Who has the best home support?

Listening to Andre Villas-Boas’ criticism of the Spurs supporters, after their recent match against Hull City, has got me thinking about which team has the best home support, and how the Upton Park faithful shape up in comparison. Pretty much every sides away support are very vociferous and loud throughout a whole game, but in contrast the home crowd are often quiet and look to wait for their side to produce something to start cheering about.

I have to confess I haven’t been to a huge amount of games away from Upton Park, so I would be interested to hear more travelled fans opinion on other teams home supports. The away grounds I have been to supporting the Hammers are the Emirates, Stamford Bridge, White Hart Lane, Carrow Road, the Madejski Stadium, Craven Cottage and Selhurst Park. With the exception of the Norwich faithful at Carrow Road, every other home support created little or no atmosphere during the game, with only a goal scored by their side seemingly enough to produce some kind of reaction from most of their fans. It was particularly noticeable amongst the Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur support, and I was quite surprised at the lack of intensity of their fans for a London derby. I have only been going to away fixtures in the last couple of seasons, so I don’t know if this is a recent phenomenon or not.

I may be biased in this, but from my perspective the West Ham home support are better than most, and certainly in comparison to the other stadiums I have been to. There is generally some sort of noise being made throughout a game, even if little is happening. That is not to say that we are perfect however. Indeed, I remember in the Championship campaign of a couple of years ago being very annoyed with a section of our support who consistently booed the team during a match if we were struggling to beat lesser opposition. This was at the very least unhelpful, and such pressure arguably contributed to our home form not being as good as expected that season.

Since I’ve been going regularly over the past five or six years, there are also certain sections of supporters who seem to make very little noise during a game, and I would like to see that improve. I personally find it so much more enjoyable to be in a crowd with a great atmosphere. Although our support is better than other clubs I have experienced, there have been few games where the atmosphere is truly electric. The Spurs game at home last season was an exception, which was also the anniversary of Bobby Moore’s death.

Many will argue that it is for the team to produce on the pitch for fans to react in the right way, but I think home supporters in general should make a greater effort to encourage their team, and cut out the negativity when things aren’t going well. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think home supporters have been quieter in more recent times? And how do you think the West Ham home faithful shape up in comparison to other teams?