James takes amusing atmosphere swipe at Saints – and Pompey supporters revel in it
FORMER Pompey keeper David James compared the atmosphere at Southampton’s home match against Manchester United to that of a cricket Test match.
And his scornful comment on Twitter has gone down well with Blues supporters, who are loving their ex-player’s dig at the St Mary’s crowd.
Sunday’s Premier League clash was the Saints’ first without Covid-enforced restrictions on spectator numbers since the visit of Newcastle to the south coast in March 2020.
Ticketing problems were experienced by the club before and after kick-off, with Saints issuing an apology to fans during the encounter.
Yet that didn’t stop James taking a swipe at the noise levels generated inside the ground – particularly when the home side had taken a 30th-minute lead through Che Adams’ deflected shot off Manchester United midfielder Fred.
Posting a comment on Twitter during the first half, the former England keeper sarcastically wondered whether he had accidentally changed the settings on his TV to ‘test cricket sound effects’.
He tweeted: ‘So, watching @SouthamptonFC lead 1-0 v @ManUtd, with a crowd at the stadium. I may need to change the audio settings, I’m sure I’ve got mine set to test cricket crowd effects.’
The game eventually ended in a 1-1 draw, with Mason Greenwood cancelling out Fred’s own goal with a 55th-minute equaliser for United.
The result was met with a chorus of noise from the home support at the final whistle as the Saints put their 3-1 opening-day defeat at Everton behind them to get off the mark for the new campaign.
However, it hasn’t stopped Pompey fans poking fun at their bitter rivals from along the M27, all thanks to James’ scathing remark.
Responding to the tweet, @ JuddPFC95 said: ‘Harsh on Test Cricket fans imo, they make much more noise.’
@pompeypaul72 commented: ‘I was about to ask @SkyFootball if they could put their ‘augmented crowd fx’ back on that they used last season to make it feel like there was an atmosphere. Shocking.’
@ReeceW657 posted: ‘Build this man a statue x’
@Langley25R asked: ‘When have you ever known them lot to make any noise Jamo?’ And @NathanLee23 simply stated: ‘Jamo is a Pompey legend.’