Lowest Ever Crowd

[Silent Blade]

Three day week and power cuts resulted in the Blades playing WHU at BDTBL on a midweek afternoon in February 1972. The Blades won 3-0. Billy Dearden hattrick.

The week before Santos and Pele played at Hillsborough. There were 36,000 there. Our school wouldn't allow us to go to the Pele match. Strict policing all over the exits at school. The week after I am sure I just walked out of school and went to see the Blades but I wonder if it was half term.

It wasnt half term. My dad asked my headmaster if I could go to both games and he allowed me to be off school to watch both matches although my dad was at work. My dad's friends took me to both games after picking me up from my school

 

[Darren]

It was John Gannon who Jones nailed straight from the kick off. Bradshaw waded in after the foul though.

That was a Jones trademark - wading into the opposition straight from the kick off. I can recall him doing it twice when playing for us - against Gascoigne v Spurs at the lane in the league Cup on 27/11/90 and on Peter Reid at Man City on 19/1/91 (he was sent off later that game).

 

[Revolution]

That was a Jones trademark - wading into the opposition straight from the kick off. I can recall him doing it twice when playing for us - against Gascoigne v Spurs at the lane in the league Cup on 27/11/90 and on Peter Reid at Man City on 19/1/91 (he was sent off later that game).

He also did it in the Boxing Day game for Leeds in 1989 - I can't remember who he attacked, but the ref let him get away with it, so he kept doing it all afternoon.

Actually, now I think of it, Gordon Strachan was reffing the game of course.

I remember wishing he played for us. As soon as he signed for us, I wished he played for someone else.

 

[Bert]

Three day week and power cuts resulted in the Blades playing WHU at BDTBL on a midweek afternoon in February 1972. The Blades won 3-0. Billy Dearden hattrick.

The week before Santos and Pele played at Hillsborough. There were 36,000 there. Our school wouldn't allow us to go to the Pele match. Strict policing all over the exits at school. The week after I am sure I just walked out of school and went to see the Blades but I wonder if it was half term.

Bert went to both those games, Ecclesfield Comprehensive shut in the afternoon for the Pele game, most of the schools in north Sheffield did the same, quite a week in Sheffield football history.

 

[Revolution]

Average gates for current EPL clubs this season and in 1985-6 (this season first):

Arsenal: 59,988 (23,824)
Aston Villa: 33,160 (15,237)
Burnley: 19,133 (3,204)
Chelsea: 41,548 (21,985)
Crystal P: 24,358 (6,787)
Everton: 38,207 (32,227)
Hull: 23,299 (7,672)
Leicester: 31,717 (11,793)
Liverpool: 44,658 (35,271)
Man City: 45,425 (24,229)
Man Utd: 75,328 (46,321)
Newcastle 50,834 (23,434)
QPR: 17,807 (12,665)
Southampton: 30,537 (14,877)
Stoke: 27,111 (8,288)
Sunderland: 43,156 (16,052)
Swansea: 20,541 (4,306)
Tottenham: 35,716 (20,859)
WBA: 24,988 (12,164)
West Ham: 34,860 (21,179)

 

[Silent Blade]

Bert went to both those games, Ecclesfield Comprehensive shut in the afternoon for the Pele game, most of the schools in north Sheffield did the same, quite a week in Sheffield football history.

Papers in the next day said that there must have been a lot of grandmother's funerals!

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

Was that when Carl Bradshaw came out with a bandage round his head, came up to the Utd fans and flexed his muscles in a Vinny Jones piss take, took the bandage off and stamped on it?

I think it was Bradshaw who he kicked up in the air for his booking too, but whoever it was, they held onto the ball as a deliberate ploy to invite the lunge and get him booked

Yes, definitely the match when Bradshaw did that to a lot of laughter and "he's a Blade" chants. Graham Stuart scored their goal, the only goal of the game and a fine one it was, too. Deano hit their crossbar with a terrific header from about fifteen yards second half but it was a poor game overall and out we went.

The biggest cheer came as we waited to be let out at the end and it came through over the tannoy that Wednesday had lost 7-0 at Arsenal. The announcer commented on the loudness of the reaction, along the lines of "that cheered you up".

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

Three day week and power cuts resulted in the Blades playing WHU at BDTBL on a midweek afternoon in February 1972. The Blades won 3-0. Billy Dearden hattrick.

The week before Santos and Pele played at Hillsborough. There were 36,000 there. Our school wouldn't allow us to go to the Pele match. Strict policing all over the exits at school. The week after I am sure I just walked out of school and went to see the Blades but I wonder if it was half term.

We were allowed to go to the Santos game. In fact, the school laid on special buses to the ground.

As for the West Ham game, I had an optician's appointment card in my possession with loads of blank spaces on it, so I just wrote myself out an appointment for that afternoon. We had a double history lesson and as it started I approached the teacher and showed him it, explaining I'd have to leave after the first period. He told me just to get up and go when the bell went. I did so and was almost at the door when a kid at the back shouted out "enjoy the match".

I kept going, went to the match and saw loads of school uniforms. Remember watching it with my brother and his mate who were in the year above me.

There was never any comeback from the teacher.

 

[Shalalalafenoughty]

Sorry, Revolution. Only just spotted that you'd already mentioned Wednesday's Highbury drubbing. I thought it was 7-0 but I might be wrong.

 

[HillmortonBlade]

I was chatting to a bloke who used to be at an academy and when he went to the Head Teacher to explain that he needed to leave early on a Wednesday to make training in time, the head just said, "well, it's only geography, get yourself off". I wish my teachers had been like that.

 

[Revolution]

Sorry, Revolution. Only just spotted that you'd already mentioned Wednesday's Highbury drubbing. I thought it was 7-0 but I might be wrong.

It was 7-1. It was 1-1 with 20 minutes to go. A couple of guys I know were there, and when it was 1-1 one if them said to the other "i think we can win this"!

 

[Bladebri]

Again going from memory but I'm sure we've had crowds of under 4 000 for League games.

I was wondering what was our lowest crowd, and if anyone here went to the game?

I was thinking of League games but maybe there were some other games with lower crowds.

Maybe even Reserves or u21s etc, if they publish or published attendances.

Or away games.

Like Yeovil on a Tuesday night.

Did you know the first game under floodlights at Bramall lane had a crowd of 12,000 paying guest and probably another 8000 that had sneaked in because only the pitch was lit so in total around 20,000 watched the game in the year 1878 this match was a record for a football match in England played between two local sides, a few month earlier the FA cup final only got 4500

 

[Bladebri]

All lit up, Bramall lane 1878


Are they using a water Mellon, and that's what I call a cross bar

 

[Silent Blade]

All lit up, Bramall lane 1878
View attachment 11315

Are they using a water Mellon, and that's what I call a cross bar

When the ball shot up high in the air, no one could see it so it was guesswork on which direction the ball was going to when it came back down

 

[Taramasalata]

That was the Udinse match on 24/8/94. Blake, Hartfield and Hodges were sent off and Bassett was sent from the bench. We lost 1-2 (Littlejohn).

Bassett had played a recognisable firstish team for that game, but after that experience played the reserves for the remaning 3 games. The Ancona game was on 5/10/94. We drew 3-3 (Ward pen, Battersby, A. Scott).

I went to all the home matches of those....dire experience....nearly as bad as the 3 million of us at port vale that fateful night

 

[Silent Blade]

I thought Pele was rubbish that day!

 

[I'll tell me dad.]

Colin Prophett was Club Captian at my local team Alfreton Town when I was growing up. Didn't realise he had played against Pele. He had all on with Denaby United when I saw him.

 

[BushBlade]

I thought Pele was rubbish that day!

It took you long enough to reply.

 

[Dkc]

Zombie Thread alert

 

[Topplayersleave]

We've had under 7,000 twice in the modern-ish era of football from what I remember..….The 1980's, when football itself was absolutely dead on it's feet.
They came at a time when most top flight teams couldn't get many more than 10,000 -12,000 and our 8's and 9,000 averages weren't really out of place in the second division, and was excellent in the third division.

 

[Sheffsteel]

What's the reason for the low crowds of that era? The mid 80-s that is.

The reason was due to public image, it was unfashionable to go to matches, not somewhere to take family and loved ones.
The media made the general public believe that all football grounds were full of racists and trouble makers at every match. Football fans in general were seen as scum, the police used to treat fans like animals and get away with it because a fair amount of fans did act like animals. When I went to Bramall Lane in the 80’’s there weren’t many children attending our matches and certainly few girls were remotely interested. It was bad but no where near as bad as the media made out.

It all changed when the all seater stadium were introduced in 1990 and also changed when the Premier League started started in 1992 because they started a campaign of marketing and brainwashing/ exagerrating all the good stuff, so gradually it become so fashionable to like football that now the middle classes (who always hated football), women and young girls love going to matches.

 

[SteveH]

Anyone remember or even going to the Wimbledon match 2003? An away game but only 1,325 turned up because of the moving to Milton Keynes debacle.

 

[Sheffsteel]

What's the reason for the low crowds of that era? The mid 80-s that is.

Another reason was the suspected fiddling of the gate.
My understanding is that some turnstyle operators were letting in fans unofficially and pocketing the money.
Think United caught wind of this eventually and sacked loads of turn style operators.

Also its possible that the United owners of the 80’s were deliberately reporting a lower gate to save on tax payments.
When a stadium has seats it’s very easy to see roughly how many fans were inside the stadium but when it was standing it was much easier to massage the attendance figures.

 

[Cheets]

Another reason was the suspected fiddling of the gate.
My understanding is that some turnstyle operators were letting in fans unofficially and pocketing the money.
Think United caught wind of this eventually and sacked loads of turn style operators.

Also its possible that the United owners of the 80’s were deliberately reporting a lower gate to save on tax payments.
When a stadium has seats it’s very easy to see roughly how many fans were inside the stadium but when it was standing it was much easier to massage the attendance figures.

Yes, in the 80s I would say official crowd figures were generally lower than the actual number of people in the ground, whereas nowadays the opposite is true.

 

[Revolution]

Anyone remember or even going to the Wimbledon match 2003? An away game but only 1,325 turned up because of the moving to Milton Keynes debacle.

I was there. It was a Selhurst Park double header: it was a Monday night and we had played Palace on the Saturday. It was rearranged so Michael Brown could serve his suspension before the FA Cup Semi Final the following weekend. We played a weak team and lost 1-0.

It was eerie - there were about 1,000 Blades there on the Sainsbury's end and the rest of the crowd was scattered around the other 3 sides.

It was the smallest crowd to see us play a league game since 1901, when 1,050 saw us win 2-0 at already relegated WBA On the last day of the season. I assume it was a rearranged game as we'd lost to Wednesday 1-0 the day before, and 2 days before that we'd lost the Cup Final replay to Spurs. 3 games in 4 days!

In fact, this must be some sort of record: on 20 April we played in the Cup Final against a non league team in front of 110,802. 10 days later we played in front of 1,050 in a First Division game!

 

[Snowman]

I thought Pele was rubbish that day!

Why was Adkins asking about our lowest attendance?

 

[blade too long]

all change ,,,,, this season so far



nearly half the 92 , 44 clubs get less than 10000 gates and 25 get less than 5000

 

[Paisley Blade]

Another reason was the suspected fiddling of the gate.
My understanding is that some turnstyle operators were letting in fans unofficially and pocketing the money.
Think United caught wind of this eventually and sacked loads of turn style operators.

Also its possible that the United owners of the 80’s were deliberately reporting a lower gate to save on tax payments.
When a stadium has seats it’s very easy to see roughly how many fans were inside the stadium but when it was standing it was much easier to massage the attendance figures.

I used to work with an older bloke in the late 80’s who worked the turnstiles. In order to avoid pre arranged skullduggery he never knew which pitch he would be working on either Shoreham or John Street until the day,but always said if he saw me he’d let me in for nowt ( pay on day kids).
It only happened once , v West Ham when we lost 2-0 despite famously having 23 corners.
He was also a Sheffield League cricket umpire, who once gave me three dodgy LBW’s when bowling at Whitley Hall.

Top man all round !

 

[Tony]

It was rife in the 1980's the turnstile scam. Always remember a top of the 4th Division and last home game of the season against Peterborough. The ground which held about 37/38000 was packed, yet the official attendance was given as 23497.

 

[cahill]

The pigs also slipped below 7,000 in that era too, against Colchester I think.

I remember "big" clubs like Chelsea getting under 10k too.

We played Chelsea in a Cup Match onthe Saturday at Stamford Bridge, Carl Bradshaw booked after 20 seconds, the previous Tuesday Chelsea had played Southampton in a top flight match in front of 7,000.
I also believe Arsenal had a 4,000 crowd sometime in the 1960s during deep winter.

Just checked. On the 5th May 1966 Arsenal had 4,454 against Leeds. It wasn't winter but put down to some live Liverpool match on TV