SAINTS fans who attended a roundtable with the club over the closure of a block at St Mary's have told bosses: "We want the atmosphere back.”

Southampton FC managing director Toby Steele heard first-hand from fans frustrated with the move in the event jointly hosted by the Daily Echo.

Mr Steele and other leading figures revealed how they hope to tackle unruly behaviour, while supporters told how they felt the atmosphere at the ground has suffered since the closure of Block 1 of the Itchen North Stand.

READ MORE: Nearly 200 away fans ejected from St Marys - Saints

"We want to be back where we sit, with our friends, and we want the atmosphere back. We love the club, we're passionate about the club,” one fan said.

While pitch incursions, pyrotechnics, and other forms of anti-social behaviour at football is nothing new, Mr Steele said the focus on Premier League clubs from governing bodies has increased hugely following the ugly events that marred last summer’s Euro 2021 final at Wembley.

But Mr Steele told fans the club could and should have worked more closely with them ahead of the Block 1 closure.

“We will absolutely take away from this that we need to communicate better,” he said.

“We sit here and think ‘nobody knows what we’re doing’. But if we don’t tell you, then you’re going to think it’s only the home fans that are being punished and not the away fans. So rest assured, we will do that (communicate better).”

Saints revealed the problems in Block 1 - that saw its closure and netting put in place - have come from a small number of individuals in a largely well-behaved group.

Possible solutions were discussed in depth - ranging from improved stewarding to the introduction of safe standing, along with the possibility of a wall - as previously reported - or netting being put up between the home and away supporters.

“We’ve looked at a lot here, we’ve looked at all of the options,” Tim Greenwell, chief governance and operations officer at Southampton Football Club, said of how they reached the point of closing Block 1.

“We’ve probably run the full gamut in terms of doing nothing, we pushed back for quite a long time to try and say ‘look, this is okay, it’s improving.’ But we’ve reached a point where we’ve run out of chances and had to look at other things. 

“So we looked at perspex which is kind of okay, we took a look at (how they've done it at) Antwerp but it ends up getting pretty scratched and causing problems for viewing so it’s not ideal.

"Netting to stop the throwing, that might be one that we pick back up. We looked at a wall - basically a double-divide that’s two metres high. 

“For us, it’s probably a two or three-step process. Number one is getting the seg line right and by that probably pinch back some of the away section and create a bigger area where there’s less incentive and it helps with the throwing stuff across.”

Mr Greenwell though was eager to stress that the larger issue has come from supporters surging towards the opposition supporters rather than missiles being thrown.

In terms of how they plan to improve the stewarding at the ground, Greenwell said: “Number one is a big recruitment drive, we’re bringing in about 170 new stewards of our own which gives us the opportunity to work closely with a bigger group so hopefully by next season or the season after, we can eliminate most of (the) agency (staff) we’re using. 

"That means we’ve got people who are familiar with the ground, familiar with the crowd, familiar with different areas of the ground. What it allows us to do is get consistency in response and get people who understand the dynamics of different areas and how they work.

"Training is definitely a big one, to start really making sure that everyone is prepared and knows how to respond in different circumstances.”

However, Mr Steele was eager to point out that there may not be an easy solution to the problems present and encouraged supporters to help bring awareness to the issues.

“A request from our side,” he said. “If you do see behaviour, mention it to a steward - is there something that you can do?

“People that you go within that area, feedback what we’ve said today. We absolutely know it’s not perfect, communication could be better, we know the stewarding could be more consistent, we know we need to work on away fans in the home areas.

"But rest assured we’re doing everything we can to make it the best environment, to make it the safest environment."

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