Should playing home or away really make a difference to results?

Its one of the mysteries of football for me, how teams generally do so much better a home than away. Look at us this season 14 wins from 22 home games, but only 4 wins from 22 away games.
Why does it make such a difference? Its a football pitch, just play the same way regardless of whether its a home or away game.
I am sure the main reason why is because an away team is set up more defensive minded and as a result the emphasis of attacking is with the home team. But away teams should set up attackingly and make the home team have to change their shape.
What do you think?

It's down to bottle. A lot of teams (us being one) go into away games expecting to lose, and usually do.

It's all in the head.

When Penwortham Girls played away I treated it like any other game and made sure my girls did too. We rarely lost, but I'm mentally strong unlike the current squad of ponces.

Playing away has usually caused nothing but trouble for me, but I do like a bit of variety and have occasionally got a good result in the past.

It shouldn't make a difference, but it does - The home crowd would help too

I think it does make a huge difference, you've got a long ride on a coach, not in your surroundings, the grass is cut to how the home team wants to play.

The crowd is going to be on your back, the ref 9 times out of 10 give 50/50 decisions to the home team.

and its psychological to the players, this is why you need a good leader on the pitch to sort out the away side.