Several clubs have their strongest vocal element directly behind a goal and this has like the Kop become the end of the ground known worldwide as the home end.
Manchester United has the West Stand which is know better as the Stretford End. Again the hard-core and most vocal end are reported as being Stretford Enders.
Many of the best supported clubs have a complete end behind a goal and have that as the their main vocal support starting point.
Southampton though has a section of the Northam. Whilst it could be said that being in the third tier it is of less importance to have an end for the hard core, it is still something that I advocate.
For me the Northam stand should be for the sole use of saints supporters. We should have a section like others that is where we generate enough noise to push the team onwards.
I know that this would then mean replacing the away support but that is not as big a problem as some would have us believe.
The Chapel end houses the family section and i have been using it for the last two seasons as I introduce my youngest children to the life of being Saints fans.
Usually it is fairly quiet in comparison to other parts of the ground but this would be less of a problem if away fans were placed at that end.
The police might have a say as to where away supporters are housed but I firmly believe that given a litle thought the Chapel could be used for them with little disturbance to most of our support.
Our ground is not known for being one of the noisiest in the country. I remember many days and nights at ‘The Dell’ where the noise level seemed much higher than we now normally hear.
I know that we are further from the pitch but even allowing for that I see no reason for such a difference in noise levels.
Having stood in the Northam when my kids aren’t with me i know that there is a good base level of noise. Considering that a vast area of the ground isn’t ours it makes sense to me to fill it with more of our supporters.
The size and shape of the ground may have a part to do with the acoustics but I still feel that placing our fans in the ground more closely would help increase the volume.
For games where away support is going to be minimal it would always be possible to utilise the away end to house more of our support.
The logistics of moving our supporters around may cause the odd groan or two but I have always believed that we need to have our own Kop end.
You may agree with me and you may not. The main aim though should be to find a way to increase noise levels in the ground to aide our team.
If there is a way to help the team with our support I feel it is imperative that we use it.
Vital Southampton is now available on both facebook and twitter, so if you are that way inclined and more importantly understand all this new fangled dangled stuff, feel free to watch us, poke us or whatever else you are meant to do there!
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