Best fans (long)?

[listen (formerly MG7) 0]

Who would you say are the ''best'' fans from either the Premiership or Division One (Championship, or whatever).

I know it''s tough to determine and ''best'', but here''s some of my opinions and suggestions.

Size of the club / current success - Man. Utd. attract 67,000 fans every other weekend, but are regularly playing Champions League football and invariably compete for the title. It stands to reason that they will attract more fans than us. Now that we are successful we are attracting 8,000 odd mare fans than we were, say, five years ago.

Man. City, however, regularly attracted 28,000 fans in the old Division Two (or even older Division Three if you remember the pre-Premiership days!). That to me is more impressive than United getting nearly 70,000, or us getting 25,000 now.

Other clubs in the area - We fall down here, as there''s no other Football League clubs, let alone Premiership clubs, in Norfolk. We effectively have a monopoly. From the number of people living in Norwich and Norfolk, it is my opinion that we should be looking to attract 30,000 people minimum. When you consider that Norwich has 130,000 people living there, plus the rest of the county, I don''t think that figure is asking too much.

I''ll go back to Man. City here - their city is evidently much larger than ours, so they should attract more fans. But when you consider that their rivals are the best supported club in the world, I think they do pretty well. Not only that, but in the area of northwest England in which they are situated (say, the size of Norfolk), there are not only United, but also Liverpool, Everton, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Crewe, Preston and Wigan in the top two flights alone. Each of these clubs (with the possible exception of Blackburn) deserves huge credit for attracting sell out crowds twice a month, given the competition they face.

Away support - ours is right up there, the sheer numbers we took to away games last season supports this. But it''s easy to follow a successful team, and much harder to travel away to Burnley on a cold Tuesday night when you''re not even expecting a draw. Our away support numbers have grown, I would say, in proportion to our success (not that I''m knocking these people, the more Norwich fans the better, I say).

Teams such as Sheffield Wednesday (another club that attract good crowds even in the lower leagues), Celtic, Man City (again), Newcastle, Man Utd (I think their away fans are brilliant, regardless of what anyone else says! They''re as passionate about their club as any other fans I''ve met) and West Ham all have great away support.

It''s easier in the Premiership to be an away supporter, too - all those glamorous grounds, big name teams, etc.

Level of noise generated - again, I think Norwich are quite high up there. The Barclay has always been loud, the Snakepit is also pretty vociferous, and now that there are a few singers in the South Stand, we have a pretty impressive support.

But in my opinion the best home fans in the country, in terms of noise generated, and of continuous support of the team, would be Portsmouth. They have always impressed me, and it seems as though all four sides of the ground sing, all game long. Even when they got hammered by Arsenal 5-0 last season at Fratton Park, their supporters put the Arsenal away fans (the ''most loyal'' fans) to shame. The whole stadium sand for 90 minutes, and they were immense. Players from the club, and from other Premiership clubs, have said how impressed they have been, and I have to agree - my vote goes to them.

So the MG7 awards in full.........

Most loyal home fans - Man. City, for sticking by their team through everything (would we get 28,000 in Division Two or whatever it''s called?).

Loudest / best singing home fans - Portsmouth. ''Nuff said.

Most loyal away fans - in England, I''d go for Sheffield W

[listen (formerly MG7) 0]

Yeah just realised that Burnley, Wigan, Preston don''t sell out their grounds every match, shouldn''t have typed that!

Also, I didn''t check the spelling and grammar before I posted, so sorry for the mistakes :)

[gazzathegreat 0]

mg7

boy you must be worn out after that marathon post mg7 - you have obviously been to lots of away matches yourself - as have i - and i have to largely agree with you re your observations

portsmouth - ummm, not sure they are any better than man city, now they really are fans, under the shadow of the great reds (how hard it is it to ''support'' a team like them?) - i do know genuine man u fans, i was married to one once (he was from manchester!)

sheff wed, yes, indeed, when you think of all they have suffered, i think i would like to add bradford in there, they are trying to save their club at present and i have always enjoyed going up there - always friendly and receptive to away supporters

you haven''t mentioned sunderland, i think they are superb - recently in the shadow of newcastle (also great fans) - they turn out in number and are always friendly to us - what a shame they didn''t come up with us

you can take your pick of most lower division sides as being loyal - clubs like barnsley, stockport (where you there for that final game of the season a couple of years ago?), villa, also great fans, you could go on forever

anyway, great post mg7, wonder if anyone else sees us as a great bunch of supporters (i am sure the binners do really!!)

[Peter 0]

Too long to read, can you make your posts a little more pointed, lifes too short.

[kdncfc 0]

I remember the 70''s when we regularly use to attract more than 30''000 to the fortress. In them days the population of the area was much lower. As u rightly say the population of Norwich is around 130''000 but if u include the suburbs, Hellesdon, Sprowston etc then theres more like 275''000. The population of Norfolk as a whole is now getting close to a million and we are the only football club in the county. If we could become an established prem team and increase the capacity to 30''000+ then I''m sure we would fill it on a regular basis. As far as the noise we generate since the Jarrold stand has opened the noise levels have improved greatly and its now much more difficult for away fans to outsing us. As for away games I went to Everton away and thought the support was awesome but also went to the Coventry and Wimbledon games as was disappointed at the lack of noise. As far as other fans go I hink Newcastle fans are as passionate as any although they soon get on the players back if things aren''t going to plan.

[Pete Raven 276]

I remember the 5-0 thrashing we dished out to Sheffield Wednesday and the sorry state of a half-empty Hillsborough. Still, at least they still have 20,000 loyal fans.

Best away fans - has to be Celtic.

Best home fans - just wait until we go to St James'' Park (although shame it''s a night game).

[Temp the Revelator 0]

MG7, take no notice of Peter''s comments, there are some on here who do not seem to appreciate well thought out discussions. I would agree with you I think, with the addition of gazza''s comments. I also think we deserve a special mention for our efforts though!

[Dirty Lyle 0]

Great post MG7 and it was long!

I agree with most of what you said and that the North East is a major hotbed in terms of support and rivalry between the clubs. Having said that, the Mackems failed to get anywhere near capacity last year on a number of occasions as the fans drifted away after relegation. This is inevitable and in the unlikely event of our relegation this year we will witness similar (a bonus being us exiles will be able to pick up the odd home ticket!).

Man City therefore would seem to have the most devoted fans after their escapade in Division 2. However, the sensible money was on them making a swift return to Division 1 and Im sure many fans carried on attending to see them walkover the smaller sides in that division. It would have been interesting to see what had happened to attendances if they had failed to win the playoff final that year. Would the Mancs appetite have stretched to another season in Division 2? I imagine Leeds will be in a similar position this year. They will enjoy Premiership size gates this year but if they do not gain promotion their attendances will drop dramatically the following year.

I would like to award the Baggies fans with the Best Fans Award. After all, they must be loyal if they turn up to watch that dross week in, week out. lol.

[Jonzey 0]

Were you at the Celtic friendly at CR a few seasons back Peter? Tim Sheppards testimonial.

I''ll never forget how amazing it was to see 6-8000 Celtic fans sitting in the South Stand. Most of them came all the way from Scotland to Norfolk for a pre season friendly!!

Proper fans.

But surely the best fans of all time are the travelling England fans (if you excuse the fact they have a tendancy to riot). To out number the home fans in the Portugal game this summer was phenomenal.

[who ?2 0]

On an interesting note in the 2001/02 season, WBA fans were voted by other Premiership fans as being the best in the league. Last season, I think, it went to Portsmouth, but I''m not 100% sure on that. However, next year I can see either Crystal Palace or Pompey competing for the title, as regardless of whatever happens, the south coast creates an immense atmosphere and I think most realistic Crystal Palace fans realise that they will most likely be going down, and will want to enjoy themselves and portray a decent image of their club.

Last season at West Brom was the first time I''ve ever heard anyone boo the team under Megson. After beating you, about 200-300 fans were booing the team because we hadn''t scored more goals! It''s a sad thing when expectation begins to alter people. Because we were expected to go up, fans began to demand 3,4,5-0 wins, which don''t usually occur against clubs who just go out to try and stop you scoring.

It''ll be interesting to see whether Norwich will portray a similar image of themselves as we did in our first Prem season, with very little pressure being put on you staying up, I''m sure you''ll impress many teams with your passion. But be warned, if you go down, expectation can cause unrest and it''s possible that booing may begin. The dingles have had it for years, after always being favourites for promotion, as soon as their team weren''t 2-0 up at half time, they would boo and sometimes even leave the stadium!