Canning's Legacy

[YeOldeHamiltonian]

Forget the dross signings,yearly struggle and stupid statements-the real legacy of Canning has been the catastrophic drop in home support.


Like many,I was really disappointed at the turnout in our end on Saturday for a big game-especially with the Season Book offer which brought a few hundred who used to be regulars back but the rest are still "missing in action" and plenty who said they would return when Canning left still haven't returned.

Add in the decimation of Section A through a mixture of Canning and the Club not building on a fledgling relationship with the kids(banning flags in home end but away fans being able to do what they want),some jumping ship to The Old Filth-including a guy who helped to save Accies twice who changed team in his 50's ffs- and we are back where we started.

It seems like ages ago when we had over 2000 in the home end and once this horrible season is over,a fresh perspective is needed to try to entice some of the lost fans as well as trying to get new fans into the club.

It really annoys me the attitude of the people of Hamilton who are happy to turn up in their thousands for the likes of Fireworks displays and then give the club the Harvey Smith's by continuing to support the gruesome twosome where they are only a number.

All of us who attend regularly are fans who "go against the grain" and then you add in the constant criticism of our fanbase when those of us who attend should be lauded for supporting our local team.

It gets me down as I suspect it does others and the sad reality of the situation is that even if we won The SPL and were in The Champions League, the majority of this town will always be Old Firm fans.

[Swift Frank]

Very, very well put YOH.

[Big Wurzil]

It’s a society thing, depending what religion you are dictates which side of the gloryhunters you are on.

That’s why the English and abroad leagues are much more competitive with significantly higher crowds, if you come from Sheffield chances are you’ll follow a Sheffield team and so on..

Here if you were born in Dumfries and your dad is a gloryhunter you ain’t following QOS. It’s been happening since both clubs were founded over 100 years ago and 7 years ago respectively so it won’t be changing anytime soon so you may as wellaccept it and call these clowns gloryhunters everytime you speak to them.

[Stodmeister]

St.Mirren brought 1700 fans to NDP on Saturday can't that was about 400 more than our home turn out if publishd crowd figures are correct.

I think the Canning reign did decimate our support but also the clubs stance on flags etc. have not helped.
The resurrection of Rangers has probably had another impact.

The last time I remember us having a decent away support was when we to Firhill I think under BR's reign for a cup game.

I live in Darlington but come up when I can however the nonsense that come out from some of the supporters mouths would be enough to make anyone stay at home.

I had to move my seat in the second half as I couldn't listen to the utter pish coming out from 3 morons at the back of Section B. It's guys like that who can put people off from going. I suggest that go see our stadium sponsor and get some CBD down their necks.

Everyone get's frustrated, you wouldn't be a supporter if you didn't, but listening to these guys made me wonder why they even came to the match. Their contradictory shouts of "boot it up the park" , "keep it on the deck" , "FFS your shite , get him off the park" was just grating on the ears.

[Stodmeister]

St.Mirren brought 1700 fans to NDP on Saturday which was about 400 more than our home turn out if published crowd figures are correct.

I think the Canning reign did decimate our support but also the clubs stance on flags etc. have not helped.
The resurrection of Rangers has probably had another impact.

The last time I remember us having a decent away support was when we to Firhill I think under BR's reign for a cup game.

I live in Darlington but come up when I can however the nonsense that come out from some of the "supporters2 mouths would be enough to make anyone stay at home.I had to move my seat in the second half as I couldn't listen to the utter pish coming out from 3 morons at the back of Section B. It's guys like that who can put people off from going. I suggest that go see our stadium sponsor and get some CBD down their necks.

Everyone get's frustrated, you wouldn't be a supporter if you didn't, but listening to these guys made me wonder why they even came to the match. Their contradictory shouts of "boot it up the park" , "keep it on the deck" , "FFS your shite , get him off the park" was just grating on the ears.

[PrideOfLanarkshire]

Forget the dross signings,yearly struggle and stupid statements-the real legacy of Canning has been the catastrophic drop in home support.


Like many,I was really disappointed at the turnout in our end on Saturday for a big game-especially with the Season Book offer which brought a few hundred who used to be regulars back but the rest are still "missing in action" and plenty who said they would return when Canning left still haven't returned.

Add in the decimation of Section A through a mixture of Canning and the Club not building on a fledgling relationship with the kids(banning flags in home end but away fans being able to do what they want),some jumping ship to The Old Filth-including a guy who helped to save Accies twice who changed team in his 50's ffs- and we are back where we started.

It seems like ages ago when we had over 2000 in the home end and once this horrible season is over,a fresh perspective is needed to try to entice some of the lost fans as well as trying to get new fans into the club.

It really annoys me the attitude of the people of Hamilton who are happy to turn up in their thousands for the likes of Fireworks displays and then give the club the Harvey Smith's by continuing to support the gruesome twosome where they are only a number.

All of us who attend regularly are fans who "go against the grain" and then you add in the constant criticism of our fanbase when those of us who attend should be lauded for supporting our local team.

It gets me down as I suspect it does others and the sad reality of the situation is that even if we won The SPL and were in The Champions League, the majority of this town will always be Old Firm fans.

I fear dropping down a division may be the only way we can boost our support, winning games more regularly and playing better football.

[Stevie Clarke]

Not disagreeing with YOH's main points but it goes back further than Canning. The first two crowds back in the Premier, after the euphoria of Easter Road, were 1600 & 1500 against Inverness & St Johnstone.

[TerracingTomas]

And yet I scratch my head wondering how we got 2 record home crowds this season for the European youth games? I know it was free and something a bit different but it shows that given the right circumstances there is the potential for a bigger support. The club has improved the match day experience off the park over the last 2 years with improved sound system, catering, Accies media and the new announcer. Coming for next season sounds like possibly Accies TV, a new website and card payments but given the product on the park all that while welcome is just tinkering. Alongside a better product on the park, the community trust should be the vehicle for driving a fan recruitment strategy but as far as i can see its become/always has been a vehicle for Mcgowan. Blameless seems to have faded into the background. If we stay up we will need to do something in the cup(s), improve our position in the league from just surviving and improve the standard of play. Alongside that a proper marketing strategy that looks at promoting the club through the work of the community trust that focuses on football, our improved media set up, a reengagement with the fans through a reinvigorated supporters body. The club needs to learn to love its supporters rather than as I get the impression tolerate them.

[Stevie Clarke]

Not sure what you mean by record home crowds TT, for a youth game sure but both games were around 2,400. We've had far more than that in the home end several times.

[TerracingTomas]

It was a record for this season Stevie. In recent seasons however I can’t think of a game where we have had anywhere near 2400 home fans in the main stand.

[porcupine]

And here's another thing.
With the original crap sound sytem was producing a low white noise, we could TALK to fellow supporters, before the game and at half time. Part of the social interaction that makes a good day out at Accies, meeting friends. Now, with the new sound system, music is played at deafinly loud levels, making any sort of communication to friends and neighbours impossible.

A couple of home game agao, listeneing to BBC Scotland in the car on the way down, whilst reading out the teams sheets, the reporter said that he could hardly hear himself speak for the noise. When I got to the ground, I went up to Jonathan Sutherland in the BBC radio box and commended him for the public announcement of the ongoing issue. He could hardly hear me, but agreed it was ridiculous and was affecting their time on air from NDP. He sent someone away to do something about it, and five minutes later there was a significant reduction, which allowed all of us to speak and not shout at our fellow supporters beside us.

Sadly, this was a one off, but I do know some of our silver/bald headed supporters are seriously pissed-off with this, and some have decided that, along with poor football on the park, they will stay away until they can converse with those around them.

Irrelevant Post??? No, just part of many reasons why supporters are staying away. Our crowd, seen on TV, on Saturday was pathetic, compared with St Mirren's.

[aldoaccie]

Great post

It has become so predictable at home games that we bite out nails, can’t hear the person next to us for the blare of the sound system and, above all, have thousands of seats vacant around us.

I honestly don’t know what the answer is, other than booting the blue and green down to the English National League.

In some ways I miss the good old days like watching Dylan Kerr score that marvellous free kick against Dumbarton, the joy of the first game at a new Douglas Park and even going on our unbeaten run when we were in the 3rd division. Other than a play off win in front of 335 fans, I really can’t see such joy coming back for years.

But, I will say this. I’ll never change my colours.

[Stevie Clarke]

It was a record for this season Stevie. In recent seasons however I can’t think of a game where we have had anywhere near 2400 home fans in the main stand.

Maybe a one off but the Friday night match v Aberdeen when we were top, had a good 2500 in the home stand. The crowd was 4,093.

My comment earlier was also counting the play off game against Hibs. The play off game at home to Falkirk amazingly had 2339 Accies fans and 2339 Falkirk, so nearly but not quite 2400.

[Swift Frank]

When we beat Clyde at home to clinch promotion under BR there were 5,000 Accies fans there.

[YeOldeHamiltonian]

There were 5000 plus v Inverness at the 10pence game;Canning fcuked that up also.

[Euan]

People in Hamilton may claim to support one of the Old Firm, but in most cases all that means is they watch them on television, either at home or in the pub and perhaps wear a top.
Attending live football is not a popular pastime for the majority, so realistically we get an equal share of those attending from Hamilton.
Out of Hamilton’s population of 54000, I’d estimate around 1500 actually attend Ibrox and Celtic Park combined, so we get a similar amount with around 750 locals attending regularly.
Football today is a televised or PS4 event for most people. Ask someone who they support and they are likely to say Celtic, Liverpool, Barcelona and Juventus, but they’ll never have been to a game.
There’s too much else to do nowadays and if it’s a poor game on television or you’re losing at Fifa you can switch off, unlike live football where you’re stuck sitting freezing at Fir Park 2-0 after ten minutes, wishing you could switch off or restart.

[Don van Vliet]

If I may add a comment... I followed the Accies as a teenager in the 70s and now, having returned to Scotland after a lifetime away, I was able to go to the Hearts game - my brother and nephew took me and my stepson along as their '+1s'. On the strength of that visit I was really shocked to see how small the turnout for the St Mirren game was. My experience in the Hearts match was very positive - it was an enjoyable game with a cracking goal, a deserved victory and a good display with several talking points. The pies were good and there was even a hint of an atmosphere in the nail biting finish. So why there was a poorer turn out for the next home game which had even more at stake but when a win was more likely is beyond me.

Euan's points about competition from alternative attractions don't explain why we have such difficulties when teams based in other (in many case smaller) towns can still get a reasonable support.

It seems to be an embedded culture and all the points made about negative football, club tactics, the Old Filth and lack of success are probably relevant. Even under AN, there wasn't a great resurgence in numbers, IIRC. The target has to be to stay up, improve the attractiveness of the football, letting Rice build the team he wants. I have no time for the argument that says it would be better to be in a seaside league.

[Stevie Clarke]

Dvv - the breakdown of home/away support against Hearts was 1,057 home/1,025 away. On Saturday I didn't catch it exactly and Accies Twitter just said 3,096 but I remember the tannoy guy saying 1700 and something for them, so our home support was up a good 300 and it did look better on TV. Many rows at the top of the ST sections were well filled.

The Clyde game where we won the title, mentioned earlier, saw a crowd of 4,940 but Clyde brought a surprisingly big support, maybe hoping we'd fall flat on our faces, so the home support was more like 4,550-4600.

[YeOldeHamiltonian]

They weren't more than a couple of hundred Clyde fans that day despite them having a section.A lot of their fans stayed away as They couldn't stomach us winning the League,plus quite a few of them were chased out of Hamilton after acting the 'Billy Big Bollocks' at Hamilton West prior to this never to return lol.

Prior to McDonald,Reid,Big Marko and Imrie we used to have a great relationship with them(even further back remember when they played at old Douglas Park) and they used to stay behind after games here and some Accies fans used to take them for a pub crawl but no more.

You only have to look at the constant snidey comments by they gyppos on that Scottish Football Away Days FB page about our away support.

[Stevie Clarke]

Re the crowd at Easter Road, I don't know how to post them on here but I've pics saved taken from the stand that day, not by me, that shows most of the away support and I would say it looked about 600 not 335 (where did you get that figure, aldoaccie?). I know the club said they sold over 1000 tickets but it was never that many and I doubt many would have been in the main stand. The pics were taken during the celebrations and you can see many fans down the very front with a still packed section behind them.

YOH - I remember at the game thinking they had brought at least 300, probably a bit more.