Defender Luke Chambers has paid tribute to the supporters with whom he has become a firm favourite.
Fans have consistently shown their appreciation for Chambers’ sterling displays at the back and his fist-pumping gesture towards them at the end of games is indicative of the positive relationship he enjoys with them.
Chambers said: "If I’m doing my job on the pitch hopefully the fans can appreciate what I bring to the club and it’s always nice to have that rapport with them. It’s always nice if we can enjoy the wins together.
"Attendances may have dropped a bit in the last few weeks or months — that’s probably another issue — but the level of noise they are making has gone up. It has been noticeable, especially in the last few games, and everyone seems to be bouncing along.
"We’re giving them something to cheer about at home at the minute so hopefully it will continue and my relationship with them will get stronger, as well as all the other boys.
"People pay a hell of a lot of money these days to come and watch us play and try to entertain them. It is our responsibility to get them off their seats but if you have certain sections of the crowd that try to build an atmosphere it makes it a lot easier for us and adds to the difficulty of our opponents’ task in trying to beat us.
"Our fans have been very understanding. I said a couple of times last season that when we were struggling down at the bottom there was only one game when they booed the players off. That’s a tremendous attitude for them to have because they are well within their rights to let us know what they think if we’re not performing.
"We were expected to win our recent home game against Yeovil but we were losing 1-0 at half-time and a few sections of the crowd let us know what they thought. Rightly so, in my view, because we weren’t playing as well as we should have been.
"They are very patient but I have definitely noticed recently, over the last few weeks, that the atmosphere has suddenly picked up a notch.
"It lifts the players when they hear that and we have had a lot of discussions in the dressing room about it. It’s fantastic to play in front of that. It shouldn’t give us an extra incentive but it does seem to bring something extra out of us.”