by Top Flight »
29 Nov 2012 11:11
The anti-booing sentiment displayed by some supporters is symptomatic of the new breed of fans that follow the Royals these days since we moved to our shiny new plastic stadium and opened the doors to all the new middle class plastic supporters that have made our club more synonymous with the new breed of plastic football fan than any other club. Although alot of clubs have become very plastic these days which is why they don't call us so plastic any more because they have all become plastic too.
Back in the old days, when we played at Elm Park, we used to win most of our home games and lose most of our away games. A certain Michael Gilkes always used to play better in the second half than he did in the first half. Why was that? Motivational booing of course. The home crowd, gathered on the terraces were far more aggressive, loud mouthed and vociferous back in those days. They wouldn't take any form of laziness from the players and even the slightest hint that a player wasn't giving exactly 100% would result in a barrage of abuse raining down from the South Bank. The booing was highly motivational and worked very effectively.
Gilkeys always rasied his game in the second half in front of the south bank, the south bank would never tolerate anything less than 100%. Most of Gilkey's best performances and play was when he was sprinting down the left flank in front of a vociferous and adoring south bank.
Even Michael Meaker. He was absolutely bloody useless and the south bank let him know. But because of the barrage of abuse that was waiting on the tips of the faithfuls tongues Meaker would always give 100%. You could see that he would just get his head down and go for it. Even though he was terrible, he would just give everything he had so that he wouldn't get a massive rollocking from the south bank.
Back then the players had a healthy respect for the fans and would not want to let the support down. Today, it's somewhat different. The players cry like babies when they hear the slightest tough comments. They don't want to hear it anymore. They have no respect for the prawn sandwich supporter of the current era.
Alot of fans have been complaining about McAnuff and believe he is not playing as well as he could be. There is a little bit of laziness there. Just imagine if he was playing in front of the South Bank, with the quality and class that McAnuff has. He is a way better player than Meaker ever was and has more quality than Gilkesy ever had. If McAnuff played in front of the South Bank he wouldn't dare not give 100% and the fans would not be questioning his commitment. These days sadly, the players don't want to hear any criticism and the fans don't want to give it either when they are face to face at the stadium. It's all done behind closed doors in bedrooms on computer keyboards now. That's what the plastic fan is all about.
