arthur
Very well known Exeweb poster
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2004
- Messages
- 11,819
Seems like I chose a good day for my first visit to SJP this season (previous absence down to a variety of factors) – a fabulous and welcome victory and an instant 66% increase in total goals scored.
A really bright first half was followed by a more typical second half – defensive substitutions, their keeper barely tested and more often than not a reluctance to break quickly when given the opportunity.
But on the plus side we played the right way round. It was one of those winter afternoons when standing on the bank should have been a near magical experience – a confident and full strength team attacking our end, a crescendo of noise building throughout the half, the light fading to total darkness as the tempo, chances and goals were racked up….
Alas this was not the case for one reason above all others. That feckin, feckin drum. The second half began with a dirge that continued for 20 (TWENTY) minutes (thanks to the new scoreboard every minute of this unmitigated tedium could be counted). The drum drowned whatever the song was, but there was some rhythmic clapping being done by about a dozen teenagers who I presume were singing something.
It also severely limited the chances of any other chants or song beings started but, most significantly, it depressed the football. It suddenly became clear why only three goals had been scored at home all season – that twenty minute dirge at the start of the second half coincided with the most uninspiring and ineffective football played that afternoon.
I love Exeter City. I love lower league football. I love standing on terraces which have an organic life of their own – sometimes quiet, and reflective and chatty, sometimes angry and frustrated, at others raucous and jubilant. A constant ebb and flow of emotions, banter and entertainment. Other grounds generate this atmosphere and we did once, some days more effectively than others (as is the nature of the beast), but now we seem to have given all this up in exchange for a monoculture of ceaseless and tedious drumming. Twenty teenagers are having a good time, and good luck to them, but at what cost?
I realise this is a minority view but thought it worth an airing…..
A really bright first half was followed by a more typical second half – defensive substitutions, their keeper barely tested and more often than not a reluctance to break quickly when given the opportunity.
But on the plus side we played the right way round. It was one of those winter afternoons when standing on the bank should have been a near magical experience – a confident and full strength team attacking our end, a crescendo of noise building throughout the half, the light fading to total darkness as the tempo, chances and goals were racked up….
Alas this was not the case for one reason above all others. That feckin, feckin drum. The second half began with a dirge that continued for 20 (TWENTY) minutes (thanks to the new scoreboard every minute of this unmitigated tedium could be counted). The drum drowned whatever the song was, but there was some rhythmic clapping being done by about a dozen teenagers who I presume were singing something.
It also severely limited the chances of any other chants or song beings started but, most significantly, it depressed the football. It suddenly became clear why only three goals had been scored at home all season – that twenty minute dirge at the start of the second half coincided with the most uninspiring and ineffective football played that afternoon.
I love Exeter City. I love lower league football. I love standing on terraces which have an organic life of their own – sometimes quiet, and reflective and chatty, sometimes angry and frustrated, at others raucous and jubilant. A constant ebb and flow of emotions, banter and entertainment. Other grounds generate this atmosphere and we did once, some days more effectively than others (as is the nature of the beast), but now we seem to have given all this up in exchange for a monoculture of ceaseless and tedious drumming. Twenty teenagers are having a good time, and good luck to them, but at what cost?
I realise this is a minority view but thought it worth an airing…..
