Goodison is always quiet unless we are playing the Shite or Man Utd. We need to get it bouncing at every home game like we do at the away games. We should make it a fortress!

It's simple really most grounds have areas reserved for those who wish to stand and chant, at GP there isn't such an area. Lower Gwaldys Street is full of children and women so of course people are unlikely to stand and chant. Since 2008-09 the atmosphere has generally got worse and worse at GP, with the exception of derbies the atmosphere at GP is like a morgue.

I tried unsuccessfully a few years ago to encourage Everton to have an area of the ground reserved for those who wish to chant; however, the club rejected it. Despite the fact the players, commentators and away fans have commented on how quiet GP is, the club don't want to do anything to change this.

To be frank it does depend on who we are playing and Southampton like Fulham, Wigan, Reading etc fall into the category of grade D games that nobody really gets excited about. It's helped sometimes if we go a goal down and we are fighting back.

Made up for though like Man U this season and the derby to come and other games of the potential top 6 this season (not including the Shite) albeit Newcastle dissapointed me this season, although they won't be top six either.

I'm not a regular attendee but I have noticed it the times I've been there.

Is it not the case that the away fans generate most of the noise so as to show just how vocal they are on their travels? Apart of course when direct rivals visit when the home crowd goes up a few notches.

Most home fans are quiet; it's always the away fans who make most of the noise at grounds.

But come a big game at Goodison, it can still make a lot of noise from our own fans. Anyway I watch the game better now that I no longer have to stand.

Mike Powell, that's exactly what I mean. Goodison Park should be a fortress that, no matter who we play, we can go home knowing we've been the "12th Man". Why wait to play the Shite or Man Utd? Surely we should have the same passion for every game. Put simply – we want to win.

So many factors but mainly there's no real competition in the game.

Everyone knows the 2 or 3 clubs who'll win everything and qualify for europe so most of the games mean fuck all.

People talk like amateur accountants these days rather than fans - a poll asking "FA CUP OR 4TH?" has the majority going for the CL qualification. The justification being more money may help the club win a trophy!!!!!

The exhorbitant cost means kids taking empty pop bottles back to get the tanner deposits to go the game has gone - or whatever the equivalent would be these days.

Different people, different attitudes not just here but Europe wide.

Barry #309 - will you stop it!

Poll? what Poll? Have I missed a Poll? Pollocks.

sorry mike (tee-hee)

I`m just grateful to be spared the inane crap that most of them chant!

A few grounds suffer the same problem, not just us. But Some areas of Goodison is shit cramped seating (wooden) not to mention the obstructed views, arching your neck around trying to watch the game. We also don't have weekend and day tripper fans like the yanks accross the park, screaming, and yelling for Stevie G everytime there is a throw in. I don't think any other club in the world has a many fans with cameras as them.

The first 2 matches were full of atmosphere and noise. Night games, difficult opponents and some great football... Crowd response . With Southampton it was flat second half but a foregone conclusion.

In my memory, we have never been one of those clubs where the fans make up songs. The standard Everton chant has always been our staple. Arteta's song has been my recent favourite.

What I get a buzz out of more than anything — I have lived, worked abroad for 3 years now but they have every game on satellite tv here – is how, when the big clubs come to Goodison Park for the day, you can visibly see the camera shake when we score.
Mourinho described Goodison as a bear pit; that will do for me.

It all depends on a number of factors: time of kick-off, who we're playing, incidents during the game etc. Opposing Managers, Wenger, Ferguson, Mourinho and Redknap to name a few, have commented on just how intimidating the place can be when the crowds up for it, as we all know.

Best time for me is a night game with a lot hanging on the result, can't beat it imo. Worst time? Early kick-offs on Saturdays... or any time if we're playing Blackburn!

Simon.

Every fan that enters Goodison watches the game and will easily tell you the full match play of every goal, they are ardent fans who support the club to the core. When the likes of Southampton come to town, these fans expect Everton to win and have no time to exchange pleasantries with the away support. Basically, fuck off, next please.

If you want to see singing, dancing, good scouse humour plus a total verbal attack on the home crowd then go and watch Everton play away. The Villa game was fucking superb – most villa fans had gone home before the game had finished.

My question though, if I had been where you were and Everton had scored, then nothing would of kept me in my seat – you were in Goodison, Simon.

Chris Butler — they've changed their minds! A couple of people have been trying to get hold of you in relation to this but your email address changed.

David S Shaw — what changes have happened recently with regards to standing at GP... have they agreed to set up a standing area?

They couldn't agree to set up a standing area, not allowed to even if they wanted to.

To be honest, I'm not a massive fan of the idea of "chanting areas". Feels very Wigan. On the same kind of level as playing music after a goal to "gee up" the crowd. Surely if fans want to chant then they will. If enough of them want to chant then it'll spread. That's how crowds at the match work.

Arguably even counter productive at times. If you have a chanting section then you take out all the people who act as a catalyst for chants spreading around the ground as a whole, possibly even lose that "cauldron" effect that Goodison does so well.

I personally don't think that it's necessarily singing that gives "atmosphere" but a swell of sound from voices shouting encouragement. I watch Rugby and motorcycle racing and, with little or no singing, a lot of atmosphere is still generated. I watched the United game and there was great atmosphere throughout the game with only sporadic singing but a groundswell of encouragement roared by 40,000 people. This is what I find electric not the singing unless the singing is crowd wide and spontaneous.

Chanting areas!!! Next we'll be meeting up in Mum's back room to discuss witty banners and flags. Personally, I'm off to make myself a coat covered in badges.

We're a bit different aren't we? Goodison genuinely bounces when it needs to and makes the hairs on your neck stand on end.

Singalongs regardless of the opponent or activity just seem false and contrived.

I personally would love to hear more songs and chants....if only to STOP the awful renditions of "It's a Grand Ole Team" which only ever really consists of "..and if y'know yer history", followed by a mostly incoherent, rushed, garbled mess...

That won't get you to the live shows!

Have to agree, Simon! I've just moved back to Merseyside after taking early retirement, part of the reason for moving back was so I could get to see the Blues on a regular basis again.

The Southampton game was my first match at Goodison in 5 years and the thing that hit me was just how flat and quiet the place was! I remember back in the 70s and Goodison would be bouncing for EVERY game, even if it did involve throwing cushions on the pitch towards the end of Gordon Lee's spell... at least it showed some passion!

We're at the top of the league playing some crackin' football so you'd expect a great atmosphere! I'd taken my daughter to see her first game at Goodison and I'd been filling her up with tales of my days there as a season ticket holder, so she enjoyed the game but wondered what was with all the fuss I'd been making about the fanatical support.

Maybe meeting up in Mum's back room to work on a few chants is not a bad idea after all!?

Lets get 1 thing into perspective - those Southampton fans were brilliant on saturday but they are on a 1 season jolly around the premier league grounds.

Mike #366 has got it right - the atmosphere at Villa was superb as it usually is away from home.

Ernie #424 - hilarious

Imagine sitting through that ridiculous slowed down version of 'When The Spurs Go Marching In' or the Man Utd song about Cantona.

I'd rather stick to watching the game with a good old rousing 'Everton, Everton, Everton' when things need a lift

Decent attendance of 38k on Saturday considering Soton returned half of their allocated tickets. But yeah it's a point I've been making for a while. The last 2 or 3 years we've been complaining there is nothing to sing or shout about! Now the team are getting the results, it seems there is still nothing to sing or shout about.

It's a shame as there is no more an intimidating ground than Goodison when it's at full vocal flow (even more so on a night time). But maybe it's just one of those things where it's mostly the away fans that sing. I think that applies to most teams nowadays.

I think we were just mesmerised by an Everton team playing fantastic football.

I think anxiety has a lot to do with it. Evertonians are perhaps the most anxious supporters in the country. We get so desperate for the result. I have a theory about why this is the case and it's to do with many years of 'specific' feelings of inferiority and a resulting desperation for the tribe to succeed.

The next time we're leading 1-0 with five minutes left, have a look in the concourse near you and note how many Blues are down there, not wanting to leave but can't bear to watch! Football in general, but with Everton in particular, must be the only form of entertainment where you pay to get in and can't wait to get out as long as it's with a win! We whistle for the end of something we have paid a lot of money to watch!!

It's very difficult to sing when anxiety dries your mouth to a state like the bottom of a birdcage!

When I as 12 it was all the rage, now I'm 62, well maybe that innocence has turned to reserve, that was then this is now, chanting is all a bit old hat. Also is it a reflection of the rising average age of match goers.

I blame the Walton Road Ninjas in their black trackie uniforms – it's all their fault. The kids don't sing like they used too, too busy playing on their iStations iPods and mp3s and Playsega Commodores and missing their choir practice sessions.

Chris Butler-they will help publicise it.They believe that the atmosphere can help the team so are all for it. It was trialled last year in GT4 in the Cup, some games went really well. It was all a question of numbers that went to them, which of course is dependent on publicity.

Just saw BATE bitchslap Bayern in the Champions League; the same BATE that we knocked out of the Europa League some years ago. What struck me was how intimidating the BATE fans were. The stadium was a hellhole of shrieks, jeers, and strange sounds made with devices going dingdong. Came to think of it: Goodison is not a pleasant place to visit either. The Evertonians are lunatics and Toffeeweb proves it.

Dave Roberts: interesting theory, but it seems to fly in the face what anthropological evidence would seem to suggest. The fear of being deprived of something, be it your cattle or a 1-0 lead against the shite, actually adds fuel to your aggression and irascibility, especially when you are defending yourself as a larger group. Of course, when we are alone we behave very differently; some might even get down on their knees and start counting the rosary, but as a collective unit: never ever.

"Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." (Chief Aupumunt the Mohican)

Seems to me that part of it is down to the difference between the atmosphere of a mosh pit to being sat down and watching intently. One is adrenalin-rich audience participation, the other is spectating (and I am not judging either). That all changes when the action on the pitch causes everyone to leap to their feet and vocalise their support.

it was always the terrace areas that held the majority of the incessant hubbub on match days (as I remember it) having a greater concentration of bodies, like-minded individuals grouping together freely, and kept active by simply keeping your preferred position. Now anyone can sit wherever they want to / can afford and the chanters are more dispersed so it hardly ever reaches the level where it spontaneously causes others to join in.

Away fans tend to treat their sections as terracing anyway from what I have seen. Add in that they are unlikely to be shy and retiring by nature and you get a noisier group in general.

I miss the chanting (there seemed to be more variety to it in the 80's especially, and it can help fans to feel integrated / relevant during the quieter bits of play) and hate the fact that the away fans seem much louder in comparison than they did in the 'good old days'. Agree that it isn't necessarily a reflection on the passion of the fans, more an indication that there are trends in spectating which may require certain conditions in which to flourish.

Goodison Park is quiet?

Next thing the Southampton fans will be saying is that the Earth revolves around the sun!

Sorry, but a game against the Saints hardly gets the juices flowing.

The best atmospheres at Goodison in recent years in my opinion has been when either of the Manc clubs pitch up at GP.

Simon Inglis, the well known author of several books on football grounds wrote that Goodison Park is/was a special-occasion stadium. He was referring to the rousing atmosphere generated on those great days.

Goodison Park requires mass crowd participation because it lacks the acoustic enhancement of the large single-tier arenas where there is greater unity. Multi-tiers can fragment the crowd, and small upper tiers detract further from this overall atmospheric effect. However, whereas the group singing of songs might be less readily achieved at GP than elsewhere, the closer intimacy to the pitch afforded by overlapping tiers can help turn the place into an absolute bearpit at the sight of a single bad tackle. Then the required proportion of mass crowd participation is achieved, and the intensity of being on average much closer to the action can be felt on the pitch. Therefore, while GP can be one of the quieter grounds, it can also be one of the most intensely noisy ones too.