Mexican, I like you hombre but that's ****e lad. Late 70's your crowds were as ****e as ours. I remember one game when you got twatted at home 0-4 by QPR. Less than 14,000 turned up. On the other hand, I remember one time being stood in the Roker end, nee roof & pissing down with rain. We got beat 0-3 that day, there was about 15k there. We've both walked the same paths mate.
welcome to mackem land, you know it makes sense please tell me they are called samson and delilah? its meckem btw but a let off can be had for a jawdee
How's Brenda & Debbie getting on these days? Is Brenda still a whinging, nagging ****? Christ, nee wonder you became a detective inspector & moved to Oxford.
Afraid not - Ebony and Noah (typical mix up of names you get after one of a pair dies). And it seems we're as good at typos as each other tonight
I did used to live in Oxford for a while, and drank in the Eagle and Child like Morse. Wasn't a copper though.
See, I naar these things, lol. You have to admit though, Brenda was a twisty bitch. Have you still got the Lotte tattoo?
Billy is spot on, I agree. However at that time, everyone's crowds were ****e, but we will still have been one of the best supported clubs. I have never knocked sunderland's crowds, apart from the early rounds of the cups, but it's as if we didn't exist before 92, according to some of you lot.
You have a fair point there mate. You lads got Champo league & runners up spots during the Hall era while we had nowt. When you think about it though, both clubs have such great support considering we've not won a bucket of **** between us for over 40 years.
The thing with the 82 and 92 somb, is that in Durham you had hundreds of sad people who had no interest in football or worse still followed SAFC suddenly became overnight massive toon fans and thats what boils my piss.When our crowds had a dramatic increase you know somb being a Durham lad that it was a rekindling of support, not a change or a sudden start of been a member of the toon army
You've got a point there, mate. There's quite a few of my mates who are red and white who have sons in their early 20's who are staunch black and white. F@ck knows how that happens. When I was growing up and starting to go to footy in the early 70's, I reckon Peterlee was 90/10 in your favour. Now it's around 65/35. I can imagine why it pisses you off though. I reckon your increase in crowds were due to your new ground though.
It was, and to an extent the redevelopment of your ground lifted your gates. People felt safer taking kids, lasses felt safer, when stadiums were modernised after the traumas of the 80's & early 90's. We both had average crowds of well under 20k before redevelopment/move, and it's common place to see a lot more females at the match now. The biggest boost though was indeed 1992, Sky TV, and football being everywhere rather than a Sunday afternoon, 1 game on ITV, that changed the game forever and boosted pretty much every clubs crowds. The timing of the John Hall revolution, through sheer fortune, coincided with this massive bubble and as such the 'Toon Army' was coined and that is in no small part responsible for yours, and to a lesser extent our increased averages. What is without question is that both clubs, for town size and standard of football, can be immensely proud of the numbers, however relative to years. Roker only held 21k or so at it's death, and the rain would keep occasionals out of the Roker End, which was completely open.
The ground move was a big factor but like i stated the support was ignited and rekindled.I knew deep down, you knew why it pisses me off,after all we have both seen it evolve.
In 96 (I think, don't quote me on it), we had a full ground of 36k season ticket holders for a few years. When level 7 was increased, our gates went up to nigh on 52k. I reckon, and again, this is just a guess, your average crowds went up from around 20k in the late 90's, to around 45k when SOL was built. Again, I would not knock your crowds, they're very good for the ****e you've put up with, but some of your fans think we didn't exist before.
