jerryk

Sorry, that's not right. We arranged 5 or 6 of these over 2 and a bit seasons. The first few were very promising but petered out mainly due to the participants had to be members, you had to plan each one months in advance, you were at the mercy of fixture date changes and the club's ticketing system hindered placing like minded groups in 'hubs' to generate noise. We didn't have social networking to advertise but were backed by cfcuk, cfcnet, csg, vital football and others and to be fair, the club. And it struggled. Maybe Twitter will help, hopefully. The Shed 100 was only a pre cursor to 2,000 ST holders returning to the Shed, which we managed to achieve. Remember how bad it was before then. That said, it's great that someone like yourself is picking up the Reins trying to improve further, hopefully with fresh ideas. this might help you We had a long term plan, presented to the club Over many months but couldn't quite push them through. These included - concentrate efforts for the 90 mins, when it really counts. Noise over colour every time. - colour before the game is great but doesn't generally help once you KO - engage with the club to be proactive, not reactive. We found them to be the latter - acoustics in MH (club thought ok) - unreserved seating / safe standing (club not keen at the time) - position of away fans (done to death) - encourage the youth to attend more often - develop a ticketing system which encourages good (it doesn't) - develop a community, sense of togetherness (what you're doing here) the guys on this committee are now mostly on the cfctrust board so the likes of Dave Johnstone, Neil Beard, Cliff Auger etc would surely be able to help you. I can put you in touch with them if you don't have their contact details. I wish you all the best. Happy to help where possible but it's not going to be easy or a short term fix. Jerry @jerrykend

The week in 75 starting with the 2-0 defeat at WHL was the worst for me. Horrible day from start to finish. New manager, new players, chaos, aggro before, during and after - the lot. Stood in the Shelf with 3 mates watching the home crowd baying for blood. Got home in one piece but that wouldn't change the result. Big, big danger of not staying up. Too young to be allowed to go to the midweek match v Sheff Utd (D 1-1) but back to the Bridge for Everton on the last day. Another 1-1 draw but this time the reality of relegation finally sank in. Never felt anything like it before or since. I suppose you feel it more as a kid. Plenty of disappointments since for sure, as the posters above have mentioned. Other relegations hard to take, although we knew our fate in 78/79 by around Xmas (God bless ye, Danny boy). 88 was such a shock to most of us. 94 Cup Final was sooo disappointing. Maybe we shouldn't have expected too much that day. If only Gavin had . . . Good one about the 72 LC Final and Orient debacle. Weren't they within a week of each other? Following the team away and losing by big margins (didn't go to Rotherham or some of the other embarrasments, luckily). You got used to them after a while but it hurt. CC defeat last season was a disappointing day on so many levels. On a player level, the transfers of Ray Wilkins and Pat Nevin showed us the demoralising direction the club was heading in at the time. I'm sure there are more (e.g. Osgood) Oh yes, the various Champs League disappointments. Probably the 2nd defeat to Liverpool was the worst for me as I think Jose played it too cautiously. Monaco away not far behind. Caution would have been handy that night! Like me, I'm sure you can rack up dozens, both old and new. It's depressing, this thread! But NONE of these outweigh the feeling I had after Frank smashed the second in that 2-0 win at Bolton - to make a hard nosed Londoner like me in his forties weep in his chair for most of that evening. Makes it all worthwhile, eh?

If you say you're going to win every year then I suppose one day you might be right and you can say "I told you so". Let's face it, he's been wrong every time so far, hasn't he (as has everybody else)? Will they park the bus, or surprise us with a counter attacking game plan? I've got a suspicion for the latter, with them starting brightly and us coming on strong. I'd love an early goal for us to bring them out of their shell. A game of patience is required both on and off the pitch. Bring yer colours and sing up!

Who's your campaigner Loz and do you have any info on what is he/she up to? Wouldn't it be great to pool our resources on this? We've got CSG/BAWA & cfcuk working with us on this and between us we've made a difference. The more the merrier IMO.

Hi Loz, For the record, can I say that this isn't about punting a forum at all. I'm just a fan who got fed up with the near silent atmos in the early part of last season and decided to do something about it. Yes, I moderate for CFCnet but in this instance this is immaterial, although it has given me the means to publicise our various campaigns and get closer to the movers and shakers at the club. We've got the BAWA, CSG, vital football and cfcuk organisations onside with this. These guys are all represented on the Fans forum (which is how we got together) so we take a united front when asking the club for things, such as publicity on the big screens or in TOCFCWS. Re the contributions for banners, it's just that the larege ones are so dear so we thought we'd give this a try. Please contribute what you can. The Shed 50 experiment was such a good laugh last season and the fans stood out a mile in the Shed. We're hoping for a repeat with the Shed 100 so the more the merrier, regardless of which forum/group you come from. As you can see, I don't want to leave any supporters' groups out of this. Just want a cracking atmosphere in the Shed, then we can try things to get the rest of the ground buzzing too. If it doesn't work, then at least we can say we have tried, then somebody else can have a go.

Hi all, You may be interested in these latest updates from the Return to the Shed Campaign, which is basically being reproduced online and in print everywhere we can get it published. We've got a number of things on the go, so please read on and join in any way you can! RETURN TO THE SHED ATMOSPHERE UPDATES Here's an update on what's been going on recently and details of how YOU can help to boost the atmosphere at the Bridge. A lot has happened in the Summer! Big Bang for opening home games This affects everybody. Before we talk about the Shed, what about the fans in the MH end? In fact anyone, wherever you are in the ground who gets behind the team. You're doing a great job, keep it going and hopefully the various Shed campaigns will mean you get some help at last. If we don't lose against Birmingham, the record we set for going 64 matches unbeaten at home will be magnificent. So, let's create history together. If you're reading this in the run up to the game, bring as much colour with you as you can - scarves, flags, banners, balloons etc. Arrive at the ground early and get behind the team vocally. Let's create a "Big Bang" with the new Shed enders and make sure we bag this record and extend it against Portsmouth. Club Shed For those who don't already know, the Club Shed concept is a community of fans which attempts to build on the "Return to the Shed Campaign" and "Shed 50" trial from last season. With thousands of new ST holders and hundreds of members wanting to buy tickets in the Shed end, what better way is there to keep in touch with fellow fans who want to get behind the team together and enjoy their day out at the Bridge? Club Shed is free to join and be a part of. You can be a ST holder, member or occasional Shed Ender - it doesn't matter. All you have to do is participate in the forums and/or share ideas with your fellow fans, but most of all, get behind the team in any way you can. Ideas from new/old songs, banner purchases, meeting for a drink before/after matches, bringing colour into the ground and much more will be discussed. Check out the forum at http://www.returntotheshed.co.uk and please join in! More Banners - Come on! The football club challenged the atmosphere committee during the summer to encourage fans to bring more flags and banners into the ground. You may have seen articles about this in the summer but if not, there are two ways in which YOU can join in. Firstly, organise flags and banners yourselves - the more the merrier. There are loads of suppliers around who can provide cheap solutions, but a couple to mention are http://www.eclipseflags.co.uk or http://www.barmyflags.co.uk. However, if you want to help us make a bigger impact and contribute to larger designs with fellow fans, take a look at the Club Shed website at http://www.returntotheshed.co.uk and click on the "Shed End Banners - Vote and Contribute" thread. Here, you will be able to vote on the best design(s) and contribute to the cost, preferably via Paypal. Alternatively, drop Pete an email at [email protected] for more details on how to vote and donate. We're looking to have the first of the new banner(s) in the ground for the Blackburn game, so please get voting and contributing as soon as you can. Shed "100" v Blackburn Rovers - Sat Sept 15th - MEMBERS ONLY Following on from the successful "Shed 50" trial v Bolton back in April, we're going for a repeat, but this time on a larger scale. For the Blackburn game, we have arranged with the Club for 100 Shed Upper seats to be allocated to fans (MEMBERS ONLY) who consider themselves to be vocal, want to get behind the team with like minded fellow fans and generally be part of a great day. The Bolton trial was really successful, with people meeting up both before and after and everyone contributing to the atmosphere in the Shed Upper. They really made a difference, so double the amount of fans, together with the new ST holders should make for a cracking atmosphere. Everyone who participated that day felt they contributed to something special. If you are a member and want to be involved, register your interest now. We have to submit the final list of fans by COP Monday, 13 August, so please hurry. To register, visit the Club Shed forum on http://www.returntotheshed.co.uk and add your name(s) to the Shed 100 thread (you will need to register on the site). Alternatively, please contact Pete at [email protected] asap. Pete is doing a magnificent job in managing these initiatives. If this extended trial also works, we can think of expanding it further as the season progresses.

Hi everyone, I've come late into this one so apologies. I am running the "return to the Shed" campaign and have also helped with the "Shed 50" initiative. I happen to be on the CFCnet site most of the time but first and foremost I'm a long-standing fan, like many on here, who has been dismayed about the drop in atmosphere and wanted to try to do something about it. What this campaign has done, if nothing else, is to bring the question of atmosphere into the spotlight for most Chelsea fans. Everybody is aware that we don't want to make things manufactured, false or naff, but sometimes you have to go close to the line to kick things off. A perfect case is the "Shed 50". This wasn't necessary 20 or more years ago, but we live in different times now. So many fans who want to sing are dotted around the ground in their twos and threes, therefore making a groundswell of noise impossible to generate. We're just trying to bring 'em together a bit, with or without the club's help. I agree it's sad it has come to this, but that's no reason not to do it, because the alternative is a dead quiet stadium. It doesn't have to be the only answer, although we hope to turn the 50 into 500 at some point (wouldn't that be good?) but it is an idea nonetheless. Manufactured? possibly, but once in place it can be left to its own devices. False? Nah, fans singing can't be. Naff, don't think so either. This bunch were brilliant on Saturday. You could spot them a mile off. I bet the Shed hasn't had such a diversity of songs sung for many a year and that's just with 40 or so of them. We could really do with something similar in the West Lower but this is full of ST holders, making it harder. What does anyone suggest we do? There are so many things that can be tried all around the ground regarding noise, clolour and identity, but we need the fans to be positive about this. Ideas like Strolling are of course not everybody's cup of tea, but the lad championing it has put time, money and effort into the idea so deserved our support. I've been going on and off since I was a kid of 6 in the late sixties but had never heard it once, but that's not a reason not to try it,surely, if a committed fan thinks it's a good idea and might work? The Shed campaign is just about a bunch of fans trying to make a difference. If we can think of ideas to improve West/East, and also get the MH end to sing more in unison, when we'll have done our job. Nobody is saying that any of this will be easy, but the alternative of doing nothing will soon revert us back to the pin-drop days before Christmas. The 42 people who turned up almost to a man/woman, had a great time during the match and many did likewise before and after. As hoped, new bonds were made and these guys will be up for it bigtime the next time we try a version of the Shed 50/100 etc. We have high hopes of expanding this to as many as we can so if you are a member who likes to sing (but not on their own) and is committed to getting behind the team and maybe enjoying your day out more, why not join up? If you want more info or want to join up for next season. Please get in touch with either me or Pete Bull [email protected] [email protected]