Looking at the national league- many of our 90s and 00s rivals in it

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

It's an interesting stat that, whenever we have dropped into the third tier, we've had better crowds when we've been going for promotion from the third tier than we did in being relegated.

I'd be interested to know why our crowds in the early 1970s halved from 1971 to 1973. It must have been more than just selling Toshack, more like going from a side that finished 3rd and just missed out on promotion, to a side avoiding relegation for a couple of seasons. The 70s and 80s were also a period of decline in attendances. Wolves went from an average of nearly 26k in 1980 to 4k in the third division 6 seasons later, yet had 14k in the same division 3 years later when they won it. I don't think it helped us that we were relegated at a time when the game across the UK was in such decline and our hooligan issues won't have encouraged others.

Our crowds have been more consistent over the last decade or so than probably at any other time in our history. We know we can virtually sell out our ground in the Premier League. Give us a season of decent football and challenging properly for the playoffs and we'll get well over 20k. There's not a shred of evidence to suggest our crowds would be decimated if we were relegated and had a good season the following year. In fact, most clubs get bigger crowds in the third tier if they're doing well than they did when they were relegated.

Were you at the game yesterday ?

Because the actual crowd was no more than 15 k

That tells everyone the sort of support we have and would get if we went down to league one

We are not a Derby, Pompey, Wednesday , Sunderland, Leeds etc

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Were you at the game yesterday ?

Because the actual crowd was no more than 15 k

That tells everyone the sort of support we have and would get if we went down to league one

We are not a Derby, Pompey, Wednesday , Sunderland, Leeds etc

Crowds include season ticket sales as we know. They haven't been great for months and I reckon the shocking football has contributed to that. After the Preston game I vowed not to return this season as I've been generally bored shitless when I've seen us at home. Could spend my money far better than wasting £100 on watching crap, by the time I spend out on trains, food, beer and tickets. As I've said before, meeting up with friends has almost become more important over the last few years while we've been rubbish.

You still won't have it that, if we were challenging for promotion from League 1, we'd get better crowds. It's happened to us in our history. It's happened to lots of other clubs as well. You continue believing what you want, I'll stick with what happens statistically and I'll be right.