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Saints Fans "Fume" Again

As regular readers know I am not a fan of those websites that rehash social media comments as news stories, but this weekend sees an ironic twist as a former "Fumed At" Saint is hailed a hero.

Saints fans are once again fuming and comments like "Joke Decision" "Useless" & "Poor" are common on twitter and the like.

But it is ironical that as yet another soft goal goes in with the keeper being found wanting, perhaps one of the most fumed at Saints players on social media in the last couple of years is hailed as a hero.

Take a bow Fraser Forster who gave a wonder performance for Celtic against Rangers on Sunday to win the Scottish League Cup for his club, not many Celtic fans are fuming, but they are suggesting he should be restored to the England squad and demanding their club sign him on a permanent deal.

Forster is not the only player who has been almost hounded out of the club by a section of fans on social media, some of these we could well do with now, Elyounoussi, Hoedt & to a lesser degree Matt Targett all have been sneered at by that section of fans who like to have a scapegoat, all are doing well away from St Mary's.

Sofiane Boufal is also an example, after being slagged off on social media for all of last season as one of the worst transfer buys the club has ever made and held up as one of the main reasons why Les Reed had to leave the club , a goal in a friendly at Anderlecht suddenly made him the hero of social media with the same fans who were calling him terrible suddenly changing their minds.

This is the problem with social media and when half the stories up about football clubs these days on the internet are basically rehashed twitter comments, it can make it seem like everything is in meltdown.

Latest fume is about the manager and the fact that he is not playing Yan Valery, but has picked Cedric ahead of him. Cedric isn't in great form, but then again nor was Valery, personally I would probably pick Valery, but there is not that much in it and in truth Cedric has been no worse than the rest of those in the back four.

He did not do much wrong at Newcastle and wasn't at fault for the two goals, yet the focus is on him and a section of supporters are looking to blame him for everything.

Truth is that although things aren't great we have come through a lot and back out the other side with our heads still just about above water, we can move forward, but we need to banish negativity and get back to creating a positive atmosphere at the games themselves.

This has been the case in recent weeks, away games have seen great support and the last two home games have seen perhaps the best support in a couple of seasons despite them both being just about the lowest crowds.

Thank God that the Saints supporters at those games in the main want the team to win, want the club to survive and want to try and help them rather than hinder.

So on Saturday we want to forget about social media and get along to the ground with one aim and that is creating a positive atmosphere that will enable the team to play with confidence and be in a position to win.

That doesn't mean everyone has to be singing for 90 minutes, that is not the way that some support their team, but we just need to be positive, focusing on the good points not those not playing.

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