Pompey are having their best season for half a century. But the atmosphere at recent home games has been the flattest of all our time in the Premiership.
The Fratton Faithful have always been famed as the best fans in the land. Milan said so again the other day. But we’ve talked at length on these boards recently about the dwindling atmosphere.
We’ve all got our ideas why. With success has come a lot of new supporters, or one-off visitors, who don’t know what Fratton can be like. And perhaps we’re at our best when our backs are against the wall. I know the recent goal drought hasn’t helped maters, but the crowd were pretty flat in the first half against Reading, even though we winning.
If we’re going to kick on and build from the events of recent days and push up the league to bring European football to Fratton then the supporters – Pompey’s famed 12th Man – are going to have to play their part. It only takes a few more people to get singing and clapping to get others joining in. It’s infectious once it gets going.
So here’s my idea. We develop a five point ‘Pompey Pledge’.
The five things we promise to do when we attend games to bring the atmosphere back.
I’m not sure what they are yet, but I’m sure you’ll all have ideas. Members who go to away games regularly, where we always out-sing the home support, must know what it is we do to make so much noise (apart from score goals, of course!) For a start we should pledge to always ring out the Pompey Chimes when we get a corner, free kick, etc.
Once we’ve got our five pledges (five because that will be easy to remember and tell other people about) we promote it through this site. We also tell other Pompey fan sites, get the Portsmouth News to print it, tell the sports pages of other papers. We build up a bit of a buzz about it.
The aim of this would be to:
1) Remind every supporter who goes to Fratton that they have a part to play in re-creating the Fortress.
2) It gets the fans talking and thinking about what we can do to get the atmosphere back.
3) Raise the expectations of the one-off visitors of what they should expect at Fratton.
4) It will also be a great way of further promoting the profile of this great website.
So, let’s get started. Tell us what your five Pompey Pledges would be.
Post them below, or e-mail them to Rug or me. I’ll collect them up and report back in a few days time.
Your club needs you. Let’s make Fratton a Fortress again, in time for European football next season.
Play Up Pompey!
Written by NorthStandDan.
To join the Vital Pompey debate – in the forum or with comments on articles – simply take a few seconds to register an account.
