Part of the nature of us football fans; is to criticise our club, team, management, referees, officials and administrators. It’s an inherent part of the game and the phenomenon has carried through to the relatively new forum, provided by the message boards of NL club websites.

Most of the message boards on these websites all have their share of "Sack the Manager / Chairman / Board" type of postings. The abilities, prowess and fitness – or lack thereof – of many players also attracts plenty of critical analysis. Another popular topic from the terraces, which is also debated with much gusto and in no uncertain terms, is, the visual impairment, lineage and solitary sexual habits of the match officials.

All this is part of the game and apart from the different regimes of censorship from the various webmasters with regard to really explicit bad language and racist postings, the principle of ‘freedom of expression’ is liberally applied.

All very fine - criticism, particularly that of a constructive nature, is a necessary part of any system of checks and balances. But, what really bugs me is the constant carping and faultfinding by some individuals, without any practical intent of productive suggestion. It’s all very well to run-off a litany of what’s wrong with your club and to list out changes to be made. However, it’s rarely quite as simplistic as that.

Without getting in to the pro & cons of the merits of some key figures at Shelbourne F.C., one particular call -which I’ve seen a couple of times recently on Shelsweb - really amuses me.

It’s the call – "Sack the Chairman".

• Why ?
• What objections are there to the new chairman, who is in place less than a year ?
• What has he done wrong, apart from succeed a popular predecessor ?
• Did the person(s) calling for his head, go along to the meeting open to all supporters, where he or she had an opportunity to ask questions, to discuss or to make criticisms on a ‘head to head’ basis ?
• Are these particular critics aware of – and thus possibly empowered to criticise – the plans and policies of the new chairman ?

Presumably, most of us criticise, because we love and care about our club. If you care enough about some particular aspect, to go to the trouble of composing, logging-on and posting your comments, then why not care enough to follow it through and do something positive. You might be critical about the way the buses to away matches are run. If so, why not volunteer to help run, organise and improve this service.

How many regular online critics and knockers attended the Supporter’s Club AGM ?

Did any of them identify themselves and speak-up ? – I don’t think so.

My own personal view from this Soapbox is -