Snowflake Royal Zip Snowflake Royal Cheers Zip, were you in the same place vs Hull and what did you think of the noise and numbers in comparison if so?
I couldn't make Millwall so I have to rely on others for this one, but knowing your view on Hull gives me a baseline as I could make that one.
I sit in the same seat as a season ticket holder. Hull was definitely more noisy. My view on all of this was then when it first started at the back end of last season it was a good idea and I could really hear the chanting. It’s gone downhill this season and hasn’t grown.
Unsurprising given a lot of the toss served up so far at home. Interesting, thanks. I'm still hopeful that a pick up in form will see it grow and work, but how crap we are these days may mean it's a good idea at the wrong time.
Couldn't hear them much yesterday, but also thought that Y25/26 were relatively quiet. There was a lot of anxiety around the ground, and of course Millwall were pretty loud. Their chant of "We forgot that you were here" after the cheer for the first goal was entirely justified!
I am fully in favour of having an area of the ground where you are allowed to stand without it affecting others, and where if you're bringing a group of friends to the game, and you want to stick together, you can do that very easily. As a committed supporter of safe-standing, I'd hope that if/when safe standing is introduced, that's what it would be like in the standing area.
However, if they want to have a "wall of sound", it needs more militant organising. Bolshy shop stewards, in fact, who herd people down from the back towards the middle, and make them stand together. And song organisers, who conduct from the front. That's how it works in European games.
None of my beeswax, because I'm not involved, but I'd suggest maybe the original organisers should have a think about how they want it to work. Is it a vehicle for organised chants - or is it a place to have a friendly meet up with your mates from out of town, and stand up without affecting somebody behind you? Organised chants need full-on organisation, and a committed core of, probably at least 100, who turn up to every game and guarantee they will sing for the full 90, no matter how miserable the fare on the pitch is. You'd almost need them *not* to be Reading fans, as otherwise they'd be distracted by the on-pitch shambles! They need to care more about the noise than the game.
For those who say it should be an area within Y26 - you're having a laugh. Given how much general whinging and hand-wringing there has been already - can you imagine the meltdown there would be if people were actually being asked to move from their long-term seats to make way for this group?
Maybe Ian is right about it being "right idea, wrong time" - but if it's ever going to work, it's going to have to work for the bad times as well as the good.