I honestly thought it would be well over 40k. I'm up in Scotland so I couldn't get there. I can't believe that 15k - 20k were in my position. No school holidays to blame. Can anybody give good reasons as to why the crowd was so low? Weird.
TV. . Time of kick off on a Saturday night. Other events in the area and maybe some pre judging and saving up for Wembley. There also didn't seem any great effort from within the club to promote the match. Maybe with talk of takeovers there isn't the same enthusiasm anymore from within
I don't have the enthusiasm anymore. I don't bother going. And even by my standards I had even less enthusiasm for this match and its difficult for me to explain why. Maybe the fans who normally go felt the same in their own way.
Was just bizarre all round. I was their and to be honest it felt like a league cup game with nobody really that arsed until we scored. Was frankly embarrassing to only pull in 26k for our biggest game of the season. I bet the 14k that couldn't be bothered will be crying about how they deserve a ticket for the final though.
I think more and more fans now prefer the moneys worth and leisurely pleasure of a warm pub, a pint and live football on the telly with friends at 7.30pm on a Saturday night. Thats the way football is nowadays so they don't deserve to be judged. Blame the people who make the money out of showing all these matches and enticing the supporters away from the ground and placing them into homes and pubs.
It would have been worse if Mcgeady pulling out was earlier, and what is wrong with him ?, i noticed in the west and north stand lower were 100's of empty seats, no flares though this time it was subdued but 1-0 is the best we could have done, and Maguire was exellent.
Personally I was stupid, arranged my day to go to the match... I thought my season ticket covered the game..idiot, tried to sign online to get the game on my season ticket... did not work. I then learned that there was no cash turnstiles...so I thought sod it and watched it on TV.
5k & 10k races planned months ago. Roads closed. Rugby tournament in Newcastle planned months ago. Hotels in the area racketeering. £196 for the Travelodge in Sunderland last night. No room at the inns maybe stopped some fans who travel in from out of the area who normally stopover. Finances, on TV. A number of reasons but admittedly still a lower attendance than I think most of us were expecting. I was there and to be fair the crowd that were there were up for it. It was a bloody good atmosphere with 26000 fans giving their all for the cause. There were rumours that even the East stand had a couple of chanters. Obviously this will never ever be substantiated.
We'd have had another 46k if it had been the 2nd leg. But TV showing the game, being sick of playing Pompey, not expecting the win, no cash turnstiles...no. Makes you wonder how many of our 2,000 for the return we'll sell. I'm hoping for 1,999 as I want one!
Recent results have been a real downer for a lot of fans. Add to this that Season ticket holders will have had to pay for this game and I sympathise with those of them that said, 'enough is enough'.
The online seat booking was down as i tried, but i got a lift to the ground and booked my seat. If stricktley come dancing had been on the telly it would have been worse ! we had 46,000 vs Bradford and 41,000 vs Portsmouth christ the mags would have had 52,000 blah, blah blah, they once had 8,000 for Wrexham in 1980 the season we went up from division 2 and finished with 47,000, oh them days don't count apparently. Arsenal pre Wenger and millions spent only had 20,000 + turning up. 126,000 in 1913 horse and cart days, 76,000 in 1933, 100,000 + vs Man u in 1964, so stick that in your pipes and smoke it.
I was a bit pissed I had to pay again to watch online . I figured a season pass was valid for the season
