Singing Area at Goodison Park

I take collective pride in Everton being different: we have 2 or 3 songs, a common identity and do not have a desire or wish to be something that we are not. I can quite happily live with leaving Liverpool et al to create the next pathetic ditty; the idea of a 'flag-day', 'singing-zone' or any other manufactured attempt to create atmopshere is quite frankly absurd.

When the player's turn it on, an incident happens, or the need for collective voice is required, Goodison rocks; any attempt to change the status quo in my opinion is not the Everton Way. Leave that to the teds, wooly backs and bellends across the Park ? they do a cracking cringe-worthy job!

Sponsor a fucking band?? Any fucking band sparks up by me and they'll end up with a trombone stuffed right up their fucking arse.

Un-fucking believable!!! A fucking band!

Give me fucking strength.

The best atmosphere for me is when GP is like an angry bear pit and it must be fairly hostile for the opposition. There are some great memories of Goodison being like that. I don't get all misty eyed claiming that it has always been one big sing-song because, quite frankly, it never has since I've been going.

The aways are always different but that's because the whole dynamic is different as it is more an us v them type situation with us being in the minority.

Overall though, what Peter Laing (6) says I agree with 100% and wouldn't want it any other way.

It's simple: if the team performs, so will the fans... and that goes to any club you wish to name. People harp on about Stoke etc, but they are new to the big league still, that will soon change as their poxy away travel has proven everywhere this season compared to last.

It's the same with flag day too: many blues slaughter them lot across the park for those big daft banners with stupid sayings on; if we were to do it, you have to do it better, or you will end up looking like a London street party will look like tomorrow ? and that will just add more fun for our lovable neighbours.

This gives me the chance to impress with the line, "Oh, yes, I used to sing with a band, you know."

I also think the pre-match bollocks we get at GP, delivered at ear-splitting volume, takes all the life out of any collective desire to sing and shout; fans stay buried under the stands until the teams come out. In the days of standing you had to get in early to get a good spec. I'm not advocating a return to standing, but I do think that this is when the atmosphere started to get much quieter.

Having said that there is a core of Blues supporters who sing their hearts out brilliantly, usually about 4,000 of them. The ones who go the away matches.

I guess, in years gone by, it's the cheap(er) seats/terraces where some of the more boisterous fans have congregated and it's the spontaneity of these gatherings and the witty responses to impromptu goings on, on the pitch, that really sparked the raw atmosphere. Can such a formal arrangement elicit similar emotion? Probably not.

For various complex reasons, the atmosphere was always incredibly hostile towards England and I feared for his safety. The response was exactly the same as you described. He might as well have been invisible. Sometimes a crowd can collectively come up with exactly the right reaction. I think when we win and play exciting football Goodison will rock again.

In the old black and white days, the crowd were always up for it because so were the players; 66-70 was pure gold ? didn't matter who we were playing, you could guarantee Everton (and the crowd) would entertain.

Totally agree with Steve @24 ? cringeworthy "Live from Goodison Park": I fuckin know, I'm here you daft prick; "Here's how it's shaping up". Jesus wept...

At the end of the day, everyone should be able to sit where they want without being grouped and categorised. All that does is break the support up into different 'types' of fans and will do nothing to improve the atmosphere and unity in the ground between fans. At Wembley I was amazed at the almost family like atmosphere between supporters and it made for an absolute cauldron.

Also, Fiorentina was a recent game which blew Anfield Champions League nights out of the water and I was sat down for most of the game which suggests maybe our ground was such a 'bear pit' because we simply had more to play for.

Personally, the only way I can see the atmosphere of old returning is through terracing the lower gwladys. That way there's virtually no segregation and pointing out differences between supporters and those who don't wish to stand there should be offered seats elsewhere in the ground for a cheaper price.

I know for a fact that the atmosphere would be twice as good in the whole ground in this case because there's easily 6 or 7+ thousand capacity in that stand and with a higher concentration of more vocal supporters, it could make an absolute racket for a big game that would spread to the rest of the ground.

I also agree that it's sad we have to have an official area of the groud but thats down to seating. In the 70s and 80s you could chose where you stood so there wasn't any need to a designated area of the ground. But with reserved seating I believe you need to organise things. It would be great if everybody joined in but that's only a dream.

It's ridiculous to compare us to Liverpool in terms of atmosphere, nobody has suggested that flags should be brought into the ground. I personally don't have a problem with people waving flags ? look at some of the games in the 80s, the giant blue banners and the huge Irish tricolors ? they certainly were impressive. As long as the flags aren't red or the typical St George flag with the name of a pub, I personally couldn't care if fans want to bring flags or banners.

When opposition fans try to annoy us we just laugh, clapping the "Sign on!" chants. Amongst our ranks we have Communists, Anarchists, Facists, Nazis, Zionists, BNP members, Irish Republicans, Orangemen and Loyalists. Everton supporters have always forgotten their differences to just support the team.

If everybody took the view that they'd only support the team in big games, I'm sure we'd be in even more trouble. Just look at Wigan on Saturday ? our supporters in the concourse will bounce away singing all sorts of songs, yet when we get into the ground there's hardly any singing.

Spot on and fair-does. I've commented before on how I "grew up" with a bunch of mates in "our spec" behind the goal and how we're now spread out all over the stadium.

We're still mates and meet up before and after but can't take the camaraderie into the match, just a polite few words with the next seats is usually it. When all-seating came in, we never had the foresight and/or cash to book a block of seats.

How I wish...

Personally, if I wanted to just sit there and watch a game in silence, I'd stay at home. I've got no problems with fans who sit in lets say quieter parts of the ground. But when you've got supporters in the centre of the Gwladys Street who just stare at fans who start songs, then you've got a problem.

Yes, some of the chants that are started are pathetic and tedious. Why whenever Everton fans want to do something slightly different are they immediately shot down by other supporters. "A protest against BK would be far too much like Liverpool and Newcastle fans". We need to try and get younger supporters in and I don't believe we'll get many if our ground is like a library. That's why there's more young lads at away games than there are at home.

From speaking to local fans, I've a feeling there may be quite a few ex-season ticket seats spare in August.

Have to brush up on the golden oldies: "We're the lads from Goodison that you all know
We're the boys from the banks of the Mersey..."

But now? I'm too bloody arl' and miserable to sing and where I sit in the Upper Gwladys most people fit into this category. Match going punters are, largely, a lot older than they were forty years ago. As a proportion of the make up of the ground, the crowd is older and less likely to want to warble.

But fair play to you, fella', keep hammering them out! But do you remember that toe-curling month or so in the Johnson years when we experimented with a Sheffield Wednesday type band? Blood still runs cold...

Everton are different to these and so are other seasoned Premier league clubs and it shows when you see dickheads from Wolves and WBA turn up in their chav gear, wanting to take every Weatherspoons in the league and singing their knobhead songs, thinking they are big time charlies. The next season, these and Stoke are mustering 800 in the away end similar to how they all behaved in the 80s and we won't change either.

These days I'm a "serious", thoughtful match-student, stunned by what a lot of people around me will put with watching without ranting.

I think we should bring back cushion-throwing before we reinstate community singing.

To those who seem to have this idea that chanting or waving banners has anything to do with Liverpool FC, then you're crazy. Look at the Gwladys Street ? we had banners and songs that were far more witty than our neighbours across the park.

This is the main point I'm making, if you do not wish to join us, that's up to you but those who want to join are more than welcome. GS5 is an area of the ground that seems largely empty for most of the games. There's readily around 300 seats for people to locate to, without disrupting other supporters.

The centre of LGS, due to being a quite popular area of the ground, it seems reasonably understandable why Everton would want to restrict ticket sales in this area. The club would be far more willing to set up an area in an unpopular area of the ground as there won't be as many people affected.

Derek, hopefully if there's a pre-season game at home, we can organise something.