Okay, we've all had our say. We've criticised, certainly on this site, when we thought it was due. Sometimes we've been angry, sometimes disappointed. We've even seen fit to offer Uncle Stan our advice, while always, knowing the sort of bloke he is, being fully aware that he won't listen to anyone else and he'll do it his own away anyway!
And here we are now: six games left to play, third in the table (or fourth once justice is done and West Brom get the points Warnock tried to cheat them from), two inspirational new signings last week and Turf Moor tickets selling faster than the proverbial. You just get a sense that the push is on. The surge is beginning.
And we're used to the surge. Let's take a moment to recall those surges under Stan:
1999 - From facing relegation to safety with games to spare.
2000 - From hoping we'd make the play-offs to automatic promotion on the last day of the season.
2001 - From bumping around in mid table to the very edge of the play-offs.
2002 - What next?
You can't help but notice too that, in the Reign of Stan, each season we have finished higher than the season before. This is progress, and that is, ultimately, all we can ask for. If each season you do better than the last season, then you're entitled to your minor gripes, but really you have to be happy. So if we finish sixth or higher, we've improved on a season that we all agreed was brilliant last year, and that will be great. As a bonus, we'll have got into the play-offs, too! It's important not to mistake this for actually going up of course, but then one of those four teams has to do it.
So here's my deal: I'm putting the gloves back on. The criticism is being dispensed with for a while. For the rest of the season, I'm going to do my bit. I'll do my best to get behind them. I'm going to do what the patronising teenagers who run the official site are constantly telling us to do, and 'keep the faith'. I'm ready to believe - for a while.
The carping is over, at least for this season. This is not to say I'm pretending that everything is perfect. Whilst Stan is always - alright, mostly - right, not many of the performances on the pitch since December have been the sort you can take heart from. But we have good players - never doubt that - who will have been given a lift by the recent arrivals. Had those arrivals come sooner - but let's not go down that road again. And true, the club's attitude towards supporters is still flawed - it views the fans with paternalism and expects gratitude when they 'do things for' us - but at least we don't have the civil war of a few years back. In any case, I know that most of you don't give a toss what happens off the pitch so long as we win on it, and of course they know that too. I still think our role as supporters is to act as a watchdog and constantly challenge the club, but there you go.
We'll come back to that in the summer. It's just here we are, poised once more, and now is not the time to doubt. We can do this, you know. We can get into the play-offs. (It would be great if we could wrap up play-off qualification nice and early and cruise towards April. When it comes to the play-offs, I always fancy the sides that know they're there and have time to relax.) If we can go into the play-offs on form and in good spirit, who'd argue against us? I reckon we could do anyone we're likely to come up against with the right attitude over both legs.
I regard this as a sort of living performance art experiment. For the next six games, I aim to turn my act of supporting into a piece of art. I am not going to criticise. I'm going to cheer them on at all times. And then at the end, I'll know if it makes any difference. Finally, after this experiment, we'll know if 'getting behind them' works. I'll report back at the end of the season and let you know.
So, for once, and for the purposes of this experiment, I'm going to embrace an old cliché. Let's get behind them, get up there and go for it. Let's wind up the atmosphere, cheer them on as much as we can, and play our part in the surge. Let's suspend our disbelief, and will it into being. For the next half-dozen games, let's join that surge.
I want to believe, and for that reason, my cynicism is now on hold. I'll enjoy having a good moan when we get to May, though.
