Supporter cheers, criticism curtailed? Great (9)

I believe the answer is:

fantastic

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'great' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'supporter cheers criticism curtailed?' is the wordplay.
'supporter cheers' becomes 'fanta' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'criticism' becomes 'stick' (I've seen this before).
'curtailed?' means to remove the last letter.
'stick' with its final letter removed is 'stic'.
'fanta'+'stic'='FANTASTIC'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fantastic that I've seen before include "Weird" , "Marvellous" , "Extravagant, superb or beyond belief" , "Splendid, amazing" , "Wild" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun.

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