This evening we get to play the side currently propping up the league. Darren Ferguson's Peterborough have had a miserable start to the season. Their home and away form has been equally poor and we must view this as a three pointer.
The BBC are saying they are likely to be without new striker Saido Berahino and they come on the back of four defeats and a draw at lowly Ipswich. Tonight we must be more positive and be confident we can outscore Posh. Caution to the wind and all that. We are also looking for our fifth consecutive victory over them, so all the signs are positive.
Chris Powell has said we "must go again" and he is right, although Saturday's draw against tenth placed Huddersfield was hardly a major set-back. A win tonight and we are unbeaten in five going to the New Den which will help against a Lions side who are unbeaten in the last dozen.
I will be listening out for the gate this evening. Interesting observations about the 20,012 gate for the Huddersfield game. There is a strong view that we may have inflated that number to impress potential investors. Steve Waggott is said to have done that in 08-09 by giving out excessive complimentary tickets for matches, fifty per cent of which are typically not used. The Huddersfield gate was certainly a big step up on what have been very consistent and slightly disappointing Championship home crowds following promotion. Where I sat in the East was certainly a lot busier than of late and probably indicative of a 20,000 attendance but the rest of the ground looked the same as it has been this season. Huddersfield brought 1000 which would not have supported a bigger gate and the weather certainly wasn't helping.
I would expect less than 1000 Posh this evening and a 15-16,000 crowd. If they are spoofing it, anything above 17,000 will look suspicious to me. If you are going to inflate your gate, you would be inclined to post a number just over the thousand mark - the reverse psychology of the £X.99 trick. Hhhmmmmmm.
The BBC are saying they are likely to be without new striker Saido Berahino and they come on the back of four defeats and a draw at lowly Ipswich. Tonight we must be more positive and be confident we can outscore Posh. Caution to the wind and all that. We are also looking for our fifth consecutive victory over them, so all the signs are positive.
Chris Powell has said we "must go again" and he is right, although Saturday's draw against tenth placed Huddersfield was hardly a major set-back. A win tonight and we are unbeaten in five going to the New Den which will help against a Lions side who are unbeaten in the last dozen.
I will be listening out for the gate this evening. Interesting observations about the 20,012 gate for the Huddersfield game. There is a strong view that we may have inflated that number to impress potential investors. Steve Waggott is said to have done that in 08-09 by giving out excessive complimentary tickets for matches, fifty per cent of which are typically not used. The Huddersfield gate was certainly a big step up on what have been very consistent and slightly disappointing Championship home crowds following promotion. Where I sat in the East was certainly a lot busier than of late and probably indicative of a 20,000 attendance but the rest of the ground looked the same as it has been this season. Huddersfield brought 1000 which would not have supported a bigger gate and the weather certainly wasn't helping.
I would expect less than 1000 Posh this evening and a 15-16,000 crowd. If they are spoofing it, anything above 17,000 will look suspicious to me. If you are going to inflate your gate, you would be inclined to post a number just over the thousand mark - the reverse psychology of the £X.99 trick. Hhhmmmmmm.
The gate is always reported as higher that it actually is because season ticket holders are counted whether they turn up or not. So a half empty West Stand would still be counted as mostly full
ReplyDeleteTotally agree ref. the gate on Sat. Like you, I was in the east stand and looking out over the Valley it was a 17,000 gate at best.
ReplyDeleteVery interested to hear the speculation that the gate may have been inflated for reasons of attracting investors…
As for tonight…I’m very nervous. Not because I don’t think we can win, but I sense an almost ‘they’re bottom – guaranteed 3 points’ attitude from a good number of Addicks on Twitter. Never a good sign, in my book.
Personally I expect a very tough evening and a tight game. None the less, I’m going for a 2-1 victory for the Addicks!
Understand that but it doesn't explain a higher published gate than normal unless a massively higher percentage of ticket holders than normal didn't bother going. If the game was genuinely more attractive for a bigger gate, we should have seen a visibly fuller stadium. It could be that there were Faroese comps pedalled but all for the East Stand which explained why that appeared fuller but still plenty if no shows.
ReplyDeleteTed - classic Charlton banana skin.
ReplyDeleteI was also in the East Stand and I was shocked at the attendance figure; to me it only looked about 16 to 17000.
ReplyDeleteBut there were about 12 or so obvious first timers in the seats immediately around us, so may be it was the east stand that was fuller than others.
Pembury Addick
There was an offer to (some) ex season ticket holders allowing adults in for a fiver and kids for a quid. Three people I know only went because it was so cheap. From where I was sitting (west), the east and lower north did look busier than normal. Not quite sure about 20k though. The upper west was pick a row as usual.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a season ticket for the last few seasons so have booked tickets online. It has been noticeable that where blocks of tickets around my selected seats are shown as unavailable for purchase in practice they are unused in significant quantities. For the Middlesbrough game almost the entire block in the NW was shown as unavailable - on the day there were an awful lot of empty seats. Similar for Huddersfield game. I can't get to Tuesday games so haven't seen us win this season yet and won't be there tonight either although as you say a stereotypical banana skin so no guarantees of a win.
Say hi to all the family for me - might see you in the Rose one day if I get myself down there!
Tony
A Hammer of my acquaintance was at the game with his lad courtesy of free tickets supplied to his Crockenhill school. Several more like that and the family wings look better. My row in the East was also full for the first time since the Barnsley fiver, but the West Upper was as deserted as usual and the North Lower not greatly peopled. I'm with the 16-17k consensus
ReplyDelete