Sunderland midfielder http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Craig-Gardner-c9475 has revealed he believes the rearrangement of the seating at the Stadium of Light could affect the players’ performance.
The change in the seating is such that the away section has been moved into the Strongbow North Stand Upper, away from behind the South Stand goal. According to Gardner, this would only make things tougher for the visiting team at the Stadium of Light.
Gardner said in an interview:
“I think the changes will definitely help. When you score a goal, it is nice to go and celebrate with the supporters.
If there's away supporters behind one goal, you don't want them booing you when you score. You want to go to your own fans.
It's good that the club have realised that and I think the changes will benefit both players and fans.”
Sunderland kick things off in the 2012-2013 season with a trip to the Emirates Stadium to face http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arsenal-c38429, after which they will welcome newly promoted Reading to the Stadium of Light. Their third fixture of the season will be a trip to Swansea City and West
Ham United, with a home game against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809 cushioned in between the two.
The 25-year-old English central defender will be hoping to play of a bigger role for the Black Cats in the upcoming season. He made just 24 appearances in all competitions last season, with three goals to his name. The reason for his irregular statistics
in the 2011-2012 season was his falling out with former manager Steve Bruce.
Gardner was even linked with a move away in the January transfer window after the player decided he wanted to leave the Stadium of Light due to lack of first team opportunity. However, after Steve Bruce was sacked and replaced with Martin O’Neill, the player
decided to remain at the club.
He signed with Sunderland from Birmingham City in the summer of 2011 for a fee reported to be 6 million pounds. He featured for them in pre-season and went on to make regular starts at the beginning of the season. After O’Neill took over as manager, Gardner
was regularly deployed as a right back towards the end of the season.
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