Northern Ireland v Austria

IT’S SOMETIMES GOOD TO SILENCE THE CROWD! I listened to the last Northern Ireland game on BBC Radio Ulster. Match commentator Michael McNamee and co-host John O’Neill are good at describing the scene and analysing the play.

They are much more than fans with microphones and yet they are always sympathetic to us supporters, who tune in willing Norn Iron to do well. I always feel that Michael and John are my pals, who suffer like me when the team struggles and like me are elated when we do well. John O’Neill’s joyful laughter became a source of amusement for satisfied fans in the days when David Healy was banging in goals from all angles. One thing baffled me about the radio commentary last month, however. I could hear the crowd, even though the stadiumwas virtually empty. During a quiet passage of play, Michael and John explained that their radio station had inserted crowd noises. The idea behind this is to add a bit of atmosphere to a game without spectators and to avoid the impression that the game is being played on a deserted pasture in Outer Mongolia or in a disused airfield in the frozen wastes of Siberia. But the strange device of inserted crowd noises reminds me of times when a crowd goes silent spontaneously. Before sending his team out a visiting coach will often tell them to dominate the game right from the beginning and silence the crowd. When home support is silenced, the visitors experience a boost to morale. When we faced Switzerland in the first play-off match for a place in the 2018 World Cup, the Windsor crowd was very noisy before kick-off. Special flags in green and white had been placed in every seat to encourage us to get behind the lads in green even before they took the field. But the Swiss knew the value of silencing the crowd. They took the initiative right from the start of the game in a series of lightning raids on Michael McGovern’s goal. I remember that we went silent as it dawned on us that the Swiss had come to Belfast with a

determination not to be overawed by the occasion and to keep the crowd quiet right from the start. Last September at Windsor the mighty Germans took the field for the second half after an initial 45 minutes in which Northern Ireland had matched them in every department and Conor Washington had twice come within a whisker of giving us the lead. We Northern Ireland fans had made a terrible din as our team showed they were no pushovers. Just before the restart I glanced at the television screen behind me and saw a close-up of the German coach’s expression as he emerged from the dressing room. Joachim Low had a face like thunder! It was plain to me and my German mate, Gunther, that Low had been rebuking his elite squad in most robust language. The Germans came out determined to silence the crowd. And it didn’t take them long. After only three minutes Marcel Halstenberg crashed home an unstoppable left foot volley. Of course we can silence the crowd, too. Think of Gerry Armstrong’s stunning winner against Spain during Espana ‘82. Think of McGinn and Lafferty in September 2014 scoring late goals in Budapest to turn 0-1 into 2-1 and set up a glorious Euro qualifying campaign. Think of Lafferty in Athens a month later outpacing the defence to rifle in a low shot for our second killer goal. Well, what do you think? Is it a good idea to add artificial atmosphere to a match in an empty stadium? I am not convinced. But until the crowds return in the better and safer days that lie in the future we old timers will continue to recall the noises and the silences that make football the thrilling game it is. Words CunninghamPeacock

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