Iron boss Andy Butler has clarified his powerful post-match message to a minority of “negative” supporters, where he claimed fans who “want people to fail” should “stay at home”.
Speaking after Monday’s hard-fought draw with Halifax, an impassioned Butler told critics to stay away if they couldn’t be positive, contrasting their attitude with the “magnificent” support from the majority of the crowd.
“I don’t want negativity. It’s not what we want as a football club,” he said in his post-match interview. “If you want to be negative, stay at home. Type on your keyboard and stay away, because I don’t want you here.”
In a follow-up interview with BBC Radio Humberside ahead of the Iron’s tricky trip to Brackley, Butler doubled down on his comments but added context to his passionate plea.
“I still stand by what I said,” Butler stated. “I don’t want people to say you can’t have opinions. That’s not what I’m saying. It’s the other side of it where it becomes a constant barrage of negative impact on players.”
Adkins influence
The Iron boss explained that his belief in the power of a positive environment is something he learned during his playing days at Scunthorpe, citing the influence of former manager Nigel Adkins.
“Even going back to Nigel Adkins when Nigel was here and he was my manager, everything was positive, positive, positive,” Butler recalled.
“That’s the kind of atmosphere I want. We want to give all the negative comments to the opposition. Let them feel the pressure from our fans, not our players.”
Defining the Line
Butler elaborated on the criticism he feels “crosses the line,” pointing to a persistent “I told you so” attitude from a small number of fans after a player makes a mistake.
“In life, people make mistakes,” he explained. “You’re going to make a mistake, but you don’t need someone behind you saying, ‘Told you so, told you so.’ That’s where it crosses the line for me.”
He made a direct appeal to the fanbase to aim any frustrations at him, but continue to back the players on the pitch.
“If it comes down to I’ve got it wrong, then you’ve got no worries because I’ll be gone. The players will still be here and the players are still giving 110%, but I won’t be”, he added.
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The majority of the fans were impressed by Monday’s performance, which was battling and resolute ( by every player) given the circumstances. To highlight the actions of a very small minority of fans, even by calling it out, gives it some creedance. To quote Nigel Adkin’s “Control the Controllables, take the Positives, work on those (Controllable) Negatives until they become Positives and don’t waste time or energy (physical or mental) on the rest! UTI