I expect a certain amount of piss taking from opposition supporters, it's what football supporters do. Most of the comments do apply to a
minority of our supporters, even if they're exaggerated for effect, and given the size of our crowds a minority can easily include up to 1,000.
What really irritates me is the number of our own supporters on here who seem to enjoy nodding in agreement and reinforcing these stereotypes. I'm guessing all those who like to gripe about fellow Hamlet supporters regard themselves as belonging to some of some sort of old school contingent to whom the lazy stereotypes are not applicable. If
you are one of those people (I don't mean you
Paula_G , just you as in anyone reading this) you might like to consider that maybe
you are one of the Hamlet supporters who caught the eye of these away fans during their visit, and maybe
you are one of the objects of their mirth? Frankly if any away fan wants to lump me in with all of that I couldn't really care less, I know my length and depth of support and commitment to my club, and it will almost certainly be greater than his. (And that's another thing, all these amateur satirists seem to be male, whereas we probably have a higher percentage of female supporters than any other football club I've visited. I wonder whether that plays a part in the levels of ridicule?)
If you're one of those moaning about lack of atmosphere, what are
you doing on matchdays to redress that? Are
you making a big effort to lead the vocal support for our team, or are you just standing back and expecting others to do the heavy lifting? I used to be one of the loud voices in the Rabble but as I get older I just don't feel I have the energy for that any more. That's my choice and I'm not going to criticise others for theirs, as long as they aren't being obnoxious and abusive for no good reason, and given the crowd numbers I think we do remarkably well in deterring those with a bad attitude.
I did find the matchdays more enjoyable a few years ago, but that's probably because we usually won and were always pushing for promotion, and it was an exciting transition to see the crowd numbers building as that happened over the last decade. Many of the previous 30 seasons from 1980-2010 were pretty dismal in retrospect, especially the last few, although it seemed normal at the time and the odd good seasons during that era are still fondly remembered by those who experienced them. There were also plenty of dull games where the Rabble would be horsing around and paying little attention to the match, but I doubt anyone else cared or commented about it in a mostly empty ground. Any supporters who came on board from 2010 onwards were spoilt, because it was never really like that for more than the odd year or two before.
We've consistently lost more games than we've won for the last 5 years now and been relegated as a result. At most clubs half the supporters would have drifted away if that happened, yet ours are supposedly disinterested or not "proper" supporters because they keep coming back.
lewesfcsupporters.club
