Our support

One thing we can take away from Wembley is our support. We saw how good it can be when we have a whole end for our singers and that there are more than enough fans prepared to sing to have a whole home kop of our own at St Mary's instead of 2 small groups of singers hidden away in the corners of the away end. It would be great if the club encouraged fans to form a home kop in the Chapel end next season and if the fans themselves made it happen.

A pat on the back for the club for the free scarves which certainly made our end look livelier and more colourful than the United end. It would be great to see those scarves and flags used in our home kop next season.

One thing we can take away from Wembley is our support. We saw how good it can be when we have a whole end for our singers and that there are more than enough fans prepared to sing to have a whole home kop of our own at St Mary's instead of 2 small groups of singers hidden away in the corners of the away end. It would be great if the club encouraged fans to form a home kop in the Chapel end next season and if the fans themselves made it happen.

 

A pat on the back for the club for the free scarves which certainly made our end look livelier and more colourful than the United end. It would be great to see those scarves and flags used in our home kop next season.

This comes up time and time again. The split singing 'end' is because of St Mary's being a new ground. At most clubs , as segregation came in donkeys years ago, the away support was placed at the far end from the already existing home 'kop'. At St Mary's the away support was and is fixed by policing issues, then with no traditional home end, the home fans chose to congregate around them. There really is no way to fix this now.

Only way that will ever happen is if the club (along with others) successfully lobbied for safe standing and then converted the Chapel with incentivised prices for 18-25 year olds (a "forgotten" group in terms of concessions IMO). Of all the good things our club does it puzzles me why we don't push this along with other clubs? It would make a huge difference to match going fans (but literally and on a PR level in the same way Dortmund etc have a hand full of 100euro season tickets everyone goes on about) and improve atmosphere in the Premier Leagues increasingly sterile stadia.

I disagree with the OP regarding our support, I'm sorry but 25+ renditions of OWTSGMI was beyond ****ing boring. Our "song sheet" is feeble.

I disagree with the OP regarding our support, I'm sorry but 25+ renditions of OWTSGMI was beyond ****ing boring. Our "song sheet" is feeble.

Well thank **** we didn't have any of those pathetic anti-Pompey songs.

The post celebrations post gabbiadinni's second were special. Top tier was bouncing. Can moan all about our song choices but in the end of the day United had plenty of different ones through out the match which we could barely hear.

Only way that will ever happen is if the club (along with others) successfully lobbied for safe standing and then converted the Chapel with incentivised prices for 18-25 year olds (a "forgotten" group in terms of concessions IMO). Of all the good things our club does it puzzles me why we don't push this along with other clubs? It would make a huge difference to match going fans (but literally and on a PR level in the same way Dortmund etc have a hand full of 100euro season tickets everyone goes on about) and improve atmosphere in the Premier Leagues increasingly sterile stadia.

 

I disagree with the OP regarding our support, I'm sorry but 25+ renditions of OWTSGMI was beyond ****ing boring. Our "song sheet" is feeble.

100% agree with all the top bit. We absolutely need to get more of the younger people in, not just for now but for the future.

Don't agree about singing OWTS when it's the only song that everyone knows these days so that's up to us to make more songs, but for that, see above for the group of people that could make that happen.

We aren't rich and as fans we can't do anything to stop players moving on but being an intimidating noisy stadium is entirely down to us fans.

It looked and sounded great yesterday and this needs to be something that happens way more often at home matches. Oh, and not many left early either, which is how should be given that it is just 105 minutes of life.

I have yet to see the recording of the match but I have received an unexpected amount of texts and emails from a variety of sources (all neutral) complimenting the team on its performance and the fans for their support.

In the reports I have read in the papers today this theme is underlined in the press reports.

eg The Times ..'Southampton attacking their hugely vocal support, kept storming forward, chasing the equaliser. Redmond had a volley athletically saved, sending up the Saints volume.

A couple of stewards in our section said they were mightily impressed with the colour from our end (credit to the club for the scarves) compared to the drabness of the United end.

Also we were talking to a trio of the Mets finest after the game and they said how refreshing it was to be able to police fans who were generally good humoured and well behaved and not 'part human idiots' (their words not mine) as was often the case by supporters of certain clubs.

The most noticeable difference between the two sets of fans was the family make up of our group (lots of Dads with kids and wives/partners) whereas the vast majority of Man Utd fans were early 20's or middle aged, overweight and drab.

There was quite a few foreign looking/foreign sounding Utd followers who presumably have been attracted by the chance to follow a successful team whilst having no particular affinity to the area where the club is based.

However I suppose this is no different to the Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool's of this world.

I suspect there were quite a few Utd supporters a bit disappointed that some of their provocative comments and chants were not challenged by Saints supporters leaving the game.

No doubt it could have got a bit hairy leaving the ground if we had won, just as it was, in my experience, in 1976 as Utd fans seem to have a large sense of entitlement.

Whilst disappointed that we lost, I am really proud of the team, the club and the supporters just as I was when we left the San Siro after a game we really should have won in Milan.

We may not have won yesterday but I feel sure our stock within the football fraternity in this country and beyond has gone up another couple of notches.

Lets hope we can maintain the upward rise.

Well done to all!!!!!!!!

There was quite a few foreign looking/foreign sounding Utd followers who presumably have been attracted by the chance to follow a successful team whilst having no particular affinity to the area where the club is based.

This is an ugly comment. You had to be a season ticket holder at Old Trafford to be in with a hope of getting a seat in their end. Walk around Manchester, or indeed any successful city, and you'll see plenty of 'foreign looking' people.

Maybe those foreign types lived in Manchester. I heard a lot of Eastern Europeans in Saints colours going to Wembley, as I do going to SMS, and I presume that they might be Polish.

Stand fast the result, what would have been a great day was a good day. Went with my 15 year old son, his 2nd Wembly final and he loved the atmosphere, we were in the top tier and stood for most of the game. While our repertoire may have been limited all fans know the words and don't feel any embarrassment at singing it, many families are put off by the over use of swearing and hate in songs. Sat next to us was Japanese father and his young son (8 -9 ish) they were loving it, fully kitted out in SFC colours. I am sure some on here will vilify such tourist fans but I am chuffed and proud that our club is attracting them, the other road leads to skatevile, full of insular inbred morons, we all did our club proud because we did it as individuals but all with common cause. I found the United effort at doing something special before kick off amusing, the cards they had placed on the seats to spell out their name, when the time came not enough of the complacent entitled ****s were in their seats and half the letters were unrecognisalble.

I actually prefer it like it is at SMS

Better to surround the away fans with our most vocal fans, rather than least vocal

I've been to away grounds where they have a home 'kop' at the other end of the stadium and it's more often than not too far away to hear/get any sort of atmosphere going with them (Hapoel Beer Sheva being the exception to this rule)

This is an ugly comment. You had to be a season ticket holder at Old Trafford to be in with a hope of getting a seat in their end. Walk around Manchester, or indeed any successful city, and you'll see plenty of 'foreign looking' people.

Duncan

Yes I can see how this comment could be misconstrued.

It wasn't meant the way it appears to have been read.

I suppose the most frustrating thing about Man Utd is the amount of their 'support' emanating from outside the Manchester metropolitan area and it seems I poorly articulated this point.

My apologies.

Any idea why the official attendance showed an apparent 5,000 short of the 90,000 capacity.

Must say I didn't see many empty seats?

there were 6 in a line next to me in row 8 block 123

Duncan

Yes I can see how this comment could be misconstrued.

It wasn't meant the way it appears to have been read.

I suppose the most frustrating thing about Man Utd is the amount of their 'support' emanating from outside the Manchester metropolitan area and it seems I poorly articulated this point.

My apologies.

Yeah, fair enough. But those people weren't at the game yesterday!

For me the global support is a good thing anyway, in many ways. I'd love to be able to discuss my team at any bar in the world.

Watched the game back , got a bit emotional hearing Owts echoing around Wembley!

Watched the game back , got a bit emotional hearing Owts echoing around Wembley!

It's either my imagination but we seem to have nailed OWTS en masse, rather than the Row, Row, Row your boat fragmented version, Milan we had it nailed, even West Ham as the place emptied we seemed in sync, 2nd go yesterday and we were away. I think we all like hearing it's Echo from the far end of the stadium, as the moment everyone hears it the volume goes up again.

https://youtu.be/UD95Y-F8yow

It's either my imagination but we seem to have nailed OWTS en masse, rather than the Row, Row, Row your boat fragmented version, Milan we had it nailed, even West Ham as the place emptied we seemed in sync, 2nd go yesterday and we were away. I think we all like hearing it's Echo from the far end of the stadium, as the moment everyone hears it the volume goes up again.

Sounded amazing

Watched the game back , got a bit emotional hearing Owts echoing around Wembley!

This.

there were 6 in a line next to me in row 8 block 123

I had a row of about 20 near me in 528.

The OWTS echoing round will live long in my memory. I stopped singing just to take it in.

Well thank **** we didn't have any of those pathetic anti-Pompey songs.

Yes, one of the great things about our support at Wembley is that we didn't feel the need to constantly sing about Pompey. I expect 1 or 2 Pompey-obsessed idiots still tried to start singing about them but not where I was. Let's hope this actual support for the team, rather than giving Pompey as much publicity as possible, carries over to all our games at St Mary's.

I actually prefer it like it is at SMS

 

Better to surround the away fans with our most vocal fans, rather than least vocal

 

I've been to away grounds where they have a home 'kop' at the other end of the stadium and it's more often than not too far away to hear/get any sort of atmosphere going with them (Hapoel Beer Sheva being the exception to this rule)

This just shows how pathetic modern football is.

Great to read, thanks!

I have yet to see the recording of the match but I have received an unexpected amount of texts and emails from a variety of sources (all neutral) complimenting the team on its performance and the fans for their support.

In the reports I have read in the papers today this theme is underlined in the press reports.

eg The Times ..'Southampton attacking their hugely vocal support, kept storming forward, chasing the equaliser. Redmond had a volley athletically saved, sending up the Saints volume.

A couple of stewards in our section said they were mightily impressed with the colour from our end (credit to the club for the scarves) compared to the drabness of the United end.

Also we were talking to a trio of the Mets finest after the game and they said how refreshing it was to be able to police fans who were generally good humoured and well behaved and not 'part human idiots' (their words not mine) as was often the case by supporters of certain clubs.

The most noticeable difference between the two sets of fans was the family make up of our group (lots of Dads with kids and wives/partners) whereas the vast majority of Man Utd fans were early 20's or middle aged, overweight and drab.

There was quite a few foreign looking/foreign sounding Utd followers who presumably have been attracted by the chance to follow a successful team whilst having no particular affinity to the area where the club is based.

However I suppose this is no different to the Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool's of this world.

I suspect there were quite a few Utd supporters a bit disappointed that some of their provocative comments and chants were not challenged by Saints supporters leaving the game.

No doubt it could have got a bit hairy leaving the ground if we had won, just as it was, in my experience, in 1976 as Utd fans seem to have a large sense of entitlement.

Whilst disappointed that we lost, I am really proud of the team, the club and the supporters just as I was when we left the San Siro after a game we really should have won in Milan.

We may not have won yesterday but I feel sure our stock within the football fraternity in this country and beyond has gone up another couple of notches.

Lets hope we can maintain the upward rise.

Well done to all!!!!!!!!

(I meant this one)

Great to read, thanks!

Nothing wrong with singing owts. Its our song and we owned it on sunday.

For me though the Gabbiadini song to 7 nation army was f@cking immense and possibly the most emotive thing ive seen saints fans do. I know in recent weeks there has been much discussion about a specific song for the lad but this this was spontaneous and was wrought from pure emotion. Hats off to the first chat who started waving his scarf around his head!

Nothing wrong with singing owts. Its our song and we owned it on sunday.

For me though the Gabbiadini song to 7 nation army was f@cking immense and possibly the most emotive thing ive seen saints fans do. I know in recent weeks there has been much discussion about a specific song for the lad but this this was spontaneous and was wrought from pure emotion. Hats off to the first chat who started waving his scarf around his head!

Agreed. The sight of thousands of Saints fans twirling their scarves about their heads was wonderful, watching the game afterwards on Sky didn't do it justice, only wish I'd taken a photo.

Nothing wrong with singing owts. Its our song and we owned it on sunday.

For me though the Gabbiadini song to 7 nation army was f@cking immense and possibly the most emotive thing ive seen saints fans do. I know in recent weeks there has been much discussion about a specific song for the lad but this this was spontaneous and was wrought from pure emotion. Hats off to the first chat who started waving his scarf around his head!

I agree it did sound great at times on Sunday. But did get a bit ridiculous where I was, literally the only song for most of the game anyone was willing to sing. Just means it becomes really tedious. Tried to get other things going to no avail.

Nothing wrong with singing owts. Its our song and we owned it on sunday.

For me though the Gabbiadini song to 7 nation army was f@cking immense and possibly the most emotive thing ive seen saints fans do. I know in recent weeks there has been much discussion about a specific song for the lad but this this was spontaneous and was wrought from pure emotion. Hats off to the first chat who started waving his scarf around his head!

For spontaneous emotion, the Wanyama chant at Arnhem was brilliant. Wasn't really about Victor by the end.

Nothing wrong with singing owts. Its our song and we owned it on sunday.

For me though the Gabbiadini song to 7 nation army was f@cking immense and possibly the most emotive thing ive seen saints fans do. I know in recent weeks there has been much discussion about a specific song for the lad but this this was spontaneous and was wrought from pure emotion. Hats off to the first chat who started waving his scarf around his head!

That indeed was immense, I stepped out from under the shelf at the back of the lower and looked up in awe at pretty much everyone doing it.

I have been to 5 Saints finals now and each of them has had a moment that has left a lasting memory despite 4 being duff results.

1979 Peach scores leaving Shilton sprawling: We go mental then I stop in disbelief as my Dad who had never been to a game before just goes mental leaving me stunned.

ZDS Final: Bit bizarre this, Teams are being read out Forest first so we know the order of things, Saints players read out to cheers, bloke sat in front says to his mate "listen to this"....... "AND the Southampton Manager: Ian Branfoot" blimey it was like the mist villainous villains in the history of Pantomime villainy had just entered stage right!!

2003 Cardiff we were 2 rows from the pitch behind the goal when you turned around you just looked up at a sheer wall of Yellow, then they played Carnaval de Paris full blast over the PA and the whole wall just danced their faces off with gay abandon............... and not forgetting the Saints fan tears streaming down his face as they played abide with me.

JPT: Having stepped away from the edge of abyss, here we were at a Wembley cup final just the sheer number of Saints fans before my eyes was fantastic (the result was pretty good too)

Sunday: as said already the Gabbiadini 2nd goal celebrations.

I agree it did sound great at times on Sunday. But did get a bit ridiculous where I was, literally the only song for most of the game anyone was willing to sing. Just means it becomes really tedious. Tried to get other things going to no avail.

Is it any worse than the Scousers singing "Liverpoool, Liverpoool" and YNWA?

I'm a cynical fu_cker at the best of times and usually pretty dismissive of the passive support that prevails at our home games but Sunday?

I was sat in 551 so had a great view of our support and the Gabbadini chant after the 2nd goal, with 1000s and 1000s of scarves being swung around was utterly breathtaking.

It was one of, if not the very best sight I've seen in all my years watching Saints.

It was a genius decision by the club to put red and white scarves on every seat.

As for OWTS. It's OUR song. OURS. We owned it on Sunday like never before.

I chuffing love being a Saint.

I'm a cynical fu_cker at the best of times and usually pretty dismissive of the passive support that prevails at our home games but Sunday?

 

I was sat in 551 so had a great view of our support and the Gabbadini chant after the 2nd goal, with 1000s and 1000s of scarves being swung around was utterly breathtaking.

 

It was one of, if not the very best sight I've seen in all my years watching Saints.

 

It was a genius decision by the club to put red and white scarves on every seat.

 

As for OWTS. It's OUR song. OURS. We owned it on Sunday like never before.

 

I chuffing love being a Saint.

Couldn't agree more, there's no way Spurs or stoke can lay claim to that after Sunday. It wasn't just the volume, or the way it resonated around Wembley at a major final, but the passion and meaning we sung it with.

Pure pride, pure swelling of emotion. We ARE the saints, this is our club, our fine city and our friends, family's and community. And OWTS united us.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm a cynical fu_cker at the best of times and usually pretty dismissive of the passive support that prevails at our home games but Sunday?

 

I was sat in 551 so had a great view of our support and the Gabbadini chant after the 2nd goal, with 1000s and 1000s of scarves being swung around was utterly breathtaking.

 

It was one of, if not the very best sight I've seen in all my years watching Saints.

 

It was a genius decision by the club to put red and white scarves on every seat.

 

As for OWTS. It's OUR song. OURS. We owned it on Sunday like never before.

 

I chuffing love being a Saint.

Totally agree, from the equaliser until the winning goal were amongst the best 20 minutes of being a Saints fan in the last 41 years.

I'm a cynical fu_cker at the best of times and usually pretty dismissive of the passive support that prevails at our home games but Sunday?

 

I was sat in 551 so had a great view of our support and the Gabbadini chant after the 2nd goal, with 1000s and 1000s of scarves being swung around was utterly breathtaking.

 

It was one of, if not the very best sight I've seen in all my years watching Saints.

 

It was a genius decision by the club to put red and white scarves on every seat.

 

As for OWTS. It's OUR song. OURS. We owned it on Sunday like never before.

 

I chuffing love being a Saint.

I could not agree more. I whinge and moan about our support at times, but there were two or three times I was just speechless - one was the Gabbadini chant with the scarves, the other was OWTS bit shortly after that (I think), I managed to get some composure whilst feeling tearful (I blame the drink) and capture a bit on film.

Is it any worse than the Scousers singing "Liverpoool, Liverpoool" and YNWA?

Glad you mentioned this. Scousers only sing YNWA at the very beginning and end of a match, makes it 100x more powerful/ poignant. I get bored of their victim mentality but hugely respect their football knowledge. In my opinion. Most of our support can't be arsed to learn the words of songs with more than 4 words and when there's the slightest lull you'll get someone doing another "I waaannnaaaa beeeee, iiinnnn thaaaa numbaaaaa". Look I get it's "our" song but personally I find it tedious after the 36th time in a match.

Could be worse, could be the skate ****'s "na na na..." led by a weirdo wrapped in teddy bears!

Whatever, great day, we did our bit. Despite what I've said above I got behind every syllable of every song, cup final innit. Most around me were quiet and didn't say a word and filmed it all instead. Each to their own though I suppose.

Thought the phone light thing was a load of "look at us" bull**** TBH. Seems every game needs a minute of applause/ moment of public grief these days. What on earth has lighting a load of mobile phones got to do with Marcus? Sing his name and thank him the old fashioned way. No that's not a cool/ popular thing to say but it's how I feel. Don't blame the Mancs for mocking it (honestly if I didn't know why we were doing it, why would they?), their match going support is old school and finds that sort of thing pretty laughable probably.

Scousers only sing YNWA at the very beginning and end of a match, makes it 100x more powerful/ poignant.

Well that's not true from experience.

Any videos of the crowd on Sunday?

Well that's not true from experience.

Really? Seen them home & away plenty of times and obviously watched them on the TV in league, cup and Europe and never, ever noticed them singing it more than twice a game? Might just be me being exceptionally unlucky?

Just to reiterate, I can't abide that "Fields of Anfield Road" (Anthenary)/ "Liverpool, Liverpool" stuff but credit where it's due, they pretty much invented terrace singing in the 60's and their (away) support is knowledgable and they don't go in for ripping off every other clubs songs. We ripped off their Torres song for Lambert and their "we are the Liverpool, la la la la la" for Morgan. FFS the only decent song we've come up with in years is the Cedric song but that'll never get going as it's more than 4 words and/ or hasn't been done to death by another club's fans for their own player on a train/ in a beer soaked concourse and appeared all over social media! Let's be honest, even the Gabbiadini "song" everyone gushes about above was only sung as the decent Gabbiadini songs going around before were clearly too complicated for our Cup Final fans so we resorted to that cliche Germany 2006 7 nation ****ing army tune that has been sung to death for everyone from Van Persie to Gaston Ramires... zzzzzz.

Just to add the scousers home support is diabolical (except for big games) and their courting of overseas/ tourist fans is everything I hate in football, however genuine scousers hate it 100x more than I/ we can imagine.

Really? Seen them home & away plenty of times and obviously watched them on the TV in league, cup and Europe and never, ever noticed them singing it more than twice a game? Might just be me being exceptionally unlucky?

 

Just to reiterate, I can't abide that "Fields of Anfield Road" (Anthenary)/ "Liverpool, Liverpool" stuff but credit where it's due, they pretty much invented terrace singing in the 60's and their (away) support is knowledgable and they don't go in for ripping off every other clubs songs. We ripped off their Torres song for Lambert and their "we are the Liverpool, la la la la la" for Morgan. FFS the only decent song we've come up with in years is the Cedric song but that'll never get going as it's more than 4 words and/ or hasn't been done to death by another club's fans for their own player on a train/ in a beer soaked concourse and appeared all over social media! Let's be honest, even the Gabbiadini "song" everyone gushes about above was only sung as the decent Gabbiadini songs going around before were clearly too complicated for our Cup Final fans so we resorted to that cliche Germany 2006 7 nation ****ing army tune that has been sung to death for everyone from Van Persie to Gaston Ramires... zzzzzz.

 

Just to add the scousers home support is diabolical (except for big games) and their courting of overseas/ tourist fans is everything I hate in football, however genuine scousers hate it 100x more than I/ we can imagine.

Add to the fact that they play the yawn song over the speakers at the beginning ensures that everyone joins in. Its like a Britany Spears lip sync competition

I think people who were expecting a top 20 greatest football songs on sunday were asking to much. To get that many people singing together ( especially as most don't make a peep at home games) you need either really simple or really well known songs which meant inevitably OWTs and some derivative of seven nation army which is what we got. I loved it personally.

...

I was behind the goal. Didn't hear Man United's fans once all game until it went 3-2. Our fans made the only noise for the first 87 minutes of the match.

By the way, this was a special occasion. It was a cup final. Don't expect people to be that loud every game.

I'm a die hard fan, but not many are and I can accept that. If you think our support is ever going to be that loud, and good, for a normal league game then you need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Thought the phone light thing was a load of "look at us" bull**** TBH. Seems every game needs a minute of applause/ moment of public grief these days. What on earth has lighting a load of mobile phones got to do with Marcus? Sing his name and thank him the old fashioned way. No that's not a cool/ popular thing to say but it's how I feel. Don't blame the Mancs for mocking it (honestly if I didn't know why we were doing it, why would they?), their match going support is old school and finds that sort of thing pretty laughable probably.

I agree about the grief thing at football. Hate it but everyone is at it these days. But to be honest I think you can only take the **** out of it at the game if you're actually making an atmosphere yourselves and getting behind your team. The only time I heard united fans on Sunday in the second half was that one chant. In a cup final. Their support was absolutely pathetic, and judging by the number of "skinhead middle aged men in their black jackets not wearing colours" types that were there I'm guessing there were plenty of their match going support in attendance. Does their old school support just consist of not singing?

I agree about the grief thing at football. Hate it but everyone is at it these days. But to be honest I think you can only take the **** out of it at the game if you're actually making an atmosphere yourselves and getting behind your team. The only time I heard united fans on Sunday in the second half was that one chant. In a cup final. Their support was absolutely pathetic, and judging by the number of "skinhead middle aged men in their black jackets not wearing colours" types that were there I'm guessing there were plenty of their match going support in attendance. Does their old school support just consist of not singing?

Man Utd had no fans from what I saw.

From what I saw, and heard, it was just glory supporters waiting to see who won the game. Because I didn't hear any Man u fans until it went 3-2. If we went 3-2 up would the whole stadium may well have been supporting the Saints.

Add to the fact that they play the yawn song over the speakers at the beginning ensures that everyone joins in. Its like a Britany Spears lip sync competition

Still waiting for us all to break out into song when they play the "Southampton Song" (or whatever it is called) at the beginning of a game!!!

I was behind the goal. Didn't hear Man United's fans once all game until it went 3-2.

We were on the halfway line and all we could hear from the away end was a sort on distant murmur. We could see a small section

were clapping but couldn't hear if/what they were singing. We outsung them and outsupported them - very proud to have been there.