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Adelaide - Captain Andrew Strauss believes England's Barmy Army fans have a demoralising effect on Australia as axed paceman Mitchell Johnson on Thursday appealed for more home support in the Ashes battle.
The boisterous Barmy Army made their presence felt at the drawn Gabba first Test in Brisbane last Monday when the Australian support was barely heard among the meagre 7 000 last day crowd.
Johnson, who was dropped on Thursday from the Australian team for Friday's second Adelaide Test, was a target of the England supporters' taunts, who at one stage chanted, "There's only one Mitchell Johnson."
Johnson, who had a sorry match finishing wicketless for 170, making a duck and dropping a catch, paid the price when he was left out of the Australian twelve, to be finalised on the morning of the match.
Strauss praised the good-natured Barmy Army support, who are expected to make themselves heard when they congregate beneath the Adelaide Oval scoreboard on Friday's opening day of the second Test.
"The support of the Barmy Army was outstanding," he said.
"They have come a long way to support us and they like nothing more than to see England play well and that's obviously what we did in the second half of that game.
"There'll be plenty more here again this week and if we can get off to a good start and get them in good cheer then it always has a slightly demoralising effect on the opposition."
Johnson appealed for home supporters to get behind their team in this potentially definitive match of the five-Test Ashes series.
"It (Barmy Army) hasn't bothered me. The only thing that bothered me in that last Test was that I don't think we got the (home) support that we wanted at the Gabba on the last day," he told reporters.
"We were probably outnumbered in the crowd, you could hear the Barmy Army the whole time and so hopefully we'll get the support that we need here and we can really compete in this Test match."
A total of 132,858 fans watched the Gabba Test, which was down around 32 000 on the record crowds at the 2006 Brisbane Ashes Test.
