Irish fans last night

[Dotsy]

I was close to that guy getting kicked out by the cops. Was that the case? He kept standing up? For f*ck's sake...I was in East Bucket Wing, standing for the whole game, bunch of blokes behind me weren't singing or cheering or anything. The atmosphere wasn't the best but I will say that a whole load of fans gave everything to it last night and have given everything to it over the past 13 months or so. I don't think all the players can say the same.

A few of us went for a pint in the Dubliner afterwards. I went out to get some cash from the banklink and saw an ad for Lucozade with Damien Duff in it. For some reason, this really p!ssed me off. Stop trying to sell me every miserable sports drink, soccer boot, jersey, telecom company, airline, etc, etc, and just play with some heart, passion, pride and determination for Ireland, that's all most fans ask, I reckon.

Shay Given deserves so much better....

I'm guessing the guy was thrown out for standing because the same guards minutes earlier were telling some guys three or four rows in front of me at the front of the section to sit down. Either that or he was arguing with them about telling the guys at the front to sit down. IF everyone had stood up like you guys were in the East bucket seat or the Swiss were then there would have been no problem and the crack would have been much better.

[Feech]

The Irish media's attempt to stir up antagonism towards the Swiss was an unwelcome development (and one which some people have unfortunately picked up on) - based upon

- celebrating too much when they qualified for Euro 2004 in front of Irish fans - what sensitive souls of poets the Irish fans have or is it simply sour grapes?

- Frei - who is an arrogant *****, every team has one! Get over it.

- Switzerland and Austria getting the rights to host Euro 2008 ahead of Ireland and Scotland. The Irish media hyped up those chances. Which would you honestly choose - a country whose government promises to build a stadium but has already reneged on such promises in the past and has laughable public transport (IRL) or a country already with 3 stadiums (with a minumum capacity of 30,000) less than 10 years old and an infrastructure already in place (SUI)! What a joke. How could people be aggreived at such a decision being reached?

Anyways, to sum up, at the moment Ireland are crap and Switzerland ordinary.

Anyone who feels hatred for Switzerland would be better off devoting their energies to trying to improve football in Ireland, because the FAI don't give a **** and in the long run Ireland's current run of form is the end result.

[mandrake]

'There was a group of men and women behind me. Didn't join in the singing for the whole match from what I could hear. Every once in a while one of them would shout out Up Wexford and they would all cheer''''
oh man thanks be to god they werent behind me that would be so annoying......i wouldve told them to f off to croker...

[GK for the Town]

The South bucket wasnt too bad last nite for signing but i've witnessed better.
It gets annoying seeing the same faces for every game never signing. I'm sure a few others would more than willingly take their tickets and help create a better atmosphere.
We are after mising out on something serious. All plans for next summer have just been washed away.

[Colie]

I thought atmosphere started well but died very quickly. Even the eL section was very poor. I definitely think moving the eL area to those crap east bucket seats doesn't help as too spread out.

There are eL down behind the South goal, UCD & Drogs anyway & we made one hell of an effort for the whole thing. Whenever it died down we did Brian Kerrs Green & White army till another chant came along.

I think the reason the croud are more hope than belief is because unlike with Charlton or McCarthy, Kerr is a full on tactician. I think he tries to outdo the other team whereas the other managers looked for a performance fulll of heart & never say die which transferred to the fans. In those days we knew we could do it we believed but now it's down to tactics & I don't think thats the Irish way. So I don't blame the fans.

[NY Hoop]

A huge reason as to why the Celtic shirt wearing lepregoons were so dull last night (and over the past god knows number of years) is because the majority of Irish fans are not used to going to matches to supporting thier club week in week out. Our fans don't know how to sing or support a team properly. All credit to the ones who spend tonnes of cash supporting Ireland abroad but so many of our fans don't have football through their blood and I don't care ever how bad a performance is, the players deserve to be applauded aswell as the players applauding the fans.

Spot on. There is no football culture in this country i.e. supporting your local team week in week out. The vast majority of "fans" there last night only see a live game when Ireland plays cos the rest of the time they are in their boozer "cheering" on their favourite english team. So it always amuses me when people complain about atmosphere. What do they expect?

KOH

[onenilgameover]

I clapped for Given, Holland and I clapped for the Swiss - ****in right I did. And I'm not trying to live up to any reputation.

At least their players showed a bit of respect salute their fans after their support. Our crowd just wandered off the pitch without as much as a wave apart from those mentioned above.

45,000 travel to paris, 17,000 travel to cyprus not to mention the **** that some went through with dodgy planes and fog in the Faroes
lansdowne packed out every time and people giving their eye teeth for tickets. The question I ask is who feels cheated - I DO

Credit where its due and fair play to the Swiss. Id clap em again tonight. Not to uphold any reputation but because earned their play off and if you cant see that, you are the muppet.

totally agree with ye blobbyblob.....

[StuttgartVet]

Off topic but I seen a picture of the England-Ireland match from '88 and was suprised at how many Celtic jersies were in the crowd back then.

We got into Stuttgart on the Saturday morning and, contrary to another poster who said the "Bandwagon had already started" by then, that was not the case. We hadn't a clue how many Irish would turn out for our first game in a finals - on the Saturday, the majority of Irish supporters we met were GLASWEGIAN celtic supporters - The Irish only started arriving in numbers on the morning of the game - apparently most of them stayed outside Stuttgart whereas we were slap bang in the middle (Youth Hostel!)

Can't understand all the anti-Celtic comments you see on here - some great Irish supporters have links with the club-so what!! If they support Ireland thats good enough for me - at least most of them have an understanding of the game, unlike some of the muppets I was beside last night - Obvious Rugby heads

[RonnieB]

I was in O/P seat 19 row 1, just behind the converted terracing. Saw the guys getting kicked out over apparently standing? The stewards had been making us sit down before the incident. As always plenty of people there who would be better off watching the game on tv. Atmosphear wasnt the worst, tbh towards the end I wasnt able to sing was to busy praying for a goal.

[Countyman]

We were in the east upper block W and there were loads there giving it socks. We were up and down in our seats like jack in the boxes and everyone got involved. However the edge was not there as the belief was lacking like a previous poster said.

The only muppets I saw last night were the trench coat wearing yuppies with their Oireland scarfs calling Tarquein and Quentin to complain about Morrision and Keane and seeing who was meeting up for beers...loike

[Jaime]

Dubious compliment that it is, the atmosphere was indeed quite good last night, and probably the best since the Holland game (which I wasn’t at). It was a more important game than the France game, it meant more than the France game, yet too many people over-estimated the France game. The atmosphere last night was just right for the occasion, but the players didn’t deserve it.

[RonnieB]

We were in the east upper block W and there were loads there giving it socks. We were up and down in our seats like jack in the boxes and everyone got involved. However the edge was not there as the belief was lacking like a previous poster said.

The only muppets I saw last night were the trench coat wearing yuppies with their Oireland scarfs calling Tarquein and Quentin to complain about Morrision and Keane and seeing who was meeting up for beers...loike

Hehe aye there were a fair few of the "roish" crowd allright. daddy's company got them the tickets no doubht.

[Only2keanos]

I normally get 2 tickets for the south and last night I had the misery of being in the east upper. Probably one of the better places in the stadium for atmosphere but there was a few people around me who hadnt a clue about supporting a team.

One guy behind my didnt cheer for Ireland once in the whole game, all he did was shout 'sit down, sit down' every time anything happened which caused people to stand up.

At the french game, nobody in the south that was near me sat down for any of the match which would be my preferred choice.

I can understand why some people dont want to stand for the whole game but standing up when something exciting happens is natural. Similarily when the play goes towards the near wing and people are straining to see whats happening. If these people want to sit down why dont they do everyone a favour and stay at home. As far as I could see last night, that pr!ck behind me went to the game with one ambition, to make as many people in the stadium sit down as much as possible.

After about the 4th time he poked me in the back to tell me to sit down when I stood to cheer on at a corner or because everyone in front of me were sitting, I lost it a bit and turned and shouted at him something to the effect of 'is there something wrong with your ****ing legs'. Its his type that result in us not having the support at home that we should.

At the away matches we sing and get involved and try and lift the team and create generally great atmospheres. In landsdowne there are too many people at the game that probably dont really care when we lose. Probably like many of you, I still feel sick even now that we are out.

[Troy.McClure]

I wonder if the FAI would creat a 'singing section' (kind of like the eL section, but not spread it out and banjax it like they have). Give people an option of going to a section where they would expect to stand. It would have to be done in a block though, not rows like the eL tickets in the last 3 matches

[GK for the Town]

At the french game, nobody in the south that was near me sat down for any of the match which would be my preferred choice.

It was the same in the Swiss game. Everybody standing up and majority singing. I think this brings more of a standing terrace effect which is much better than sitting down. You feel more like your in the game aswell, jumping for headers with the players etc.

[Beavis]

I wonder if the FAI would creat a 'singing section' (kind of like the eL section, but not spread it out and banjax it like they have). Give people an option of going to a section where they would expect to stand. It would have to be done in a block though, not rows like the eL tickets in the last 3 matches

I think it would be a good idea to contact them before the opening of the new stadium to see if they good promote a certain section of the ground (preferably under a roof ie upper area of a stand) for people who are interested in singing. It is unlikely that they will set out an allocation purely for this (c'mon its the FAI) but if you were a block booker or got tickets through club etc you could ask if you could trade/ be given you're new seats to be in this singing area.

[ccfcgirl]

I much rather stand at a match ,and I hate sitting down .Standing up youd feel more like singing and getting into the spirit of things ,People are huddled to-gether ,sitting down your very spread out ..........

[Schlooooomp]

I am in the South Terrace front row (not the pitch level but the scaffolding). For the France game the stewards tried to make us sit down but they were duly ignored, everybody was standing and those that weren't had to because they were afraid to say anything.

And for the Swiss game the stewards didn't say a peep about sitting down, fan power. I feel sorry for anybody thrown out for standing, it's a disgrace.

I am sure somebody has posted this up before but for the Cyprus game we stood all through and sang all through the game. However there was a section beside us who barely opened their mouths and never stood up. Well at one point we kinda antagonised them by singing at them stuff like 'You only sing when you're winning.' and 'Stand up for the boys in green', amongst other insults. Eventually one of them lost the rag and started shouting at us 'Shut up I want to hear the match', yes you read that right - Ash, Pineapple Stu, Loudy and a few more can verify it.

And that is what you are up against, it is moronically wrong..