Home Advantage?
Sep 9, 2006
Author: Corbyhornet

Is playing at home an advantage these days?

Watford’s away form last season was just as good as their home form.

The season before, our home form was woeful until Christmas.

While some away games are well supported we don’t always sell out our allocation, so the argument about having lots of fans present and them making it like having a twelfth man does not really stand up.

Watford took the game to teams away from home rather than just playing on the break last season, and it appears that we’ll do the same again this season. Does this surprise teams? It certainly didn’t seem that Everton were prepared for our attacking style of play and while we lost the game, everyone who saw it would concede that the result was unjust.

On the flip side of this, the two home games have produced two absolutely rocking atmospheres at the Vic and yielded one great performance and one mediocre one – but more significantly only one point. Results at Watford don’t necessarily point to the fact that being at The Vic to play is a particular advantage!

So how do all teams make home advantage count? Do you need to find a particular routine that clicks into a winning formula? What do The ‘Orns do on away match days that is different to home match days? Maybe it could be down to the fact that the players turn up to away games together on a coach, whereas at home games they arrive separately in their cars?

Does this dilute that feeling of togetherness? Does it take the edge off of that feeling of being in it together?

Aidy says that preparation to detail is the key, and maybe this is the sort of areas of preparation that we as a team now need to look into to make everything “click” every week.

Moving away from Watford on this particular subject and onto other teams, Arsenal will be an interesting team to watch with regard to home advantage this season. They now have a sparkling new stadium which is similar to Old Trafford. Will this give Man Utd a distinct advantage when they go visiting?

The other point is routine for the Gunners. Whether they feel it has or not the routine changes – going to a different venue, longer walk to the pitch, larger spacious dressing rooms making that feeling of togetherness perhaps less prevalent.

These will all take some getting used to and those players that were first team regulars last season will feel for the time being that they are playing away from home. Added to that the pitch at the Emirates is a whopping 30ft wider than the one at Highbury was.

Remember a few seasons ago when Arsenal played their home Champions league games at Wembley? What a disaster that turned out to be – so much so that the “experiment” lasted a very short time and Champions league games returned to Highbury pronto!

Talking of Wembley, I’ve noticed that the FA seems to have made Old Trafford the national team’s temporary home. Why? Because the atmosphere is similar and England have done quite well playing there. I would concede that there is also a financial advantage to playing there considering it is the biggest stadium in England!

Wimbledon / Milton Keynes Dons, call them what you will are another example that suggests that being at home could be an advantage. AFC Wimbledon has made their “peoples Stadium” a fortress in their rise up the leagues since formation.

Conversely MK Dons have lodged at various locations including their current home and have gradually slid down the leagues.
They now appear settled at The National Hockey stadium and results (and manager change) seem to have taken a noticeable upturn. What will happen, I wonder, when they move to the much larger stadium in Denbigh? The appointment of Martin Allen and the adoption of his preparatory methods could signal good news for MK Dons as his team last season – Brentford – picked up one more point away from home than at home.

Merely being at home is, I conclude, therefore not an advantage. You have to make a stadium your home.

The question is how does The Vic get made more of a home? How does it get made a place that away teams don’t “fancy” playing at? How can we, the fans influence that in a greater way than we already do?