The famous Fratton Park atmosphere has been subject to a lot of debate this season, now former Pompey striker Stevie Claridge has joined this debate as well.
As he told The News he feels ‘the burden of expectation’ is dampening the atmosphere at the moment, something that he felt he noticed when commentating on the game with Spurs at the weekend: ‘the game looked flat to me and the crowd were flat as well – that is not like Portsmouth.
‘It can only be the expectation.
‘I don’t know whether people just expected them to turn up and beat Spurs.
‘But it’s not like the crowd down there.
‘Saturday against Spurs was the first time in a long time that the crowd have been waiting for the team to get them going’.
A lot of debate on this subject has taken place on this very site, with many opinions shared and I would not disagree with any of them to be honest.
These views will not be shared by too much by myself here as we all know what we have been thinking and saying but as many have said it is give and take, the fans can only give so much without getting something back from the players, whilst the players also need to get something more back at times when they are not getting it. Both feed off each other don’t they.
Success does raise expectation even further, so the lack of goals at Fratton is not helping but my thinking is that when these goals and wins start coming again the roof will come off Fratton as the release valve will be turned… when this does happen everyone will know it!
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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