Forget the DJ – let the fans voice their support
Jim White gives a shout out to Rodney Parade and Anfield where the crowd isn’t told to ‘make some noise’
Many foreign clubs looked to England for a lead. Not any more
At Newport’s Rodney Parade ground on Saturday evening, I witnessed something I had not experienced in a while: an hour before the FA Cup fifth-round tie between County and Manchester City began, there were dozens of fans already in position. More to the point, they were already chanting.
Standing on the terrace in the front of the main stand, a growing gathering of young enthusiasts maintained a continuous racket in the build-up to the game. It was boisterous, noisy and good-natured: judging by his grin, City’s Raheem Sterling particularly enjoyed the ironic chorus of “who are ya?” that greeted his arrival to warm up. And the best thing of all was, for a good half-hour, theirs was the only sound filling the place. The match-day DJ had yet to begin his schedule.
For the inveterate nostalgist, it was a reminder of the days when atmosphere at football matches was something that grew organically from within the crowd, something spontaneous, invigorating and occasionally very funny.
On Sunday, at Wembley, we will witness the opposite. At the Carabao Cup final, the modern game’s favoured method of atmosphere generation will be in full blast. A hectoring public address announcer will bark instruction at ear-melting volume. “Make some noise” he will yell (it is always a he) before playing some naff recorded version of a terrace anthem in the forlorn hope that someone might join in. No wonder the place has all the resonance of a convention of Trappist monks.
There have been many reasons for the progressive decline in match-day atmosphere at football – from seated ticketing which allows you to take up your position seconds before things start, to the upward trajectory of the average age of those attending – but nothing has been more debilitating than the pre-game DJ.
Many a Manchester United supporter was embarrassed when Paris St-germain went to Old Trafford recently. It was not so much the superiority on the pitch that discomfited the regulars. It was the fact that the visiting fans so comprehensively outsung them. For years there was a complacent belief that English football had nothing to learn from continental rivals when it came to demonstrating vocal support. Indeed, fans of many a foreign club looked to England for a lead in how to generate atmosphere from the stands. Not any more.
About the only English ground where European nights still have a bit of resonance is Anfield. True, at Premier League games the place frequently resembles the quiet room at the British Library. But, as Bayern Munich will discover tonight, the Champions League brings out a different side to the venerable stadium.
It is no coincidence that it is there that the least obtrusive of pre-match announcers holds sway. George Sephton, whose gentle Scouse tones have prevailed since 1971, would no more exhort the locals to “make some noise” than he would play the new single from the latest X Factor winner. The truth is, thanks to his self-effacing style Anfield can still sound a bit like Newport.