Why So Many Tickets Left Unsold In The Northam End ! Friday, 14th Dec 2018 09:21 Since Saints moved to St Mary's the Northam End has traditionally been where the hard core support assembled, the section of the ground from where the noise emanated, but it seems no longer ! It is a little surprising that given Sunday's game against Arsenal is the start of new era and the first sight for most Saints fans of new boss Ralph Hasenhuttl that the game is still not near selling out. Of course there are mitigating circumstances, the poor home form, Xmas looming not to mention the fact that the game is a Sunday lunchtime kick off, but in truth none of these excuses have been needed in the past, just over a year ago the same fixture sold out completely. Three years ago on 19th December Saints under Ronald Koeman were on a slump, they had lost four out of the last five games including a 6-1 drubbing at home to Liverpool in the League Cup, with the only point coming with a late equaliser against Aston Villa who were rock bottom and well adrift, but the ground was still full, Saints lost the Spurs game 2-0 and ironically the next home game was a 4-0 victory against Arsenal on Boxing Day, but this wasn't the season changer that most recall we lost the next three after that. But back then the one part of the ground you could rely upon to sell out was the Northam End, the three blocks in there were mostly season ticket holders and those seats that weren't sold on that basis were the first to go. But a look at the onsite ticket system for Sunday's game shows that there are still around 1,800 tickets left, now this isn't unusual for this season and the trend is for a late rush in the two days before the game and it will near a sell out, but the worry for the club is that a fair proportion of these seats are in those three blocks and the couple in the Kingsland corner next to them. You would have thought that those who went in the Northam were the ones that would be loyal to the end, they are the ones that sing the songs & buy the shirts, but it seems that proportionately to the rest of the ground this has not been the case. This should ring alarm bells for the club as they look to re engage with the supporters after a period of discontent and estrangement, you would have hoped that the combination of a big six team visiting and the start of the Hasenhuttl era might have enthused a few more people to attend the game especially in the Northam End, but this seems not to be the case. These is a lot of work to do for the club to get the fans back behind them and they are at least trying to engage with the supporters and looking at initiatives to do so. But it should not be all one sided, supporting a football club is not all about winning games, it is more than that it is about sticking with your side through thick and thin, about rallying to the flag when needed and this is one of those times. As Ralph Hasenhuttl said in football there are no guarantees, if you want a guarantee buy a washing machine, or to add to that go to the theatre, football is not a play or a show, you go to a game not knowing who will star or what you will get, the part time supporters go to be entertained, the rest of us go because it's what we do, what defines us. Saints have given us some good years in the past decade, in reality they have given us only one bad season and that was last year and of course the first part of this one so far, last season we had no flag to rally round, it caused infighting and divisions amongst the fanbase, now we can see hope for the football club again, changes have been made that the supporters demanded. Now everyone has to be given the chance to show that things have changed, if we want Ralph Hasenhuttl to be a success, keep us up and perhaps on to better things, then as he has said himself, the supporters as much as the players need to be with him, if not they are better falling away. We all know that we need to be active in the January transfer window and it looks like we might be, but till then we have to get by in trying to wring out exceptional performances from the squad we have, we have to hope they will step up to the plate and play for their places, some will some won't, this will be the case for the fans, some will see the bigger picture some will prefer to sit on social media and criticise. The next six months is going to be tough, but we have been there before, we will be there again, but we all need to have a pride in the football club and support it, if we do so then we have a chance, if it turns toxic as it has done earlier in the season then what hope is there. So if you haven't got a ticket yet then consider doing so, yes perhaps you can't justify it as you haven't been entertained so far this season, but Sunday like three years ago against the Gunners might just be the day when we get our best result of the season ! Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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