by cheering them is gone because you lose interest after about 4 players. I know these sponsors pay but, honestly, this doesn't work - I couldn't tell you a name of a single sponsor for any player from this listing of our team sheet (yes, I happen to know the VSC sponsors Harper).

They need to realise how this sort of stuff kills the atmosphere. At that point, we need a goal to get the crowd going.

And about the bloke on the mic - "Give it up" and "Let's make some noise" are SOOOO cliche it's unreal - get some new phrases or, better still, shut up!

[steve16190]

Second that mate, the guy at the beginning is a complete bore, i end up playing on my phone or going to get a drink or something. you don't get that at any other club so why the hell have it here

[DonnyBazR0ver]

As said above it has to come from the pitch. Players have played the game long enough to know what gets crowds going.

There have been a few players over the years who know how to play to the crowd and the gee up other players to perform. More recently Jason Price springs to mind.

There's nothing better than seeing a player nail a tackle, win a corner etc., and then turn to the crowd and wave their arms in that 'Come on!!' gesture. It brings the crowd in to the game.

[Sprotyrover]

I too turned to my son after their second goal and said we would be leaving if it got to 0-5.

You could hear a pin drop in the South stand until Syers goal and then "ALL HELL BROKE LOOS

 

[Donnylass]

I too turned to my son after their second goal and said we would be leaving if it got to 0-5.

You could hear a pin drop in the South stand until Syers goal and then "ALL HELL BROKE LOOS

 

Keepmoatman was saying that the mens toilets were awful at the moment - That explains it 

[Rover19]

Vuvuzelas

[FuzzyDuck]

Brilliant article Superspy and just to add to what has already been said.  Last night was spectacular.  This small bit of Switzerland was rocking!

I'm picking up on what RobtheRover said about keeping the atmosphere (or even getting it to start off with.

I've been going down to Swiss football matches for a few years now.  Some of them, my local club included can really get the ground rocking and keep it that way.

The exciting bit of this is I think there are somethings Rovers could do that would make them unique!

Here's some things they do.

1. Banners, flags, etc. 

Loads of fans brings them, hang them, wave them etc. More often than not, a HUGE banner that goes the length of about half a terrace behind the goal is displayed as the teams come out.  The banner is made from a roll of liner paper or plain wallpaper.  They write all manner of things on it.  Political messages, messages to directors/chairman, messages to players and messages to opposing fans.  (always pleasant of course)

2.  Other displays

A very simple and effective thing is to pass out squares of foil.  In Rovers case at home, you'd obviously use red and silver (actually, I'm sure you can get red one side, silver on the other).  Get yourself organized so two rows of fans show red, the next two show silver, the next two red and so on.  As the teams come out you hold up your foil and there you have the hoops across the south stand (or all around the stadium if everyone will play).

It doesn't even have to be that organized.  Against St.Gallen I was given a piece of foil and I asked what side I should show.  "Not green!" came the reply.  In other words show whatever side you want.  It still looked good.

We also use table bombs to shoot streamers everywhere and sometimes people bring flares (which I think is the only things you couldn't do)

3.  Cheerleaders

Like with the South Stand at the Keepmoat, at the Schutzi, everything starts on the Bierkürve (the kop).  Its the terrace behind the goal.  I'd say that in that area, there's about 30 or 40 hardcore singers who keep going no matter what.  The rest join in with them.

Leading these 30-40 there are 2 or 3.  These guys are the main coordinators of the singing and what a job they do.  Sometimes they arm themselves with a megaphone, but most times they don't.  Believe me there's no way these guys have a voice at the end of it all.  Those guys choose the songs, when they are sung - everything!  Plus they keep it going.  I've literally heard them keep going for the full 90.  If goals are scored against us, everything get louder.

4.  Home or Away

The same supporters do the same thing away from home.  It makes no difference. 

It is a lot of work and I know the singers put a lot of work in.  Me?  I just join in

Anyway - I hope this give you some ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzZNtuo98Dc

[Alickismyhero]

Some great ideas Fuzzy.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

I certainly think there's a lot we could do to make match atmosphere better. Perhaps something the vsc and club could work on together?

[RobTheRover]

Yes,  that's where I was driving the question. After all,  we are working with the club on a lot of the stuff that has a negative effect the club will be able to control (catering,  ticketing,  transport,  etc),  so what about stuff that's in our,  the fans,  hands?

[ravenrover]

Crikey I'd be a bit wary of taking a piece of "foil" off some stranger at the KM they'd be wanting £20 for what was in it!