Copy linkFacebookXPinterestEmailShare this article 0Join the conversationFollow usAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleNewsletterSubscribe to our newsletterThe consequences of the spygate debacle will echo around the bowels of St Mary's Stadium for generations.Southampton missed out on the chance to win promotion back to the Premier League through the Championship play-offs despite reaching the final.There will be no Saints at Wembley. Having admitted to a series of breaches relating to their spying outside the training grounds of three clubs including semi-final opponents Middlesbrough, Southampton were thrown out of the play-offs and their appeal quickly dismissed. You may like Southampton hopeful of 'Spygate' appeal - but manager faces BAN for brazen offence Where's Willy? Southampton 'smoking gun' in spygate saga reveals new twist in Championship play-off row 'Spygate' villains Southampton wouldn't be the first team to be kicked out of the play-offs Football supporters have an important role to performIt's easy to downplay the offences with which the Hampshire club were charged but the severity of the actions carried out in the name of the club isn't actually the point. Southampton clearly deemed it a worthwhile exercise. Middlesbrough, now reinstated, were sufficiently aggrieved to kick up a stink.That basic foundation of the spygate fiasco is where Southampton supporters were able to choose their response. However serious the breaches are, whatever the actual damage done to Boro's preparations, the Saints faithful could be defensive and dismissive, or livid with the people who took a stupid risk in the name of their club.A post shared by Southampton FC (@southamptonfc)A photo posted by on Whether they like it or not, there are people at Southampton who will now be forced to reflect on their choices, on the enormous and brazen risk they took, while others who had no say in it are left to count the cost. Saints' supporters and players are the biggest losers no matter the fallout in the days ahead.Winger Leo Scienza was among the first voices from within the club to hint at a sense of injustice pointed inwards rather than to the outside.Get FourFourTwo NewsletterThe best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over."What has happened over the last days is heartbreaking," Scienza posted. "For the club, for every player in this dressing room, and above all for our supporters. A moment like this should never end the way it did."The fans, he said, deserved better. He was right. In football, most fans deserve better most of the time. They should expect and demand better, too, and their own clubs should be right at the very top of their hit lists.Southampton supporters are no different from those of any other English club. The reaction would have been close to identical no matter where the galaxy-brained schemers in question happened to be employed. What to read next Southampton face being BANNED from Championship Play-Off Final over 'Spygate 2.0' Why booing in football has lost all meaning Southampton face potential misconduct charge after spying alleged at Middlesbrough training ground ahead of Championship play-offs Your club is not always in the right and some of the people there don't care as much as youEvery football club has a large section of fanatical followers who call themselves supporters but who are instinctively tribal and defensive at every turn. The mentality dictates that nothing matters if their team is winning and that the enemy is always on the outside.Any set of supporters would have been represented by a handful of binocular-wielding bantersaurus rexes if their club had been caught spying on opponents. Their mockery, like those of the few Southampton wags who got the attention they wanted at the second leg against Middlesbrough, would have been misdirected.This is not trivial stuff. Fans who reflexively defend their clubs acting however they please might also tend towards turning a blind eye to big financial risks inflicted on their clubs by reckless or nefarious ownership, or, say, throwing in their lot with one particular superagent and enjoying the signings but ignoring the dangers.Criticism and doubt from outsiders isn't always malicious. Sometimes, the biggest threat to the interests of a club has a nameplate on an office door at the training ground.Football supporters owe their clubs protective scrutiny, not blind loyalty. That's what support actually means. That's what loyalty really is.The actions undertaken by people with southamptonfc.com email addresses in the last few months have done more damage to Southampton's players and fans than anyone else.Southampton haven't fallen victim to the unprovoked aggression of Middlesbrough the EFL or the independent commission or anyone else. Self-inflicted isn't the word: this pain was inflicted by insiders on a club where their stay is, ultimately, a temporary one.It doesn't seem like much to celebrate or revel in. It doesn't seem very funny now.More Saints supporters calling out their club as so many have in the aftermath of the charge and subsequent verdict wouldn't have changed the outcome. Football fans don't have that level of influence and more's the pity.Football would be a better places if more supporters saw part of their function as being a sceptical check on the owners and decision-makers at their clubs rather than poking their heads out from behind the badge every now and again just to agree with them when they're criticised and questioned.When it comes to owners and supporters, there is more that divides than unites.Southampton supporters are in the spotlight on this occasion and face their club's long road back to respectability. One rather suspects they'll turn their ire inwards next time their club trips itself over and as well they might.Chris NeeChris is a Warwickshire-based freelance football writer specialising in West Midlands football, the Premier League, the EFL and the J.League. He is the author of the High Protein Beef Paste football newsletter and owner of Aston Villa Review. He supports Coventry Sphinx.
