Canaries crowd boost

The attendance for Saturday's third round F A Cup tie against Norwich City has been the subject of some debate amongst Addicks fans. Many believe it will be a record low of late that will send a worrying message to the Board.  There has  been much criticism of Charlton's published attendances which reflect those who committed to a season ticket this year instead of the much smaller numbers actually bothering to come to games. Whilst we are averaging 20,000 and something at home in the League, our actual bums-on-seats average is at least several thousand down on that and likely to worsen as relegation threats deepen. 

F A Cup crowds at the Valley have typically dropped off alarmingly over the last ten years as fans have chosen not to pay to watch inferior opposition, many of whom have gone on to embarrass us. Saturday's clash held the prospect of a sub-10,000 crowd but it looks like that number might be breached courtesy of 3,000 travelling Canaries, presumably incentivised by thoughts of a rare away win against "the poorest team" they have seen so far this year at Carrow Road.

We might have been poor at Norwich, but let me tell you, they weren't much better. Best wishes for 2009 - let's hope we start it by breaking the current sequence on Saturday and the following it up against Forest the week after.