How to create an atmosphere at modern day matches – At last I found a good use for the wooden rattle | OneFootball

At the end of the 2022 season I watched a video on twitter, it was filmed from a distance and the noise being generated from St James’ Park on a Monday evening was phenomenal.

The return of Wor Flags and the renewed belief of our supporters created an atmosphere that most clubs can only dream of.

On that evening Newcastle ended the hopes of Arsenal for Champions League football and cemented our place as a force in the Premier League.

Having been to a few home games that season I knew first-hand what the atmosphere could be like at St James’ Park. So what is it that can create an atmosphere within a football stadium?

Many years ago, I did my teacher training at a school in South East London. The outstanding thing that I took from my six months of working with some of the country’s most economically deprived youngsters, was I made a rattle. Not a baby’s rattle… but the real old fashioned football wooden rattle. A device known since biblical times but coming into its own in the middle of the last century.

Used by air raid wardens in the Second World War, it found its niche at football grounds in the post-war years. A mixture of hardwood, softwood and extra thin birch plywood and a couple of spring washers. I have always loved looking at old pictures and film of times gone by at the football, as well as in my early teens fascinated at the media and the hyperbolic stories of hooliganism and violence.

The rattle was actually banned from some football stadia in the nineteen seventies as it could be used as a weapon. It all fits in to the social history and fabric of football which I love to learn about. All seen by me, through the lens of Newcastle United.

So I have observed grainy images and footage of supporters with rattles but what is the modern day equivalent?

Some time back, the Sheffield Wednesday supporters introduced a brass band into their Spion Kop to create an atmosphere and the band went on to be part of the England supporters set-up. Now familiar at England away games. Their choice of tunes leads the supporters on to the, in my opinion, bigoted little Englander, and anti-German chants as well as the repetitive and twisted bizarre patriotism of Rule Britannia and the National Anthem.

At the 2010 World Cup there were the Vuvuzelas, that some people have likened to the England football brass band. Vuvuzelas unsurprisingly have also been banned from some football grounds. This deafening noise simply killed the atmosphere with their monotonous sound. I am no England fan but watching on TV the incessant noise was just simply irritating.

I have been to a couple of Serie A games (Inter and Roma) in the past, where the atmosphere was electric, the home support had drums and used megaphones to lead the chanting, and quite impressive it was too.

Down in South London, the Holmesdale Road End “Ultras” try to emulate this, and I enjoy their commitment and effort, but after being to games in Italy there is really no comparison. Even my fourteen year old daughter at her first away game commented how quiet the Palace fans were, and how loud we were, we didn’t need drums.

I have been to see Fulham on a few occasions in the last few years and it was there that I first experienced the paper clackers. Used by supporters to make a noise and supposedly create an atmosphere. Leicester I believe were also providing paper clackers to their supporters to try and create an atmosphere, and they ended up winning the League! Surprised Leicester and Fulham didn’t hand out inflatable cheering sticks.

I don’t think Newcastle supporters need brass bands, drums, megaphones or clackers. A good few beers in the belly pre match will do.

The wooden rattle that I made, I took down to a Dulwich Hamlet game a while back, and it’s only use was to create the most annoying noise possible (A 1950s version of the vuvuzela I reckon. The middle class Peckham hipsters, who didn’t have a clue what it was or what had hit them, moved away from us, suitably appalled. Thus allowing me, my good mate, and our kids to get a perfect, pitch side view of the game.

At last I had found a good use and reason for the wooden rattle.