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Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
My father took me to my first Cardiff City game in March 1975 on the day before my eighth birthday. Sheffield Wednesday were City’s opponents that day. The Owls were rock bottom of the Second Division table, while the Bluebirds were just one place above them. The match ended in a goalless draw. The crowd jeered, slow hand clapped and chanted ‘what a load of rubbish’ at regular intervals throughout the ninety minutes and City were booed off the field following the final whistle. Both teams were relegated to the Third Division a month later.
Crowds slow hand clapping during matches, chanting 'what a load of rubbish' and booing the players off the field at the end of games were regular features of my formative years as a City fan. The team was rarely much good and there always seemed to be some sort of drama happening off the field. Indeed, 'sack the board' was another favourite chant of the Bluebirds faithful back then.
Strong vocal reactions from supporters to the performances of their players was by no means restricted to Cardiff City and Ninian Park. I can remember having great fun at a wide variety of away matches when City were winning and the home crowds were consequently giving their players or managers some serious stick.
In light of some of the recent threads on here in which certain individuals have taken great exception to the idea that any Cardiff City supporter should dare to be critical of the manager, individual players, the team or the club in general, I've been trying to remember the last time a City side got some genuine stick from their own fans during a game and it's been difficult. Furthermore, I can't recall hearing any Premier League or EFL team getting such treatment in recent times, let alone Cardiff.
Of course, I haven't been to too many matches post-rebrand, but I've watched hundreds on TV and I've also been thinking in terms of the years leading up to 2012 as well as the present day. I can remember Roger Johnson moaning to the press about City fans at one point during the Dave Jones era, although I can't recall the exact details. However, I do remember laughing about it with David Giles and him telling me: "Johnson doesn't know he's born. During the Seventies and Eighties the fans used to heckle us in the warm-up!"
When did things change in that respect and why? When was the last time slow hand clapping and chants of 'what a load of rubbish' were heard at British football grounds? Considering the gap between the average professional player and the average supporter has never been greater in terms of earnings and lifestyles, why has it seemingly become so taboo to give the players some genuine stick during games?
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
You haven't sat next to my brother for a lifetime he's never stopped.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Swansea fans gave their side loads of stick when their fall started. Chants of we are feckin sh!t , thats why we are going down. Really toxic support. Chelsea were singing we are feckin sh!t against us.
Our support really has changed. Virtually every single returning player is warmly welcomed and there was a brilliant atmosphere watching what was a awful game v Fulham
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
I remember years ago City drawing to Merthyr in a away game. Think we may have played a lot of the game with 10 men and Steve White shaking his head in disbelief at the stick the players got at the end.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
insider
You haven't sat next to my brother for a lifetime he's never stopped.
:hehe:
Of course, there's still plenty of individual moaning and groaning. I've got a few mates who are notorious for that. I just can't remember when the whole crowd (or at least a large majority of it) last got genuinely vocal. Considering there have been two relegations in recent seasons and a couple of genuinely dire campaigns in the Championship under Ole and Slade, it's surprising there hasn't been more vocal dissent really.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
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Originally Posted by
Hilts
Our support really has changed. Virtually every single returning player is warmly welcomed and there was a brilliant atmosphere watching what was a awful game v Fulham
If it's any consolation, I was slow hand clapping from my sofa. :hehe:
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
I think after years of being genuinely sh!t I think our expectations arnt that high.
I think the crowd would have turned if Trollope had stayed much longer.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
I remember Dave Jones got pelters in his last game.
Was it Reading in the play offs?
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
insider
I remember Dave Jones got pelters in his last game.
Was it Reading in the play offs?
Yes, 0-3. I can remember the crowd weren't happy but I can't recall it being that full-on.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Whatever happened to chants like ‘Clemo’s wife’s a f*cking lesbian’ club’s gone soft :furious:
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Pound for pound the home defeat v Middlesbrough under Dave Jones when we were challenging for promotion and hammered in under 30 minutes was the worst most disgraceful display ive seen from a City side. Even then the reaction wasnt bad.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
I started going down the City about the same time. About 9 or 10 of us used to walk down from Ely.
We were truly awful then, and to this day, I can’t help wondering what kept us going 😁
As you say, the players and board used to get hammered by the supporters.
We were starved of decent football, and It would be a major success if we won a throw in or a corner.!
I don’t think any City fans at the time expected much, but it didn’t stop the anger and frustration from being bellowed from the stands.
If someone had told me back then, I’d see my team play 4 times at Wembley, I’d have thought they were an inmate from Ely hospital!
As you say, times have changed, and it now appears to be frowned upon, especially on here, to criticise the team or manager in any way.
Last season, I posted on here at the beginning of the season, that I thought we were lightweight and would go straight back down.
I got slaughtered for it and accused of not being a city fan at all.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Burton away under Trollope
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
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Originally Posted by
City123
Burton away under Trollope
That was a touch toxic.......and rightly so I think. It was dreadful.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
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Originally Posted by
City123
Burton away under Trollope
I was there and it was actually one of the games I was thinking about when I wrote this. On the whole, the criticism that day was muted. The team was awful but the fans seemed to just accept it. There seemed an air of resignation more than anything. The atmosphere might have been ‘toxic’ by recent standards but it was nothing in comparison to years gone by. The weather was awful though....
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
The Lone Gunman
I was there and it was actually one of the games I was thinking about when I wrote this. On the whole, the criticism that day was muted. The team was awful but the fans seemed to just accept it. There seemed an air of resignation more than anything. The atmosphere might have been ‘toxic’ by recent standards but it was nothing in comparison to years gone by. The weather was awful though....
It certainly was a low in my supporting of the city.
Remember going home on the bus and thinking how shite we were against a town we used to just stop off in on the way to Derby and Nottingham Forest when they were still a non-league club.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
The Lone Gunman
:hehe:
Of course, there's still plenty of individual moaning and groaning. I've got a few mates who are notorious for that. I just can't remember when the whole crowd (or at least a large majority of it) last got genuinely vocal. Considering there have been two relegations in recent seasons and a couple of genuinely dire campaigns in the Championship under Ole and Slade, it's surprising there hasn't been more vocal dissent really.
:hehe:
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
The Lone Gunman
Yes, 0-3. I can remember the crowd weren't happy but I can't recall it being that full-on.
That's how I remember it. I have two main memories of your first game. The first was the Sheffield Wednesday keeper saving a penalty from Johnny Vincent I think it was, but the one that is relevant to this subject is George Smith v signing the home crowd when he was substituted. A year or so before that match, I can remember Leighton Phillips doing the same when he scored a late goal to give us a 1-0 win over Notts County.
The closest thing I can thinking of to compare to that in the fairly recent past is Craig Bellamy's "celebration" of his goal against Norwich being a reaction to the stick which Peter Whittingham had got from supporters in a match in which he was taken off for tactical reasons in the first half - that's the only thing I can think of in the last twenty five years or so that even remotely compares with the incidents I described in the paragraph above.
Someone mentioned the Chelsea fans giving Sarri some fearful abuse at Cardiff City Stadium last season and one of the reasons I was so surprised by it was that it is so unusual these days.
Players and managers don't know they're born these days when it comes to abuse from their own supporters at games - maybe the advent of social media has led to supporters waiting until the game is over before letting off steam?
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Good post TLG.
Despite many on this forum being critical of your contributions over the years it is clear that you are a devoted supporter.
My initiation was back in 69 against Huddersfield.
I blame my elder brother for taking me to Ninian Park and lifting me up onto the wall of the players tunnel so I could actually see what was happening.
This was the era of Barrie Jones, John Toshack etc
To this day I am one of the Cardiff till I die brigade.
I have posted critical responses / posts about CCFC on this forum but in the main try to be positive.
I am proud to boast about my allegiance to the 'greatest team in football'.
At matches home or away I'll always be supportive whether or not the team are enjoying success. At games I'll never boo / slow hand-clap / whatever. This is futile if you want the best for your team.
One of my proudest moments as a Cardiff fan was the reaction of the crowd to the team and Warnock on getting relegated last season. Made the hairs on my neck stand up.
That's real support.
As Cantona said recently "I love Football".
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Durban Durban where's your wife , Durban where's your wife .......3000 city fans down at swansea
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
I remember quite a lot of booing when we lost to Charlton at home in the 2007/08 season. We had been in and around the relegation places from the start of the season, having ended the previous season with 2 points from the last 9 matches.
Having said that, abuse of our own players seemed to be much less than it had been a decade ago. I remember Josh Low getting quite a bit of stick despite ending the season in the divisional team of the year!
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Mind you, all the booing, slow hand clapping and vitriolic abuse has never in history, made a team play better. It might have made us feel better though 😁
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
The atmosphere at home in DJs last season was toxic, in particular the 3-0 home defeat to Boro.
I also remember Lee Naylor getting dogs abuse from our own fans after Reading equalised late in a 2-2 (I think) midweek game.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Cognitive dissonance is the explanation. Watching football is expensive today and you would be calling yourself a mug if you started booing.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
I remember during the mid 80's on the very sparcely populated old Bob-Bank everyone complained. We still clapped occasionally and cheered if we scored. We knew we were mugs for showing up. Everyone took the piss at work etc. It was just the way it was.
Complaining at football seems perfectly reasonable to me. You want the team to win, the shot to go in the net, the cross to create some danger etc etc. When it doesn't happen it's only natural that as a fan you experience and demonstrate some displeasure.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
J R Hartley
The atmosphere at home in DJs last season was toxic, in particular the 3-0 home defeat to Boro.
I also remember Lee Naylor getting dogs abuse from our own fans after Reading equalised late in a 2-2 (I think) midweek game.
For me, it was all pretty mild in 10/11 compared to the final few decades of the twentieth century, but, having said that I'd not seen any bad treatment of a team and manager for about twenty five years, the two years we spent in the old third division at the start of this century were pretty bad because of the degree of expectation that had us needing to blow teams away in the first twenty minutes to keep the critics at bay. Players such as Spencer Prior used to really cop it from the fans back then (he was pretty crap for us mind) and good players such as Peter Thorne would have sections of the crowd against them.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
It's societal in my opinion. If you look back to the 70s, 80's and very early nineties things were alot different. The 70's and 80's saw a political shift where industry was being obliterated and traditional working class jobs were being lost. The majority of football fans were Working class back then, young men who had alot to be angry about. Lack of opportunity and the beggining of the political culture of greed must have had a bearing on peoples attituded towards anything that mattered. I'd say that society was more violent back then and vandalism and decay were all around us, even music was a real form of protest. My experience of growing up in the eighties on a council estate was of people losing their jobs, being skint and as a teenager having to get involved in violence. I think that things have changed a bit now. The Education systen seems to treat kids with a bit more respect, there's an awareness and understanding towards minorities and people have more now. I wouldn't say that life is easier now for young people just a little less angry and more passive. In short, football represented the culture and the situation both politically and socially. I'm sure that there are hundreds of reasons why people don't protest like the did years ago. Not to sound to serious i reckon it's a product of a diluted and muted working class.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tuerto
It's societal in my opinion. If you look back to the 70s, 80's and very early nineties things were alot different. The 70's and 80's saw a political shift where industry was being obliterated and traditional working class jobs were being lost. The majority of football fans were Working class back then, young men who had alot to be angry about. Lack of opportunity and the beggining of the political culture of greed must have had a bearing on peoples attituded towards anything that mattered. I'd say that society was more violent back then and vandalism and decay were all around us, even music was a real form of protest. My experience of growing up in the eighties on a council estate was of people losing their jobs, being skint and as a teenager having to get involved in violence. I think that things have changed a bit now. The Education systen seems to treat kids with a bit more respect, there's an awareness and understanding towards minorities and people have more now. I wouldn't say that life is easier now for young people just a little less angry and more passive. In short, football represented the culture and the situation both politically and socially. I'm sure that there are hundreds of reasons why people don't protest like the did years ago. Not to sound to serious i reckon it's a product of a diluted and muted working class.
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In a nutshell,
and generally I would suggest that the media has been complicit with limiting expectation and dumbing down society, we just accept what we are given.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tuerto
I'm sure that there are hundreds of reasons why people don't protest like they did years ago. Not to sound to serious i reckon it's a product of a diluted and muted working class.
I can agree with much of what you said, but when I began watching the game in the mid-Seventies the slow hand clapping often used to begin in the Grandstand (accompanied by slow stamping of feet on the old wooden floorboards). That's where I was with my old man and my uncles and we were surrounded by some of the club's wealthiest fans.
One guy in Block C of the Grandstand, who used to smoke huge cigars and wear big sheepskin coats during the winter, was often the origin of the 'what a load of rubbish' chants. He was extremely vocal and often very funny too as I recall. As it happens, my mother was laughing about him just last week. Apparently, when me and my father got back home after games, I'd report to her about the antics of 'the big shouty man' as often as I would about the team.
The slow hand clapping was occasionally aimed at the opposition as well as the home side if the game was boring. It's something which seems to have disappeared from the game altogether. Shame, because the game against Fulham and the visitors in particular would have been perfect targets for the old slow hand clap.
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Re: Cardiff City fans and football fans in general
Quote:
Originally Posted by
The Lone Gunman
My father took me to my first Cardiff City game in March 1975 on the day before my eighth birthday. Sheffield Wednesday were City’s opponents that day. The Owls were rock bottom of the Second Division table, while the Bluebirds were just one place above them. The match ended in a goalless draw. The crowd jeered, slow hand clapped and chanted ‘what a load of rubbish’ at regular intervals throughout the ninety minutes and City were booed off the field following the final whistle. Both teams were relegated to the Third Division a month later.
Crowds slow hand clapping during matches, chanting 'what a load of rubbish' and booing the players off the field at the end of games were regular features of my formative years as a City fan. The team was rarely much good and there always seemed to be some sort of drama happening off the field. Indeed, 'sack the board' was another favourite chant of the Bluebirds faithful back then.
Strong vocal reactions from supporters to the performances of their players was by no means restricted to Cardiff City and Ninian Park. I can remember having great fun at a wide variety of away matches when City were winning and the home crowds were consequently giving their players or managers some serious stick.
In light of some of the recent threads on here in which certain individuals have taken great exception to the idea that any Cardiff City supporter should dare to be critical of the manager, individual players, the team or the club in general, I've been trying to remember the last time a City side got some genuine stick from their own fans during a game and it's been difficult. Furthermore, I can't recall hearing any Premier League or EFL team getting such treatment in recent times, let alone Cardiff.
Of course, I haven't been to too many matches post-rebrand, but I've watched hundreds on TV and I've also been thinking in terms of the years leading up to 2012 as well as the present day. I can remember Roger Johnson moaning to the press about City fans at one point during the Dave Jones era, although I can't recall the exact details. However, I do remember laughing about it with David Giles and him telling me: "Johnson doesn't know he's born. During the Seventies and Eighties the fans used to heckle us in the warm-up!"
When did things change in that respect and why? When was the last time slow hand clapping and chants of 'what a load of rubbish' were heard at British football grounds? Considering the gap between the average professional player and the average supporter has never been greater in terms of earnings and lifestyles, why has it seemingly become so taboo to give the players some genuine stick during games?
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
If you look at games on YouTube, the crowd seems to change around the time we moved ground or mid 2000’s. The more successful we became the more mund@ne the crowd became.
Look at the second goal here, Carl dale,
https://youtu.be/Fi2vcN919GA
We’d never get a lively crowd like that now, so passive and mundane, just like society in general. I’d hazard a guess that hardly any of those on the gr@nge end still even go....