At the start of this season I wrote a blog inspired by attending a World Cup event. That blog examined the effect of the supporters in Palace’s previous season, which culminated in a stunning 11th place finish in the Barclays Premier League 2013-2014 season. Oddly this means I have to start answering the question of the effect of negativity by plagiarising my own work – so what follows is a description of the event that sparked the question.
“The dust had barely settled on a truly amazing season when I attended a pre-world cup event. I had not long witnessed Palace’s third highest finish in the club’s entire history – in a season which began with even the most optimistic of supporters crossing their fingers that luck would be on our side for a last ditch escape at Fulham.
At the event, a certain Chris Kamara was in attendance. “Kammy” had covered a number of Palace matches from within the new gantry (the construction and position of which had left me assessing which sub was coming on by boot colour alone), so I thought a chat with him about Palace would go down well for one of our summer podcasts.
The first port of call for the Sky Sports favourite was to mention the “wonderful job” that he thought then manager Tony Pulis had done to revitalise the side and get the belief back, but conversation quickly turned to the support. From his lofty perch above the heaving Arthur Wait masses, Kammy had witnessed all that Selhurst had to offer last season and far from paying lip service to a Palace fan, he was intent in making it clear that not only was it a great atmosphere for the players to play in and fans to watch a game in, but it was so much more, saying:
“(Palace had) the best, most vocal supporters of the year. They deserved it more than anything else they bought into it from the very beginning”
as nice as that was to hear, then came the words that stuck “Don’t lose that”
Don’t lose that.
Through the fog of cider, an extended journey home after zoning out missing a train, that one point genuinely stayed with me. I didn’t need to listen back to the recording to remember it in the morning – because it summed up both my pride at being part of something so special – but also the fear I have with the club now at this level.
We’d all seen it as we travelled around the biggest clubs in the country. Former cauldrons of colour and noise, reduced to tourists taking pictures and remaining firmly ensconced in their seats. The regulars had seemingly become generations of people whose joy for the game seemed to have been replaced by frustration and anger.
Away fans visiting Selhurst provided little respite from this negativity and sterility. Man City made a decent noise, Everton weren’t bad – but I genuinely couldn’t think of much else. In block W of the AW I am close enough that I should be hearing the support the PL teams’ forums were so effervescent in their praise of, but instead they mostly looked shell-shocked as our little corner of South London showed them what the being a supporter is all about.
Kammy himself had continued on a similar theme:
“Don’t start to think…’Now we’re in the Premier League for another season, we have a god-given right to be there.’ – Do exactly what you did last season. Support your team. Even when things aren’t going right”
Of course, those of you at any games last season will know that as supporters we have been acutely aware of this for a while now. The near disappearance of the club saw to that – like adding a nitro boost to the work being pioneered by the likes of the Holmesdale Fanatics and the AWM to give Selhurst its voice.
Kammy pinpointed a game against Stoke at Selhurst, pointing out that Palace didn’t have a shot on target for an hour of the game – and I realised that I genuinely didn’t know or care about that at the match (we won and Kammy puts it down in part to the unnerving effect on the away team). It isn’t that long ago that many of us would have been talking about that in frustrated tones during an uninspired Francis or Taylor-led Palace game. Here we are now, back at the top level, and all the adversity we have experienced has finally taught us the difference between what we do at a game and what we say away from an environment where negativity and positivity from the support can have a real impact. “
Reading that description back now, something else just as prevalent has stood out. In my post season happiness I had pinpointed two words that were important in summing up the Premier League sides we had visited – frustration and anger.
Having just witnessed Palace lose 3-1 at home to Sunderland, those words – the very words I feared, have become reality. Not just for me, but for the vast majority of supporters. So I come back to the title of this blog – and the answer has to be “NOT to moan” – because otherwise I am ignoring the very lessons I thought our support taught the Premier League last season.
The fans are looking for who to blame – the board, the manager, the players, the referees – and all I am sure could be legitimately criticised, but it misses out one group. The group that took the plaudits last season, that stuck by their team, that never let their heads drop of their voices fall silent. It’s us. We’re asking what’s changed – we’ve changed.
We’re still loud, elements still sing all game – but something’s missing in the stands from last season – and it’s because we’ve let a sense of expectation and entitlement interfere with our one job that we did so well last season.
I would never claim that people don’t have a right to bemoan a poor performance or vent frustration on the internet – but I defy any Palace supporter attending games to tell me that it feels the same as last season in the stands.
Well I’ve scolded myself for not learning a lesson I already thought I knew. You all do the same and we can at least stand tall and say we did our part again this season.
I will end with the quote I ended the last blog with – before a ball had been kicked this season, because it makes me think about how 9 games in I cannot honestly say I think we’ve done anything other than let our own standards slip:
“…we have a responsibility now. We set a standard. We know the difference it makes – so we dare not let our standards slip now. To look at the messageboards, you’d think we would be in danger of slipping.
Personally I think we now know the difference we make. We have to educate new fans and encourage others set in their ways to see that we all have a part to play. Season 2014/2015 is knocking on the door – no more time to bask in the glory of our achievements – now, we go again (nothing can go wrong with me using that phrase right?)”
