Just wondering, what do football supporters................

............want when they go to a match?

I personally want some entertainment whether it be win, lose or draw.
If we win then great (regardless of how we win). If we draw then at least we haven’t lost and, depending on how we played then a defeat can be acceptable. By that I mean if we have played well and got beat I can take solace by knowing we have played well and have been unlucky
If, however, we play abysmally then obviously I go away disappointed.
When the team is announced prior to kick off I don’t slag off the manager before I have even seen them kick a ball and I certainly don’t analyse every second of the game in order to find faults.
I am not bothered about formations and I certainly don’t buy into this square pegs in round holes nonsense because I believe that professional footballers should be able to adapt (to a degree) with what the manager wants and expects from them.
If teams only had players who could only play in one specific position then they would require squads of about 40 players
I found it interesting yesterday when some posters mentioned that the younger generation won’t come on this forum because it is full of moaners, and do you know what? They have a point.
We can win games and the usual suspects will moan about it, so why bother supporting the club?
If we were in the relegation zone then perhaps I could understand it but FFS we are just outside the play offs with half a season to go.
Okay, the away form is pitiful to say the least but when we get that monkey off our back (which will be this weekend against Forest) then the fickle supporters will be raving about it.
I do believe that the “moaners” do so because they quite simply have a dislike for Critch and nothing else.
He is not as bad a coach as people make out and he is certainly head and shoulders above McCarthy and Appleton.
I suspect had Dobbie remained in charge and returned the exact same results as Critch then he would not have had half the stick. On the contrary he would have been hailed a good manager because we are in touch with the play offs.
Rant over and hope you all have a great year and (to some) try and show a bit of support for the club.

Eternaloptimist said:

I suspect had Dobbie remained in charge and returned the exact same results as Critch then he would not have had half the stick. On the contrary he would have been hailed a good manager because we are in touch with the play offs.

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I've mentioned this to a few, and it gets deflected with "wouldn't play this shite, wouldn't pick such and such"
I love Dobbie, and I'd love him to lead us one day, but I'd much prefer to give him the platform to succeed from the off. At the end of this season we have a big job in terms of contracts expiring for example. Imagine having to assemble a team as your first job, trying to bring in X Y and Z, integrating in loads of fresh faces etc...

for me, it's all about winning. I'll accept poor performances as long as we win, Yesterday wasn't far off that although we did significantly improve second half. If we lose and play badly then no i don't go away disappointed, i go away pretty angry, Burton was my last example of being at a game and coming away annoyed. Of course, I usually always get over the anger pretty quickly but in L1 it's my view that there are way too many bad performances resulting in defeats and that needs to change.

Similar to you I rarely if ever criticise the managers team selections before a game as words can often come back to haunt you. But once a game is over think it perfectly reasonable to comment on the tram selection especially when it comes to who has played well and who hasn't. As for technology i really don't keep up to date with it but suspect that platforms like AVFTT are pretty much old hat for the younger generation and they have their own ways of saying what they want to say. I'd imagine that's pretty much the same across the whole football network with regards to forums like this.

Where i totally disagree with you is this we're only halfway through the season malarkey. That to me is nothing more than a cop out.We were a championship club last season and yes we were poor but we went down. We should be better than what we are at the moment both in terms of performance, points and position in the league table. That's not saying we should be walking this league because nothing is a given but we should be doing so much better than what we are. As foe me being a moaner ,well I'd no problem with Critchley coming back, none whatsoever, but I've been massively underwhelmed with what I've seen for all the various reasons I've mentioned here. He might not be a bad coach but there certainly aew some aspects of his team selection, game management that i think are cause for concern. Finally, don't get involved in this Dobbie nonsense. Doesn't interest me.

Hope I've covered all of your points

I know there are plenty of people who've watched Blackpool far longer than me on here, but I think 35+ years gives perspective as does having two sons (20+14) brought up with FIFA and championship manager.

I honestly go with hope, but not expectation.

I want us to win every game we play.
I want attractive attacking football

But I'm a realist; days like that are rare.

2009-2013 was the exception, and I'd give almost anything to have that back.

As long as the players look like they are trying and put a shift in, I can cope with most results.

For me, I go with my sons and just love the time we have together, I know it's a cliche, but it's true.

The days when I'm upset by the results aren't that often and far less than they used to be.

My boys though analyse everything:

Speculate about team selection on the journey down.

Think about how the opposition play and who looks good in their team.

Get the team line up at 2pm; sometimes yes they agree, other times not at much.

Live every kick for the game, check the league table during the game, talk tactics and subs etc etc.

Sing their hearts out.

It's an absolute joy to just share that with them. It's something I never had a first generation Seasider.

And then we travel home and dissect everything, wait for the social media interviews from the club, look at other fans reactions on Twitter and so on.

And if we lose they hurt, they are ecstatic if we win and depending on how we draw, they are one or the other.

But the next day, regardless of the result, they will go through all the social media feeds and start looking forward to the next game with excitement.

It costs a fortune to follow football. Even more so when even the home games are a 300 mile round trip, but it is just the best thing; and it tempers any of the negativity I could feel.

20togo said:

for me, it's all about winning. I'll accept poor performances as long as we win,

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The ironic thing is that KOKO in all his interviews said this - said training grounds and stands were just sideshows and actually all that fans wanted was to win - only thing I ever agreed with him on!