Never seen them so subdued.
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Never seen them so subdued.
Back in their usual place in the east. The difference is blatantly obvious now.
They're mostly all youngsters so I'd imagine with all these 'bigger' games happening cash flow will hit them harder than some of us.
At least most of them went. A lot of the usual support didn't bother
Well firstly their numbers were commensurate with the actual crowd size, only the presence of around 1500 Raith Rovers fans stopped it being under 7000. I agree with the other poster who pointed out that given their comparative age demographic the cost of so many games in a row not on season tickets has to be taking it's toll.
What I simply can't agree with is the suggestion that having them behind the goals for the European games didn't make a difference, it absolutely did, you must have been at different European games than the ones I was at, especially the Luzern one, where IMO having them behind the goals made the east more engaged because the whole stand could see and hear them.
As for the 'Yellow wall' comment, geeza break mate. Nobody is suggesting what we are going to end up with is the Anfield Kop or the aforementioned Yellow wall. The idea is a steady growth in numbers until you get around 13 to 16 hundred in the FF lower for most games and fill it for the bigger ones.
For bloody years now Easter Road has been a stadium lacking in atmosphere even with crowds of 16,000 and more at league games, with the large gaps and lack of animation in the FF lower undoubtedly contributing to that. Yet the second a serious attempt is made to do something about it all some folk seem to want to do is pick fault with and deride something that is in its infancy. A mere two games into it FFS.
None of this is a defence of breaking seats, smoke bombs or any other unacceptable behaviour, either at Easter Road or any other stadium. As I said in another thread whoever is organising Block 7, or any other 'ultras' group, that want to make the FF lower what most of us would like to see it become needs to nip that pish in the bud PDQ or they will lose the support of many of us who are sympathetic to their cause. If that happens the FF lower singing section is not going to happen and they had better understand that before its too late.
But that being said ... IMO its far far too soon to negatively judge what the FF lower's potential might be, especially considering what in many folks opinion ( not yours obviously ) has been a pretty successful trial period.
Which is one of the things I've mentioned as being a benefit of this. Having this section behind the goals will not only enthuse the young kids who already go to Easter Road, IMO it will encourage kids who have yet to pick a team to pick Hibs if they see a colourful and noisy support either on the telly, or the first time a friend or relative takes them along to ER.
How many actual members of Block 7 are there?
Less a Block 7 thing, but I'm struggling to see how a headcount of the Hibs support reaches well over 6,000...
Block 7 had 6 guys in Switzerland and maybe 15 in Andorra. How many tickets will they miraculously get for Villa Park?
The trial period was excellent, my point initially was that it didn’t matter yesterday where they were.
I do think also that we need to consider that they want to have that area behind the goals, so there’s an incentive for them to make that trial work. To that end, I fully expect we’d be having the same discussion about the trial being a success if they’d wanted the section they’re in now to work.
That is no sleight on Block 7, by the way. I’m all for what they do (the good bits, not so keen on them moving other fans out their seats etc).
I'll be surprised if we ever get to a point where we have a >2K section of fans bouncing up and down behind the goals for 90 mins at the prospect of playing Raith Rovers in a last 16 tie. Most just want to get behind the team and watch such a game in a decent atmosphere but cant really be arsed going overboard vs what we are watching.
Not a game to judge this on, after what has been a successful trial of them behind the goals.
If they were there in smaller numbers that is more than usually turn up for early round League Cup matches. I wasn't their yesterday due to work but that would have been a real test if they were asked to create an atmosphere in a lesser attended low profile game. Plenty Ultras in the Championship manage that in far smaller crowds week in week out
Is that a fact. I presume some of them will be in teh membership scheme and will deserve their tickets as much as anyone in that scheme. They don't deserve a ticket next to each other any more than anyone else and they should be treated exactly the same as other supporters away from home
I doubt the East could hear them - I certainly couldn't in the West. It seemed to me that the East came alive in response to the away support who were totally dominating the stadium.
Also, Block 7 don't do chants that anyone else joins in with which makes it a bit pointless in my view.
From KP
"The Ticket Office team confirmed at the Hibs First launch event earlier in the year that Block 7 don't receive priority tickets. Away teams do request we place our singing section/"ultras" in a specific designated part of their ground to support the policing. These seats are allocated after our priority groups."
Take that as you will. I take it as Hibs First, first, then Block 7. I might be wrong.
Mate, I was practically in the center of the east at the Luzern game and that simply wasn't my experience. The away support were certainly not dominating the stadium and they were on the same side as my telephone ear which gave them the advantage :greengrin
Whatever the case one thing cant be argued with. At both the Luzern game and the Inter game the FF lower with Block 7 in it contributed far more to the atmosphere and matchday experience than the FF lower normally does and whatever the reason was for the east coming alive during the Luzern game, surely its better to have two sides of the stadium singing and chanting than just one. The Luzern game was the best atmosphere ER has had from the home stands for a long time outside of derbies or games against the Sticky Buns.
I agree that some of the Block 7 songs and chants are a mystery to me as well ... but how that makes them pointless is beyond me.
If they are all seated together at Villa park you will know the club have skirted round the their own system. This will be especially apparent if they are in the lower tier because that is virtually sold out. Q1 still has a handful of tickets, Q2 is sold out and Q3 is not on sale and unlikely to be as its directly below Villa fans in the upper section.
If that happened then surely Hibs would be notifying others that they would have to move to another area in order to accommodate Block 7 in that aforementioned area?
I've not heard of a single incident where that's happened.
That tells me they're already allocated tickets together before they're on sale to others.
Again, how many actual members are there of Block 7? When you see the FFL lower bouncing with 1k they aren't all block 7 and would be in there bouncing no matter what.
The move should have been made well before Block 7 were even a thing. Block 7 are just lucky its their time that coincides whith the move to the FFL.
I've been to hampden a few times with supporters clubs and thats exactly what has happened, everyone who was able to get a ticket provided their reference number to the organiser who passed it on and the ticket office made sure we were all sat together, wasn't anything nefarious or queue jumping or any guarantees, that was pre being able to log on and select a certain seat etc though
What would help these discussions immensely is if one of the main movers and shakers in Block 7 would come on here and give their take on things. That might be the case already, but if it is I cant recall such a poster specifically identifying themselves as such. Even if they were to create a Block 7 profile that they posted under it would help, because there's a number of questions their fellow fans need to see them answer / address.
Q 1 ..... Do you actually have a structure or are you just a disorganised rabble who rock up to Easter Road on matchdays all wearing the same T shirt? If there is a structure, what is it?
Q 2 ..... There's a number of 'your fellow Hibs fans' complaining about being aggressively bumped from their seats at away games and blaming your group for it. What do you intend to do to fix that? Because it's totally unacceptable.
Q 3 ..... Do you have any plan of action to encourage folk to join in with the singing section even if they don't want to be part of the 'ultras' group as such?
The end game has to be a full or nearly full FF lower at most games, are you organised enough that you can come up with practical ideas to make that happen? ... Back in the day when crowds were far lower some radges managed to persuade about 300 kids to get together for a punch up every Saturday ... surely it can't be out of the question to get far bigger numbers to come along to sing and wave flags.
Q 4 ..... Someone suggested that your group contains a fair number of exiled Jambos fleeing Ann Budge's 'Ultras' pogrom .... say it ain't so :greengrin
Anyway .... The folk involved in Block 7 must be aware of the discussions surrounding them and the FF lower on here, and I have no doubt the Hibees Bounce .... Lets hear from you.
I don't think B7 will come on here to comment which is fair enough and it's not their fault if they get priority, who wouldn't take the tickets. They are a good bunch of lads actually, having met a few of them abroad, very well organised.
Maybe there are quite a few of them who are also Hibs First members so will get their tickets together. And then the rest join them at the game which is when the forcing other supporters out their seats comes in to play
No idea, but there was a group of about 10 of them in the pub we were at in Zurich on the Wednesday. Same guys that had been sitting in the broken seated area at Fir Park. There were loads of young team in Lucerne the next day with man bags as well. Didnt ask them all if they were part of B7 though so maybe there weren't that many.
As a Hibs First Member I logged on today at 10.05 am to get our 4 tickets. Couldn't get 4 tickets together in block Q2 (only single seats left) so def something up. Having looked at the stadium plan Q2 def the best seats IMO but cant imagine that whole section had gone after a few minutes.....
I don't see why not mate. It's not as if they are devoid of support on here, there's plenty of folk sympathetic to any group trying to improve the atmosphere at Easter Road, including auld farts like me. But there's also a need for some issues and questions surrounding the group to be addressed and simply just a few things some of us are curious about.
Its not as if posting under a profile name on here will stop them being all mysterious and interesting :greengrin
And does everyone get a ticket when there more fans wanting one than we have available. This was discussed during the loyalty point debates. Without giving priority to B7 or supporters clubs I'm not sure how they could be sat together. The only way I can think is if there are 12k season tickets and 1200 tickets available for Villa Park. That means you have a 1 in 10 chance of a ticket as a ST holder. B7 presumably have some form of membership list and I would give them 10% of the number of members they had at the start of the season and they can sit together. There would be a cross reference to make sure they were all ST holders.
Far too much work so they should take their chances with other fans and the club should do what any club with more regularly fans wanting to go than tickets available. If we are to grow and be more successful then that will happen more often so it is a no brainer.
B7 will be getting tickets put aside for them, there's nothing surer.
Won’t someone think of the seats?
Did someone not pretty much confirm that Block 7 get priority on another thread. Said they weren't a season ticket holder but got tickets for game at Easter Rd before tickets were on sale to season ticket holders.
They have a big part to play tomorrow. Hope they terrify that Argie melt in goals.
You have read the thread about the ticket shambles. That is how I got a ticket through my season ticket holder son and Hibs first member but don't let facts twist your story. I for one think it is pretty pathetic how Hibs fans are turning on other Hibs fans. Actually glad I am in beside them tonight as they look like they will support their team rather than sit and moan about others.
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