Walsall Blog - Back to the Fortress

Throughout the summer the club have been conducting a kind of advertising campaign utilising the latest, up to the minute, state of the art technology.

Namely, super-imposing pictures of manager Chris Hutchings and assistant Marin O'Connor onto a film poster background.

This is accompanied by the slogan 'Back to the Fortress,' a reference to the 'Welcome to Fortress Bescot' sign that appeared in the players' tunnel circa 2003.

At the time I always regarded that sign with a combination of incredulity and embarrassment. Similar emotions to those brought on by the tiny minority of Upper Gilbert regulars mooing at lorries and Colin Lee's tactics.

It begs the question - 'when exactly has Bescot Stadium ever really been a fortress?'

Obviously there have been big games where the atmosphere has been tremendous – all four visits of Leeds spring to mind, from 1995 when they were really a big club right up to last Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to their visit in 2010/11.

Some of the mega derby battles of the late 1990' and early in this decade were also memorable, as were the play-off semis and - for older readers - big cup ties.

But the ill-thought out design of the stadium, the removal of the terraces and the subsequent high roof of the new stand all contribute to the lack of a red-hot atmosphere that is often associated with smaller stadiums.

And when have we had the best home records?

Surprise surprise, it's been when we've had promotion-winning teams in the bottom division or when Ray Graydon was in charge.

Bizarrely it was also quite good at the end of the Paul Merson era – check out the stats, you'll be amazed!

So Bescot can be a fortress if we play lots of crap teams week in and week out, or we have a group of players and a manager that collectively never know when they're beaten, or we've got a big game on.

Assuming we don't want to go back to the days of the first option, then it's up to the club to create the conditions where the latter two can happen. Somehow, I have my doubts that a poster campaign alone is going to be enough.

I've not yet mentioned the effect of numbers through the turnstiles on creating a 'fortress.' Out of all the teams in our league, we had the lowest crowd for our opening fixture and - whilst 8,433 the other night wasn't bad - it could have been a lot better.

Clearly the problems that affected attendances last year have yet to be resolved. Not that there aren't some efforts being made.

I was pleasantly surprised to get an e-mail from the club on Wednesday morning thanking me for my support at the Leeds game and encouraging me to return soon. There were also positive comments from manager Chris Hutchings about the support.

The price reductions for the Bury cup game, free for under-16's, are most welcome too. But it remains to be seen what impact these efforts will actually have on crowds.

We do seem to be stuck in a Catch 22 situation though. We won't ever really have a chance of creating a fortress until all the fans believe in the club.

A current record of 11 wins out of the last 48 at home isn't going to help the situation much either. I can cross my fingers and hope things get better, other people can actually do something about it.

Fingers crossed then.