How would you feel.....

[therams69]

hopefully your safe standing thingy will give the fans a kick up the arse. I always look at Leeds fans as an example to follow, especially away. They are over achieving on the pitch and are very over rated imo but they get really good away results becuase the end is always packed and the atmosphere is epic and you can tell it gives the players a real lift.

Fully agree mate.

[MrsRam]

Just watched Real Madrid V Barcelona - how I wish I supported one of those teams. You watch them play and think - how hard can it be?

[DcFc Dyycheee]

Just watched Real Madrid V Barcelona - how I wish I supported one of those teams. You watch them play and think - how hard can it be?

You do support one of those teams who play like them. Derby County. 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

[B4ev6is]

well i think ben davies should be dropped from first team all togather as he offers nrothing, and i think the play got better when callium ball and masion bennet came on, offered some pace and strengh in midfield if i was clough i would let ben davies in the reseves and off load him from the club to anyone who might want the waste of space, he is not good enough at this level and i think david martin should take his place.

[MrsRam]

One day....

[Alph]

hopefully your safe standing thingy will give the fans a kick up the arse. I always look at Leeds fans as an example to follow, especially away. They are over achieving on the pitch and are very over rated imo but they get really good away results becuase the end is always packed and the atmosphere is epic and you can tell it gives the players a real lift.

You had to do it didn't you?!

Mention Leeds as a great example! We were all thinking it you fool! Just no one wanted to say it. Well, you've gone and done it now haven't you. Well all might aswell compliment Media United on their amazing away support.

I love Nicks idea that whether they get 3pts or not, away fans leave here thinking 'flippin heck, i wish we made noise like that, it was horrible!"

But too many people are stuck in their ways at PP. Same seats, same songs, same attitude.

Makes me sick that you look at Stoke City, a club that i didn't like or envy at all 10yrs ago.... and now they are what i want Derby to be. Same with Leeds, horrible club but win, lose or draw, you can't ignore their support. Sure, they're all rubbish spouting tosspots, but two horrible clubs like Stoke and Leeds do a better job of getting behind their team than we do. We just go along, spectate the soccer and feel a bit sorry for ourselves as we get on our players backs.

If the Baseball Ground met Pride Park, i wonder what it'd say. 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':(' />

[therams69]

Great post Alpha.

The BBG would feel nothing but pity towards PPS. Excellent facilities but it lacks the one thing a football stadium should have.

[B4ev6is]

well i think ben davies should be dropped from first team all togather as he offers nrothing, and i think the play got better when callium ball and masion bennet came on, offered some pace and strengh in midfield if i was clough i would let ben davies in the reseves and off load him from the club to anyone who might want the waste of space, he is not good enough at this level and i think david martin should take his place.

[MrsRam]

Good post Alpha but I think you'd have to wonder what football in general in the 70/80/ even 90's would say to the football of today can't tackle, can't have a bit of banter, too many stupid prix with too much money, too expensive for the REAL fan, too many constraints on the typical footie fan.

[Alph]

Just watched Real Madrid V Barcelona - how I wish I supported one of those teams. You watch them play and think - how hard can it be?

Great proffesionalism, outstanding hard work, supreme confidence and a splash of ability. They're both the complete package. But they'd be better off if they played 442. 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

What always amazes me about the worlds very best teams and players is their ability to treat each game with as much enthusiasm as the last. To apply that hard work and concentration every single match is as much of what makes them great as the ability these teams and players have. 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':(' /> If only Derby fans and players could approach every game like it's vital.

[Alph]

Good post Alpha but I think you'd have to wonder what football in general in the 70/80/ even 90's would say to the football of today can't tackle, can't have a bit of banter, too many stupid prix with too much money, too expensive for the REAL fan, too many constraints on the typical footie fan.

Good point.

I guess it's not really the fault of the fan..... more the fault of football (Sky Sports etc) and the direction they've taken. The sort of crowds they want watching the game.

[MrsRam]

Exacto - we've been hijacked. Nobody asked us.

[Duracell]

HA HA!! Cheers pal but very much doubt the SE Corner missed me. Its not like we have made any kind of joint effort since the beginning of the season is it?!

In fact hate to say it but think this thread sums up how I feel at the moment and it doesnt really have anything to do with the football. I actually have to say that since the move from North Stand Block A I feel depressed at home games in our area. Even when we were beating Pompey 3-0 the atmosphere was absolute dire!

So you can imagine I am not surprised to read comments in this thread.

Yes its about the football but for me its just as important respresenting Derby County in the stands and I am not afraid to say it but we are shocking.

A real shame.

Good win for us today all be it I didnt get to see all the game in the stand!!

Nick, please move back to the North Stand, and never give up! You were getting somewhere last season.

[JoetheRam]

Really? when did you start supporting Derby?

Why isn't the rough just as good as the smooth?

The fact your supporting your team, willing them, shouting at them, encouraging them, mad at them and so happy when they score?

They're your team, like them, lump them, you're stuck with them.

I'm just starting to think if it's all worth it. In 50 years time when i'm old, grey and consigned to an armchair on the half way line in the West Stand, will I look back on these days I spend following Derby around the country, spending stupid money on tickets and travel, giving hours of my spare time to, and think that I spent it wisely? I don't know if it's because we're absolutely abysmal (and have been for pretty much the whole time i've been following us), if it's the fact I resent everything Pride Park has turned out to be (basically a huge advertising space in the middle of nowhere that I drag myself to once every two weeks), or if it's simply that i've never loved the club as much as I used to think I did.

I look around the various forums and people talk of days out to Shrewsbury, Port Vale and Carlisle - not high on many people's lists of "must visit" grounds, yet the stories of those games, the fact that even though they were games that took place 30 years ago, in the 3rd tier of English football, people still remember them and talk of them with such fondness. Will I be able to say the same about the time we took 800 to the Riverside, were charged £30 for the privilage and nothing interesting happened whatsoever- there was no banter, no noise, no feeling of being a million miles from home in a strange land, because everything was nearly identical to that at Pride Park?

People talk so passionately of all those famous nights at the BBG, of the days spent on the Popside carried through the day by the buzz of the match, the noise of the crowd, the fear that you might get battered by some huge lump of an away fan, the smell of sweat, piss, beer and pies. What will I have? That one game against Southampton when we remembered how to support our team stood alone amongst countless mind numbing hours stood in silence, under constant harrassment by stewards, under the gaze of overzealous police waiting to nick you for swearing, or being drunk, wondering how it all came to be so sterile, bland and uninteresting?

Will the days return of supporting our team how I beleive they should be - loud, boisterous, scary, fun, exciting, passionate, colourful, or will the time come when the only fans left are those who sit in silence, politely applaud a goal, leave 10 minutes early to spend £200 in the club shop, before returning home to moan on the internet about how their day out was ruined by some lout who dared say the F word within earshot of their precious 8 year old? Or did such days that I yearn for never really exist and I am chasing an impossible ideal?

I remember when I used to go crazy when we scored, losing all rational thought and control of my limbs - now I just try and go crazy, attempting to remember what it was like when I cared that we'd scored against Watford, attempting to recreate that feeling of excitement and joy, but deep down I know that I don't care as much as I make out. I used to get really down with every defeat, i'd sulk for the entire weekend. If we won i'd skip on air all week, willing the next match to hurry up. Yet now I feel nothing. I drag myself to Pride Park out of habit, in some misplaced belief that this week it'll be good, that this week i'll enjoy myself, that this week my day won't be ruined by the kids reading the players names out in an impossibly squeaky voice or by the goal music or by the announcer...

I'm a bit lost.

[RotherhamRam]

I'm just starting to think if it's all worth it. In 50 years time when i'm old, grey and consigned to an armchair on the half way line in the West Stand, will I look back on these days I spend following Derby around the country, spending stupid money on tickets and travel, giving hours of my spare time to, and think that I spent it wisely? I don't know if it's because we're absolutely abysmal (and have been for pretty much the whole time i've been following us), if it's the fact I resent everything Pride Park has turned out to be (basically a huge advertising space in the middle of nowhere that I drag myself to once every two weeks), or if it's simply that i've never loved the club as much as I used to think I did.

I look around the various forums and people talk of days out to Shrewsbury, Port Vale and Carlisle - not high on many people's lists of "must visit" grounds, yet the stories of those games, the fact that even though they were games that took place 30 years ago, in the 3rd tier of English football, people still remember them and talk of them with such fondness. Will I be able to say the same about the time we took 800 to the Riverside, were charged £30 for the privilage and nothing interesting happened whatsoever- there was no banter, no noise, no feeling of being a million miles from home in a strange land, because everything was nearly identical to that at Pride Park?

People talk so passionately of all those famous nights at the BBG, of the days spent on the Popside carried through the day by the buzz of the match, the noise of the crowd, the fear that you might get battered by some huge lump of an away fan, the smell of sweat, piss, beer and pies. What will I have? That one game against Southampton when we remembered how to support our team stood alone amongst countless mind numbing hours stood in silence, under constant harrassment by stewards, under the gaze of overzealous police waiting to nick you for swearing, or being drunk, wondering how it all came to be so sterile, bland and uninteresting?

Will the days return of supporting our team how I beleive they should be - loud, boisterous, scary, fun, exciting, passionate, colourful, or will the time come when the only fans left are those who sit in silence, politely applaud a goal, leave 10 minutes early to spend £200 in the club shop, before returning home to moan on the internet about how their day out was ruined by some lout who dared say the F word within earshot of their precious 8 year old? Or did such days that I yearn for never really exist and I am chasing an impossible ideal?

I remember when I used to go crazy when we scored, losing all rational thought and control of my limbs - now I just try and go crazy, attempting to remember what it was like when I cared that we'd scored against Watford, attempting to recreate that feeling of excitement and joy, but deep down I know that I don't care as much as I make out. I used to get really down with every defeat, i'd sulk for the entire weekend. If we won i'd skip on air all week, willing the next match to hurry up. Yet now I feel nothing. I drag myself to Pride Park out of habit, in some misplaced belief that this week it'll be good, that this week i'll enjoy myself, that this week my day won't be ruined by the kids reading the players names out in an impossibly squeaky voice or by the goal music or by the announcer...

I'm a bit lost.

I went to the BBG and stood in the pop side but never heard such a tarade as the knob today. Every swear word possible for 2 minutes came screaming out of his mouth slamming chairs scaring the kids sat near him. When told to calm down carried on swearing and screaming. Never in the 24 years of supporting Derby have I seen such attitude at a Derby game except for when Leeds and Millwall visited the BBG getting into the upper tier of the pop side having a pop at the elderly fans. I have no issue with the odd swear word but the behaviour deserved to be back in the 70's when hooliganism was the norm of football. If you believe that this type of behaviour has a place at football grounds I feel sorry for you. The abusive language was throughout the first half and continued into the second half leading to the explosion. I have even witnessed this fan cheering sarcastically at Derby players and even coming across as supporting the opposition at times in sarcastic manner. It is a shame that in your eyes this behaviour is accceptable.

[Bris Vegas]

I'm just starting to think if it's all worth it. In 50 years time when i'm old, grey and consigned to an armchair on the half way line in the West Stand, will I look back on these days I spend following Derby around the country, spending stupid money on tickets and travel, giving hours of my spare time to, and think that I spent it wisely? I don't know if it's because we're absolutely abysmal (and have been for pretty much the whole time i've been following us), if it's the fact I resent everything Pride Park has turned out to be (basically a huge advertising space in the middle of nowhere that I drag myself to once every two weeks), or if it's simply that i've never loved the club as much as I used to think I did.

I look around the various forums and people talk of days out to Shrewsbury, Port Vale and Carlisle - not high on many people's lists of "must visit" grounds, yet the stories of those games, the fact that even though they were games that took place 30 years ago, in the 3rd tier of English football, people still remember them and talk of them with such fondness. Will I be able to say the same about the time we took 800 to the Riverside, were charged £30 for the privilage and nothing interesting happened whatsoever- there was no banter, no noise, no feeling of being a million miles from home in a strange land, because everything was nearly identical to that at Pride Park?

People talk so passionately of all those famous nights at the BBG, of the days spent on the Popside carried through the day by the buzz of the match, the noise of the crowd, the fear that you might get battered by some huge lump of an away fan, the smell of sweat, piss, beer and pies. What will I have? That one game against Southampton when we remembered how to support our team stood alone amongst countless mind numbing hours stood in silence, under constant harrassment by stewards, under the gaze of overzealous police waiting to nick you for swearing, or being drunk, wondering how it all came to be so sterile, bland and uninteresting?

Will the days return of supporting our team how I beleive they should be - loud, boisterous, scary, fun, exciting, passionate, colourful, or will the time come when the only fans left are those who sit in silence, politely applaud a goal, leave 10 minutes early to spend £200 in the club shop, before returning home to moan on the internet about how their day out was ruined by some lout who dared say the F word within earshot of their precious 8 year old? Or did such days that I yearn for never really exist and I am chasing an impossible ideal?

I remember when I used to go crazy when we scored, losing all rational thought and control of my limbs - now I just try and go crazy, attempting to remember what it was like when I cared that we'd scored against Watford, attempting to recreate that feeling of excitement and joy, but deep down I know that I don't care as much as I make out. I used to get really down with every defeat, i'd sulk for the entire weekend. If we won i'd skip on air all week, willing the next match to hurry up. Yet now I feel nothing. I drag myself to Pride Park out of habit, in some misplaced belief that this week it'll be good, that this week i'll enjoy myself, that this week my day won't be ruined by the kids reading the players names out in an impossibly squeaky voice or by the goal music or by the announcer...

I'm a bit lost.

I really enjoyed reading that good effort

[MrsRam]

Great post Joe - I can see where you're coming from and I agree with you - it's not Derby County at fault, it's our whole society that's changed, all this health and safety rubbish.

Just think, in 50 years, football might be like crown green bowls with just older people watching it, all the kids and teens sitting at home playing war games and texting eachother. THEN, you can look back on the good old days and tell everyone what it was like to be out in the fresh air, in the freezing cold, with a steaming hot bovril burning your hands and Derby still playing carp.

There will always be 'the good old days', even for you when you're older, so enjoy them now.

[Leeds Ram]

spot on joe, football has become sterile and i think it's slowly morphing into something which true fans really don't want, as soon as the transformation becomes complete it will kill the game. No-one is advocating hooliganism, but the right to stand is a key example, this small rule which won't hurt anyone is not being put in place not for safety reasons in my view because that argument is won, i imagine it's simply because there will be less seats for the people who sit there, do nothing, buy overpriced food, moan when they hear swearing and pay £30 for a ticket.

For people who moan about swearing, if you don't like it, don't attend football simple as that. My mum and dad tolerated it because they realised that football was a passionate game where people will have a verbal volley, a woman yesterday was moaning that some people were standing near the top of the east stand and complained, i mean seriously it is these types of people we can let go. While many cite sky as the destroyer of football, I see the decision to make stadiums all seater in this country for the top 2 tiers the destroyer of atmosphere, cheap tickets and everything people loved about football. It drove prices up, thus priced many working class people out of it, who were/are the true fans, football is a working class game, it has been took and become the idiots middle class game where any swearing or passion is seen as obscene and grotesque. If we are not careful, within 20 years the whole of pride park will be like the west stand is now 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':(' />

I would love go to away matches, but the simple fact is it's too expensive, with travel, ticket and food i am looking at £50 a pop and I cannot afford that. I have always been to pride park, since our relegation season and even then it didn't seem as bad as it is now. Like joe said, pride park is nothing of the sort, it is a giant advertising bowl which has no soul at all. We need a change, a solution and fast.

[uttoxram75]

Unreserved seating would be a start.

I would have a section of say, 3,000 put aside for unreserved seating. You could buy a season ticket if you wish but would not be guaranteed an exact seat - first come first served.

Whether its in the North, East or SE corner/South is not necessarily important.

The big difference would be if a group of friends wanted to attend and sit together they could do it just by buying tickets for this area.

It would encourage the occasional fan as he would be able to go with mates without having to sit with strangers.

I would also make it over 16's only.

Out of the 3,000 seats possibly make it so only 2,000 can be ST's ?

Don't know really, just thinking aloud now!

[ladyram]

spot on joe, football has become sterile and i think it's slowly morphing into something which true fans really don't want, as soon as the transformation becomes complete it will kill the game. No-one is advocating hooliganism, but the right to stand is a key example, this small rule which won't hurt anyone is not being put in place not for safety reasons in my view because that argument is won, i imagine it's simply because there will be less seats for the people who sit there, do nothing, buy overpriced food, moan when they hear swearing and pay £30 for a ticket.

For people who moan about swearing, if you don't like it, don't attend football simple as that. My mum and dad tolerated it because they realised that football was a passionate game where people will have a verbal volley, a woman yesterday was moaning that some people were standing near the top of the east stand and complained, i mean seriously it is these types of people we can let go. While many cite sky as the destroyer of football, I see the decision to make stadiums all seater in this country for the top 2 tiers the destroyer of atmosphere, cheap tickets and everything people loved about football. It drove prices up, thus priced many working class people out of it, who were/are the true fans, football is a working class game, it has been took and become the idiots middle class game where any swearing or passion is seen as obscene and grotesque. If we are not careful, within 20 years the whole of pride park will be like the west stand is now 'http://www.dcfcfans.co.uk/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':(' />

I would love go to away matches, but the simple fact is it's too expensive, with travel, ticket and food i am looking at £50 a pop and I cannot afford that. I have always been to pride park, since our relegation season and even then it didn't seem as bad as it is now. Like joe said, pride park is nothing of the sort, it is a giant advertising bowl which has no soul at all. We need a change, a solution and fast.

I get what you're saying YR but about the swearing - my point of view is this.

First off, let me say now, I swear. I can curse all day long (when the kids are about, it's under me breath mind) - and no way on earth would I go to a football match and not expect it.

When we go, the kids know to expect it and they do hear it. It's a fact - people swear at matches.They know now to "shut their ears" if you will.

But, the guy who did that yesterday, shocked not just us with kids (of which there were a fair few) but even the older folks and I've not witnessed owt like it before, not even from some pissed up guy in a boozer. He did turn round when challenged and say "are you happy watching this ****", to which I said - we're all dissapointed but you don't see anyone else carrying off like that. In all honesty, even though I couldn't smell owt, he was either pissed, stoned, or both. Totally bizarre.

If he wants to swear, fine, you expect one or two curses...Yes, I swear but the difference is I'm mindful of who hears it. That doesn't make me boring or someone who's wont to complain at the drop of a hat because I don't. It's merely a question of manners. Well, to me it is anyway.

With respect YR, I don't like being told not to take me kids to a match just because I choose not to leave all my manners at the door on the way in. It's sad it has come to a negative viewpoint about it and that behaviour like his is deemed acceptable at a match. I just don't see it.

The behaviour he displayed was just wrong and would have fit right in way back when but it's just not like that anymore is it? Rightly or wrongly, whichever way people choose to look at it, football has become civilised.

I don't like feeling in the wrong because of trying to stop the tripe spewing out of his gob, or when he decided to leather the chair in front of him (which had a child sat on it) but that's ok, because it's at a match and anything goes doesn't it?

I think that's a shame.