Fans Right To Vent Their Eastbourne Anger

The nature of the defeat at Eastbourne was disappointing as it was one of those games which seem to be just drifting towards a draw, and suddenly, completely out of the blue, the opposition come along to snatch the win. Frankly a toothless performance and a draw was going to be pretty tough to take anyway for the travelling faithful, who had once more undertaken a long trek in admirable numbers. The concession of that goal, despite its alarming sense of inevitability, provoked a strikingly raw response.

Perhaps it was the nature of the game, which as I said was drifting to a rather grim 0-0 before Matt Smart's intervention, was what made the sudden outburst so striking, maybe it was the strong language used, but when the Wrexham fans suddenly started chanting a profanity angrily across the ground it had quite an impact; I swear I actually saw a couple of jaws drop near me!

Despite from the dad in me, who is suddenly aware of bad language in the crowd when it might reach the ears of my ten-year-old lad (not that he was there on Saturday-dragging him all the way to Sussex to witness such a limp defeat would be tantamount to child abuse!) I am inclined to condone the fans' reaction.

There are always instances where fans' abuse oversteps the mark, and we can all think of plenty of recent examples, but this wasn't directed at anyone, this wasn't designed to debilitate or humiliate. It was a spontaneous reaction from the most devoted of people. They had given up their Saturday to travel all the way to the south coast, only to witness a disappointment, and they had to speak out. It wasn't, I feel a criticism of the regime, or in particular of the current side. It was merely an expression of anger and frustration. They feel entitled to expect more. Frankly, the manager and the players agree, and hopefully they'll be able to offer more sooner rather than later.