The stats will show that Charlton Athletic attracted the largest average home gate (15,804) south of the river for yet another year. I haven't done the maths but I am guessing we have been number one in South London on this basis for over ten years and probably dating back to when the Valley capacity was smaller. Crystal palace ran us closer this year with an average home gate of 15,351 in spite of their relegation struggle and Millwall retained their poor relation status with an average 12,439 as they came close to the play-offs.
Aided by a special offer, we also boasted the best single gate of 24, 767 although our second best gate at usual prices of 18,949 was bettered twice by Palace in their relegation-battle run-in with a 19 and a 20 thousand gate as they finished strongly. The best the Lions could manage was two 16,000 gates for the visits of Palace and Leeds which would have stirred the interests of their mouth-breathing legion.
Can we do it again? Well the gap is so close that much will depend on respective form. The club would have us believe we are on track to match or better last year's 9,000+ season ticket holders and we will need that if we are to have any chance of maintaining or record. Personally, I think season tickets post the April deadline will be disappointing and we will need a competing side to bring in the match-to-match punters to make up any shortfall.
If Palace can arrest their decline, they could expect to out-perform us but they still look desperately short of cash and their ability to improve through the transfer market looks no better than ours.
Speaking of which, I am pleased to learn on my return from India that we have ditched the under-performer Kyel Reid. As big a waster of an opportunity as Izale Mcleod. I am also catching up on the fallout from Chris Powell's less-than-encouraging assessment of his transfer pot and options for 11-12 as revealed at this week's supporter Q&A. Being compared with Rochdale in terms of spending power is about as depressing as it can get. I am keeping my powder dry on this until we get some evidence to consider.
Aided by a special offer, we also boasted the best single gate of 24, 767 although our second best gate at usual prices of 18,949 was bettered twice by Palace in their relegation-battle run-in with a 19 and a 20 thousand gate as they finished strongly. The best the Lions could manage was two 16,000 gates for the visits of Palace and Leeds which would have stirred the interests of their mouth-breathing legion.
Can we do it again? Well the gap is so close that much will depend on respective form. The club would have us believe we are on track to match or better last year's 9,000+ season ticket holders and we will need that if we are to have any chance of maintaining or record. Personally, I think season tickets post the April deadline will be disappointing and we will need a competing side to bring in the match-to-match punters to make up any shortfall.
If Palace can arrest their decline, they could expect to out-perform us but they still look desperately short of cash and their ability to improve through the transfer market looks no better than ours.
Speaking of which, I am pleased to learn on my return from India that we have ditched the under-performer Kyel Reid. As big a waster of an opportunity as Izale Mcleod. I am also catching up on the fallout from Chris Powell's less-than-encouraging assessment of his transfer pot and options for 11-12 as revealed at this week's supporter Q&A. Being compared with Rochdale in terms of spending power is about as depressing as it can get. I am keeping my powder dry on this until we get some evidence to consider.
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