Does More Support Help Or Hinder?

Now that Ipswich Town are on the up and up so too it seems are attendances and this week the club has offered half-season tickets, which could save supporters as much as 157 pounds over just twelve matches!

There are other big savings too for kids under 11 and the aim of the club is to get more bums on seats for a potential promotion push.

The other reason of course is revenue and although it is great to see Portman Road no longer resembling a stadium fit for ghosts, the down side is that the players may be haunted by the sounds of moans and groans if things to not go according to plan!

Some of you will argue that more support is always good in whatever shape or form it takes but as expectations rise with ever increasing rapidity so too do the feelings of discontent if there is a sudden downturn in form.

Ipswich Manager Mick McCarthy said as much in an interview recently, “I am very pragmatic and don`t jump for joy when we win or get too down in the dumps when we lose. Of course I hate losing but it comes with the job and I remember being booed just a few games ago when we drew with Huddersfield and now I am the best thing since sliced bread.” He has a point.

That is the fickle nature of the football supporter. I would never boo a player but I am as frustrated as anyone when we lose.

The trouble with bigger crowds is that you also get a bigger percentage of cynics in the ranks. They will be looking for the first excuse to complain and they will also usually be the first to convey their dissatisfaction to the players on the field. This does not help and in my view only hinders our chances of getting the right result.

Sometimes I think it is better to have 16,000 die-hard supporters in the ground than a full house, when half of the onlookers are using it as a vehicle of their own convenience and to moan and groan.

The Town away support is magnificent! They travel everywhere to support the blues and SUPPORT is they key word here.

Mick McCarthy knows that his side cannot play well every week but the real fans can make it fortress Portman Road if they show their passion and help to fashion a win and not foster frustration.

This is my view but what do you think? Perhaps you believe that once you have paid you money you are entitled to air your opinion?

I would argue that you only have to look at the way Tottenham Hotspur are performing at home these days to know how crowd negativity can impact so badly upon the players.

I would love nothing more than to see a full house at Portman Road every home game but only if it aids our cause.

Confidence is often a delicate condition and it often needs to be nurtured and definitely not destroyed!


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich