Holmesdale Fanatics

[eaglesdare]

Yep. I just don't understand it when Selhurst is referred to as a fortress, and it's a difficult place to come etc.
I've not seen any statistics, but I wouldn't mind betting that our home form is one of the worst in the football pyramid, let alone the Premier League.

Last season we had 4 home wins in the league! West ham had 6 spurs and wolves 3 and burnley 2.

 

[ASCPFC]

I don't think that will fly in court.

Still, it's my entire case.

 

[StandbyPalace]

In balance I think the HF have done more good than bad.

I've always been more pro than anti.

But...this ' statement ' comes across as somewhat ageist. In a stadium largely filled with season ticket holders, people such as myself, pushing 70, have paid our dues down the years and have more right to our places than the HF themselves.

Fair. I'm sure they were happy to accept dosh from the older fans when they were looking for donations.

 

[Steve Coops]

I have noticed most home clubs have flags and banners when the teams come out the holmesdale should get together and start something new with vocal support around the ground as well
Thanks HF but properly time for something new and for the fans to be more together instead of fighting and arguing with each other 🦅

 

[ASCPFC]

Time for the Arthur to step up.

 

[Phil’s Barber]

I wonder what this will mean for their ‘Away’ ticket allocation?

Presumably as there’s no HF anymore then there will be no special allocation either.

 

[Part Time James]

Time for the Arthur to step up.

Horizontal tifos.

 

[BromleyMonkey]

They’re hypocrites, they say lifelong fans are not prioritised by clubs anymore, well they ousted lifelong fans of 21 years from the seats they occupy now

They cause the club more grief than they’re worth, what noise they create doesn’t help the team, our home form has been poor for years

 

[derfes]

Define "normies" what is normal anyway? Nigel Farage went to Dulwich College is he more your type of "normie"? Your message is quite offensive in fact. The "lefties" as you remark are already loud and proud at Palace. Do you know the club had a float at the London LGBT pride this year. And at least three Stonewall FC players are Palace fans. So you are far far too late! 🤣

Normally normal is defined as within 2 standard deviations of a mean value, which in the context of human characteristics , themselves normally normally distributed,means within 95% of a population . Normies are therefore those people within that 95%. Since you mentioned LGBT i think it fair to mention the 2021 uk census had that subpopulation at 3.2% well below what we might normally call normal sexuality. But as for football teams you would imagine a team playing national front fc to skew solidly far right so the same inference is applied to stonewall fc as would be applied to dupfc or snpfc or fabian society fc. Etc etc.
On farage , his party seems to be on track to get between 20-25% of the vote which clears the 5% threshold for normality provided above.

I think you mistake a delight in the via media of the palace fanbase which leads to a broader, more moderate , and wider fanbase than hamlet (with the escape from politics that provides most normal people ), with inner london skewing left and outer london and the home counties skewing right for a rejection of those like the hf or yourself whose politics skew leftwards.

 

[Gary St.Andrews]

I read it as wanting all the old people to be stopped from going to matches as the hf collectively throw their toys out of their enormous pram in an attempt to get their own way again!!

No coincidence that it’s done on the eve of the first home game of the season!!

And if I can have my old seat back (that I had for 21 seasons) in block E I’d be most grateful!!

Yes I am one of those old gits that stood in the paddocks in the Arthur Wait watching us grind out a result against Huddersfield Town in front of a whopping 4000 + crowd. Some might say “ I’m a boomer or worse “

 

[mezzer]

In balance I think the HF have done more good than bad.

I've always been more pro than anti.

But...this ' statement ' comes across as somewhat ageist. In a stadium largely filled with season ticket holders, people such as myself, pushing 70, have paid our dues down the years and have more right to our places than the HF themselves.

Don't know how you can look yourself in the mirror Neil, what with your old man ways driving these youngsters away.
Have to admit that the song I dread starting is the Stand Up if you love Palace thing. I'm so old now I'm only just getting to my feet by the time everyone else is sitting down again, a bit like Corporal Jones standing to attention.

 

[MJ_Palace]

This is a huge shame and a massive negative for the club and us other fans.

Those who dislike or hate the HF to me are like those who dislike or hate parish... Cant win with some people.

Without them either way the match day atmosphere is going to struggle.

When they protested a few years ago and missed a game or 2 the atmosphere was absolutely dreadful. Not to mention the fact the Manager, new players and future players might enjoy the HF being part of what they're buying in to.

So to those who are happy about it... I hope you enjoy sitting in silence at Selhurst 🥱

 

[Part Time James]

Don't know how you can look yourself in the mirror Neil, what with your old man ways driving these youngsters away.
Have to admit that the song I dread starting is the Stand Up if you love Palace thing. I'm so old now I'm only just getting to my feet by the time everyone else is sitting down again, a bit like Corporal Jones standing to attention.

I dread the "weak bladder" (to the tune of the Blackadder theme tune) song being sung while I make my way to frequent lav breaks.

 

[BromleyMonkey]

So to those who are happy about it... I hope you enjoy sitting in silence at Selhurst 🥱

If the team are attacking and playing well the atmosphere will be electric, the manufactured noise of the hf won’t be needed. And if we’re not playing well and/or losing a lot of us can do without the constant drone of that poxy drum and megaphone anyway

 

[TheBigToePunt]

I used to love the HF and was proud of our Ultras. I personally felt that them sitting together for the Watford playoff final was instrumental. Watford fans commented on how uncoordinated their support was. When I bought a season ticket I bought it in the block above Block B so I could be near the noise but not committed to it.

Lately though, I disagree that they earned us extra points at home. Relentlessly drumming though both the ups and downs of a game, it felt almost laboured. Like a chore more than support. Perhaps that's how they feel based on the statement.

Having sat in most places around Selhurst, I've never found the sound carried much either. If you're in the Whitehorse you can often only hear a distant drum beat (admittedly because you're nearer to the away support). That's not the HF's fault, but they weren't able to orchestrate the support of a whole stadium, their singing was often quite isolated.

I disagree wholeheartedly with them bringing political crusades to games. They have also seemed to try to hold the club to ransom on multiple occasions to get what they want. That self importance cannot be ignored.

I'd like to think the support can return to the oohs, aahs and gasps in reaction to the game and not just someone banging a drum like he's bored.

Thanks for all you did HF, but I am not particularly bothered.

Some very good points here.

One of the banes of modern football is the almost inevitable presence of a droning, monotonous f***ing drum. Firstly, it's just irritating; being in a football ground with a drummer is like being on a train with some bellend's phone blaring away.

Secondly, the drum is symptomatic of the notion of 'support' as wall-to-wall chanting unrelated to what is happening on the pitch. I kind of get that. It's sort of saying that we as fans will create the atmosphere for the benefit of the players, rather than wait for the players to do something that gets us going. Going back to the 90s we used to chant "Stevie Coppell's Red and Blue Army' endlessly on repeat. The idea of the drumming is not so very different, except for one key thing. As you say, it dominates.

Whereas the 'Red and Blue Army' chant would naturally give way to chants of 'Eagles' or to other songs, the drum just seems to prevent that, or at least compete with it. It's like the HF see the drum led chant as the only legitimate one. I think it maybe discourages the rest of the ground from singing and so, overall, lessens vocal support.

Also, even constant regular chants will naturally give way to roars of encouragement or anger in response to events. That's got to be more influential to the players, surely? When Zaha would get the ball and a roar of encouragement would go around the ground, that's got to affect his mindset, and that of the defending fullback? The same for refs, and so on. It feels like the constant drumming, unrelated to the game, undermines that organic, responsive support and it's influence.

Cast your mind back to us beating Chelsea at selhurst about 12 years ago, when John Terry scored an own goal. Around that time the atmosphere was unreal, with chants and songs spreading around the whole ground and the team seeming to genuinely benefit from the support. I'm not sure if the chanting was starting from the HF and spreading, or something more organic, but there was certainly lots of signing in the Arthur that didn't seem to take its lead from the Holmesdale. Those were the very best days. I feel like a drum just acts against that. It's too organised, too regimented, too dominant.

For these reasons, the drumming is kind of symptomatic of what feels like an undue self importance, and lack of self awareness, on the part of the HF. I'll be happy to see the back of it.

 

[Mattconrov]

Define "normies" what is normal anyway? Nigel Farage went to Dulwich College is he more your type of "normie"? Your message is quite offensive in fact. The "lefties" as you remark are already loud and proud at Palace. Do you know the club had a float at the London LGBT pride this year. And at least three Stonewall FC players are Palace fans. So you are far far too late! 🤣

I think his message was actually very inclusive and positive.

Communism is extreme and radical and would put a lot of people off being involved with such like.

I didn’t think his post was in anyway anti LGBT. Reading his comments it looked like he isn't keen on communism. A pretty sensible and "normie" attitude.

Edit

Derfes never said "lefties" in any of his comments.

I get this a lot with people misquoting me on here. Very annoying. Lol

 

[JRW2]

Dulwich hamlet are the st pauli's of south london. Afc wimbledon's localism+ cooperativism vibes is better imo.

When you proudly display communist flags alongside playing stonewall fc there is a real sense of the hamlet being left on economics and down (compass wise) of culture. Wheras my politics lie somewhere a bit more normal. Obviously i want hamlet to continue to be a place for those kinda folks so palace can be itself a place for the normies.

Thank you for replying to my post - but I have to say I'm none the wiser. I will just say that a very old friend of mine who supported Palace for decades, but gave up because of what he saw as the growing greed, cheating and cynicism in the game, transferred his allegiance to the Hamlet. He now loves the place and talks fondly of its family atmosphere. As for "localism", the club provides a feature for every edition of the local free magazine. Politically he's right of centre - i.e., what you would presumably define as "normal" - as would I for that matter!

 

[Eagleman13]

This is a huge shame and a massive negative for the club and us other fans.

Those who dislike or hate the HF to me are like those who dislike or hate parish... Cant win with some people.

Without them either way the match day atmosphere is going to struggle.

When they protested a few years ago and missed a game or 2 the atmosphere was absolutely dreadful. Not to mention the fact the Manager, new players and future players might enjoy the HF being part of what they're buying in to.

So to those who are happy about it... I hope you enjoy sitting in silence at Selhurst 🥱

What gives you the right to brand people like that, you have no idea what people are & what they think, we now know what you think tho.

 

[StandbyPalace]

I think his message was actually very inclusive and positive.

Communism is extreme and radical and would put a lot of people off being involved with such like.

I didn’t think his post was in anyway anti LGBT. Reading his comments it looked like he isn't keen on communism. A pretty sensible and "normie" attitude.

Edit

Derfes never said "lefties" in any of his comments.

I get this a lot with people misquoting me on here. Very annoying. Lol

I think youre being kind but anyways. Dulwich is part of Southwark Council is run by the Lib dems and the Greens. I really dont think all left leaning folk can be pigeonholed as communists, well apart from some Reform or Trump supporters but who listens to them anyway.
In relation to his/her mention of Stonewall FC, The Proud and Palace fan group has I believe 200-300 members and has a representatve on the Fan Advisory Board as do other groups.
Palace is a club for all.

 

[Linford]

I don't think that will fly in court.

I hold Marinakis in contempt... of football.