Free 'clappers' being handed out for the Brum game!

[SLAMMED]

Im row z, Russ is row y and RL is row w.

[chandog]

thought this worked quite well actually. got the south and west stands involved in making some noise although songs from these stands were as limited as usual

my clapper fell apart in the second half
but then i was smashing it on the rail at the front of the stand cos i was in the front row

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

It basically sounded like 20.000 fanny farts TBF. Oh and mine gad been stolen before I got to my seat, so I expect STAR to hand over the cash as compensation

STAR have looked intot he matter and as a goodwill gesture will be allowing one STAR member to travel to Burnley free.
Not you, mind.

[PlasticRoyale]

Looked like every one was fanning themselves in a middle class way

[Maguire]

Not only did I have no clapper on my seat, but the girl next to me hit hers on average once every three seconds for THE ENTIRE GAME.

If there'd been extra time I prolly would've rammed it down her throat, fukks sake.

[handbags_harris]

Can someone please tell me why people require reinforced pieces of cardboard to make a noise when they have two perfectly natural acceptable ways of making a din at a football match - their gobs and their hands??? What an utter embarrassment these things were.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Can someone please tell me why people require reinforced pieces of cardboard to make a noise when they have two perfectly natural acceptable ways of making a din at a football match - their gobs and their hands??? What an utter embarrassment these things were.

Disagree, the kids loved 'em

I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way, I believe all the beauty they pocess inside

[Royal With Cheese]

It worries me when people don't have the intelligence to press their hands together quickly in a rhythmic fashion and need an artificial aid to making noise.

[SLAMMED]

[boy1985]

Can someone please tell me why people require reinforced pieces of cardboard to make a noise when they have two perfectly natural acceptable ways of making a din at a football match - their gobs and their hands??? What an utter embarrassment these things were.

Disagree, the kids loved 'em

I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way, I believe all the beauty they pocess inside

exactly they are the future, and by teaching them that clappers are needed to create atmosphere is ingenious! maybe in 10 years from now they will have battery powered clappers so you don't need to move your hand!

[STAR Liaison]

Whilst I did not use mine (clapper that is as my hands were, as usual red, from hitting each other!) a lot of people around me who are usually silent with an occasional clapping along to Blue Army were making much more noise.

Yes it should be unnecessary but sadly it is not, and maybe if we can gradually get them to lose their inhibitions about making a noise they will be unnecessary in the future.

[West Stand Man]

So far as Tom Hark is concerned I have stated my case often enough. Love it or hate it the fact is that as soon as it strikes up there is a VAST majority of the crowd joining in. It then gets slated on HNA by the minority fun Gestapo.

So far as the clappers are concerned - I concede that I have no evidence yet. I am basing my presumption of the usual response to this type of thing - which is for most people to join in (at least to begin with) and the vocal minority to spout on about how it isn't what football is all about. The photos of old style rattles say it all to be honest. Real football fans (whatever that might constitute) have used all sorts of odd noise generators throughout time. They went out of favour during the worst of the hooligan era in the 70s and that had nothing to do with them being unpopular with fans - just that the potential use of them as a weapon was somewhat frowned on.

The club is pandering to the probabale majority - not a bad marketing plan to be honest. They mat have it wrong this time - we'll see - but don't knock them for trying.

So what you said wasn't actually true then?

As for Tom Hark, I'm not a fan of it, but then I do join in when they play it because it's at a time when I obviously want to be celebrating and they've turned it into part of that. A lot of it is down to taking the piss out of the whole idea of music aided celebration, part of it is because it gets the away fans taking the piss out of us and you have to stand up for your own.

I think 'some' of the joining in for things like this and the Bring It On debacle is a similar thing. People don't want to make the club look more pathetic than it is with these things so join in out of sympathy more than a desire for the club or orchestrate atmospher!

My case is proven m'lud.

[Hoop Blah]

Really? Is it?

As I said last week I expected a lot of people to join in and use them, which is great, as it's better that they do that than the whole thing falls flat on it's face and looks more stupid than needs be.

I still don't see the point and it still pains me that we have to be spoon feed these things in order to create something that either would've been there before (I remember games where I could see the West Stand joining in without silly props) or just isn't part of our culture.

There is a generation/section of fans, some who have been coming for donkeys years, who see this as how football should be going. Personally I was attracted to watching Reading as much for the atmosphere and spontenaity of the crowd as I was for the football (God knows the football was very rarely a good enough reason on it's own). The sanitisation and co-ordination (I can't think of how to term it, in one sense I think it's Americanisation, one sense commercialisation and in another sense Panto'isation) of the whole experience is killing the game that I fell in love with and I pity the new generation of fans that see this as how football should be.

I still think the majority of fans would rather we didn't go down this route of pre-planned stunts, but whilst we do it a high percentage of those will still get involved with it in because they want to help their club. In the long run it will change possibly change the way football crowds interact with the club and the 'match day experience.' Personally I don't think it's changing it for the better.

[BR2]

With the clappers,a fantastically loud level of support from the fans and the PA twat being louder and more hysterical than ever what happens?
The players freeze.
Over the years on here we have had thousands and thousands of posts about how making a noise in supporting our team makes all the difference and how those that don't are in some way disloyal.
After Sunday ,which I think was the loudest and best support at the Mad Stad ever ,can we now put this theory to bed-it makes no difference.

It makes for a much more enjoyable experience for us fans (apart from the racket from the PA man) but IMHO it makes no difference to the performance levels of the team.
So by all means everybody scream their heads off but please don't kid yourselves that it makes any difference and judging by some of the performances on Sunday it makes some players play worse except for S Hunt of course who can play badly whatever the support.

[Deathy]

Thanks.

[loyalroyal4life]

1st 25 mins on sunday was the best atmosphere at mad stad for a while imo. it picked up again when we were all over them 1st 20 of the 2nd half!!


it obviously makes a difference to them playing better and I really hope we can make a racket come tuesday

[BR2]

1st 25 mins on sunday was the best atmosphere at mad stad for a while imo. it picked up again when we were all over them 1st 20 of the 2nd half!!


it obviously makes a difference to them playing better and I really hope we can make a racket come tuesday

Not so obvious to me.

[madreadingfan]

the players even say that it does make a difference and i think i will listen to them as they are the ones playing on the pitch

[BR2]

the players even say that it does make a difference and i think i will listen to them as they are the ones playing on the pitch

But players,managers and chairmen always say what the fans want to hear-it's marketing and makes the fans feel as though they are part of it all.
I still don't think it makes any difference-did Kebe run faster,did anybody tackle harder because the crowd was louder?
Did Barnsley play poorly because they only had a few hundred fans here the other week?

As for ON the pitch I think the real problem is that the players don't talk to each other-it's not just captaincy but players taking responsibility.
That IMHO is so much more important than a few more decibells from the fans.

[SLAMMED]

^^^ she also said she'll bring you a mars bar to the Burnley game as a peace offering!

Thank you! True to your word, when i got to my seat there was an envelope with "An appology from the phantom clapper thrower" written on it with a mars bar inside

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