Atmosphere at SMS

[OldNick]

I feel the arguements about moving the away fans is now dead and buried. It is now multiple times that the atmosphere has been incredible at SMS, sunday being the latest. Even the TV pundits are mentioning it as well as neutrals. Fans who want to sit by the away fans are there doing os, and on Sunday both sides of the away end was raucous. The whole ground getting involved and yet again The Northam Wall drove the noise. Where I sit in the Itchen, hearing the Northam and Chapel also really getting involved has made the matchdays so much better, the playersmust love having the support from both ends and the away fans marginalised, where they cant have such an impact that they had when we stupidly split our home advantage.

Well done Parsons, a brilliant decision to enable this, should have been done form day 1.

SMS now feels like our home and fortress

[Oh no Mick Mills]

Spot on mate.

Unfortunately the first season with the Northam Wall coincided with our worst season ever .

The Northam has properly found its voice now and I love the way we instantly back the team with OWTS when we concede a goal.

More and more songs about the players which is great.

Sure there's a few crappy songs that irritate me...the father's gun Pompey one that serves no purpose...apart from when we are actually playing the Skates and the We Spy when we want is cringeworthy.

Plus we've now got the Chapel crew if you want some bantz with the away mobs....win win. 

[skintsaint]

Watched on TV and sounded great, amusing too see on SM that bitter skates said the atmosphere was crap 😅

[OldNick]

5 minutes ago, Oh no Mick Mills said:

Spot on mate.

Unfortunately the first season with the Northam Wall coincided with our worst season ever .

The Northam has properly found its voice now and I love the way we instantly back the team with OWTS when we concede a goal.

More and more songs about the players which is great.

Sure there's a few crappy songs that irritate me...the father's gun Pompey one that serves no purpose...apart from when we are actually playing the Skates and the We Spy when we want is cringeworthy.

Plus we've now got the Chapel crew if you want some bantz with the away mobs....win win. 

Since I first went in the late 60's I always craved for us to have a proper end, ok we had the Milton but that was often mixed with away fans. Now we have the Northam Wall. 

[saintwbu]

It’s been clear since the start that it’s definitely reduced the noise of the away end. I sit much closer to the current away end than I did the previous one, and yet the noise feels significantly less - often I forget they’re even there. 

[Patrick Bateman]

4 hours ago, OldNick said:

I feel the arguements about moving the away fans is now dead and buried. It is now multiple times that the atmosphere has been incredible at SMS, sunday being the latest. Even the TV pundits are mentioning it as well as neutrals. Fans who want to sit by the away fans are there doing os, and on Sunday both sides of the away end was raucous. The whole ground getting involved and yet again The Northam Wall drove the noise. Where I sit in the Itchen, hearing the Northam and Chapel also really getting involved has made the matchdays so much better, the playersmust love having the support from both ends and the away fans marginalised, where they cant have such an impact that they had when we stupidly split our home advantage.

Well done Parsons, a brilliant decision to enable this, should have been done form day 1.

SMS now feels like our home and fortress

I (now) completely agree. First season it was a struggle, even much of last season before Christmas it was a struggle ... but maybe that could be put down to bad football until Tonda came in. 

The sound now seems to more readily fill the ground and you're right, it is now multiple times we've come away talking about a great atmosphere and then watching highlights listening to commentators say "just listen to that", marvellous. 

Also, big shout to the stadium team for the videos, petty trolling on the scoreboards and choice of music - it all seems to work well and help drive the crowd as well from the start.  Much better on Sunday than the pyro display of last year which always feels a bit shit. 

As I said, I hate the fathers gun as it's always sung when we never play them, but hearing all four sides of the ground sing it on Sunday was brilliant. Fuck off pompey, we're Saints 😂

 

Edited 10 hours ago by Patrick Bateman

[RedArmy]

Still wish we’d get rid of that stupid 3000 decibel saints band OWTSGMI nonsense before the game though. Let the fans make the atmosphere. 

[Patrick Bateman]

3 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

Still wish we’d get rid of that stupid 3000 decibel saints band OWTSGMI nonsense before the game though. Let the fans make the atmosphere. 

I'm split. Part of me wants to get rid and move on as I think we've upped our stadium game. Part of me likes the crappy tradition ... 😂

[RedArmy]

4 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

I'm split. Part of me wants to get rid and move on as I think we've upped our stadium game. Part of me likes the crappy tradition ... 😂

I would compromise on them turning the volume down a little bit. 

[sfc4prem]

Fun to be singing in the Chapel and not be an ostracised minority receiving weird or confused looks from the local monks, nuns and other variants of prawn sandwich mutes that used to populate that end.

[Saint_lambden]

It has improved, no doubt, but still nowhere near consistent enough. 

Sunday was the best atmosphere in a day-time game since the away fans moved but for obvious reasons. I was worried it was going to be more subdued due to the KO time, first game back after international break, nerves etc. 

Aside from then though, there's still 2-3k empty seats at every home game either side of the away fans which will hopefully become less of a thing as the season goes on and our home form remains excellent - as it did towards the end of last season. 

The Chapel certainly didn't feel like a family stand on Sunday. Old(er) woman who sits in front of me, and who doesn't normally say boo to a goose, was feral and joining in the chants towards Westwood. Siege/anti-Pompey mentality in full effect  

 

[EssEffCee]

It works well in the big games (eg yesterday, Arsenal) and the games with a tiny away support midweek.

Still don't think it's great in normal games where there's a loud away support though.

[Turkish]

4 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Watched on TV and sounded great, amusing too see on SM that bitter skates said the atmosphere was crap 😅

They are programmed to say this. I expect they were also boasting about how amazing their away support was as well depsite seeming to spend most of the game with their arms folded stood in silence with anxious faces. They will say the same when we go down there, Fratton Park was bouncing, scummers like scared church mice, didnt make a sound etc etc. 

[ant]

53 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

Still wish we’d get rid of that stupid 3000 decibel saints band OWTSGMI nonsense before the game though. Let the fans make the atmosphere. 

And goal music. 🤮

[SouthWalesSaints]

I like the goal music tbf 

[Midfield_General]

8 minutes ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

I like the goal music tbf 

Why, out of interest?

[Oh no Mick Mills]

18 minutes ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

I like the goal music tbf 

Yeah me too. 

Seemingly the majority of the fans do too as most join in. 

 

[franniesTache]

I like the band personally, we've had a brass band associated to the club since it was founded in 1885 (in those days it was the church band) and it's actually more traditional than red and white stripes, i'm sure there's plenty my age who look back fondly on the old albion band who were the pre-cursors.

As for the move i was completely against it but i've come round to it now, mainly because i'm having a great time in the chapel in the tiny block by the away fans, having a laugh there with mates and don't have to put up with the god awful "bantz" and nicked songs from other clubs that the northam do.

So long as the club don't crack down on that section then it works pretty well, though my worry is a load of kids will move to the chapel and ruin what we have

[Ken Tone]

I like the band. It's only for a few minutes.... and I'm surprised anyone thinks they were loud, compared to the rest of the pre-match music, which was deafening on Sunday. Seemed much louder than usual.  Woman near me gave up trying to make herself heard by the man standing next to her and had to text him instead!

 

[die Mannyschaft]

Agree, as a Blovk 43 fan who originally was in 42 then 37 and 24 the atmosphere was excellent Sunday as has been this season. Being in block 24 before its the same as in Northam you cant fully hear the other end. But that end did make a decent noise for year back. Looking at videos Chapel did a superb job at winding up the skates!

[vectraman]

6 hours ago, RedArmy said:

Still wish we’d get rid of that stupid 3000 decibel saints band OWTSGMI nonsense before the game though. Let the fans make the atmosphere. 

I think it’s tin pot and embarrassing. A brass band at a football match in 2026. No thanks. 

[Britannia]

 

46 minutes ago, vectraman said:

I think it’s tin pot and embarrassing. A brass band at a football match in 2026. No thanks. 

I think Your Song is an odd choice for kick off but I guess it’s tradition.

Whilst we’re talking about entertainment, can we have a DJ in the Chapel fan zone?  Or anything, anything at all.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

6 hours ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

I like the goal music tbf 

I like the goal music too. I think a prolonged celebration is decent; I mean you get the initial roar and "get the fuck in" etc., then you get to dance (or whatever) like a prat for a few seconds. All good fun.

[RedArmy]

1 hour ago, vectraman said:

I think it’s tin pot and embarrassing. A brass band at a football match in 2026. No thanks. 

I don’t think it’s tin pot or embarrassing. It’s just too fucking loud and drowns out any crowd noise. 

[sfc4prem]

1 hour ago, vectraman said:

I think it’s tin pot and embarrassing. A brass band at a football match in 2026. No thanks. 

Nice bit of History, pal.

[saintstowin]

I used to disparage goal music, I think Norwich had it years ago, before we did, and I thought it was rubbish. But it's good fun and like has been said extends the celebrating from visceral joy to more of a party.

The band too, I remember when they went from one end to the other starting off at a funereal pace both musically and in their marching. That became a bit much but it's better now, straight into a decent OWTS pace and gets a lot of people going before kick off.

And generally I agree the move is working out fine now. 

And the music was ridiculously loud on Sunday. Like the crowd. The OWTS at about 75-80 mins (I could be a bit out with the timing) was the best I've been present for.