The most level-headed fans...

Something that some of our readers have indeed noticed in the general tenor of responses on ToffeeWeb, based on win, lose or draw in our latest fixture. I know there are those of you who react against this, and want fans to take a longer term view, but are the results of this 'survey' really any surprise?

Personally, I think it's perfectly natural and fully expected for confidence to fluctuate based on performances and results — that's what football is all about.

I'm just struggling how it makes our excellent fans 'level-headed'... maybe it's in comparison to the fans of all the other clubs? Although that comparison is not really made in the figures presented.

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The power of t'interweb... wouldya credit it!

There is a small minority who don't of course.

We are not one-eyed (sorry Laurie) in the cringe-worthy sentimental, emotionally over-hyped "make us dream" Liverpool sense.

We don't project the London-style arrogance; entire fan bases who only seem to go to the match to attempt to wind up the opposition fans as opposed to actually watching and supporting their team (please refrain from ever descending into that awful chant of "Your support is faackin' shit"!!).

We are not Newcastle; the Sky Sports backed self-proclaimed 'best supporters in the country' who seem to revert to booing the moment they aren't 3-0 up after 20 minutes.

We don't carry the awful dreariness and instantaneous fickleness of Aston Villa.

We're Everton; we can actually watch the game, be passionate without going over the top, air our frustration when it's not going right and appreciate good football (both ways, incidentally; I particularly remember Goodison in it's entirety circa 2009 breaking into applause when David Silva took a ball out of the sky on a 6 pence).

I stand down from my soap box!!

Ipswich had a fine side then and I don’t think we got a kick in that game. Everyone who was there recognised that the better footballing side won on the day. Making it all the more satisfying to knock them out of the cup a couple of weeks later!

Saturday 30 September 2000: Everton 0 - 3 Ipswich Town

Perhaps the lowest spot in Walter Smith's 'disappointing' reign as Everton manager? Refreshing to see how critically realistic our fans were then... as now. I don't quite understand why we still have this issue of people being upset about accurate and fully merited critical analysis.

Something about needing to "take the positives" from every situation, no matter how dire... Where does that imperative come from?

If anything was ever appropriate to this, it's "It's in FourFourTwo, so it's crap".

I can also remember the (remaining) crowd applauding off Tranmere after they'd comprehensively routed us 3-0 in the FA Cup. I remember the game, Koumas got a move to the Premier League off the back of several performances against higher league sides in cups. One question, to aid the memory - was this under Walter or DM?

Saturday 27 January 2001: Everton 0 - 3 Tranmere Rovers

Gotta love this final paragraph of the Match Summary:

The game dragged on to the increasing anguish and embarrassment of Evertonians everywhere, eventually petering out to a crescendo of boos as the Goodison "faithful" vented their unremitting anger on the sorry state of Everton Football Club.

We were a bad team at the time but had just beaten Coventry at Highfield Road, playing with a few of the kids. What did Walter do? He went for experience and we absolutely embarrassed ourselves. How he never got the sack I will never know.

If my memory is correct, we then played Boro at home in the midweek and there must have been over 30,000 to witness a 2-2 draw. Unbelievably loyal support that night, on one of the many occasions you could say that the club just don't deserve us, even if it was only a fiver to get in!

Put up with some shite down the years, haven't we? Which is why I can't wait for us to click into form.