Fans

I’m not one to normally call out my own team’s fans but I think the attendance today was piss poor.

It was a 3pm kick off, the tickets were cheap & Clarke picked a strong side & not even 5,000 turn up? It’s poor.

Are we brilliant to watch? No but we’re not terrible either.

We’re in the play off mix. Good performances against Rotherham & Reading. Bit frustrating against Wigan but still had the better of the game.

I even called my own mate out on it earlier. He was a massive gobshite all over social media calling for the club to sack Collins & then for them to pay the money for them to sign DKD. They did that & he isn’t even going to the games. Whats all that about?

I appreciate there will be personal & financial reasons why some can’t attend but it’s doesn’t account for such a poor turnout.

 

Our record at homes been ***** for two seasons now. I’m not one bit surprised today changed nothing just lost to an extremely poor side once again today on pens at least.

 

It’s Christmas in three and a half weeks, we’ve been terrible at home for two seasons, the fa cup has lost its shine and it was a non-entity of a draw when we got Bristol Rovers when the balls were pulled out of the hat.

The club is in managed decline - it’s hardly a surprise that the fans are losing hope.

Was it piss poor? Yes.

Do I blame fellow supporters? No. It’s on the club - and especially those who own and run it.

 

Spot on. It was really cheap, even for Christmas period. Quid for a kid isn't going to break the bank.

 

Crap football crap atmosphere mid table mediocrity and definitely no chance of winning at home ,

 

Lol I wondered how long before this card was going to get played.

How many home wins have we seen since Derby in February, is it 3/4 at the most? I genuinely don’t know but it doesn’t seem many more than that…

Poor recruitment, poor decisions regarding hiring the management team & we genuinely cannot break down **** teams who’re happy to come and stick 10 men behind the ball, on the other hand the teams who do come attack will always score goals because we don’t keep clean sheets.

I do actually think we’ll go to Wrexham on Tuesday & win, if you look at their side I’d probably take 2 of their players at the most, I honestly do not rate them. When Birmingham come to Oakwell next weekend though….

 

Just under 5k and we still get treated like **** at home. One concession stand in ESL and one ESU, both with big queues.

When I go to Headingley, or North Marine Road, we get treated like actual customers.

 

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Think our poor form at Oakwell showed why we don’t beat teams we should, never mind ones we shouldn’t really anymore.

 

The football isn't crap. It's vastly improved.

 

Terrible turn out. If folk can’t be bothered for a tenner and a kid for a quid then the club is in bother.

 

It's a downward spiral. Seems to me that FA Cup crowds are what league Cup crowds used to be, league Cup crowds are what JPT crowds used to be and JPT crowds are a league to themselves. Edit - just looked and we had 4343 v Tranmere last season in league cup so maybe 500 more home fans today that for that game.

 

It’s really because we no longer beat teams we should never mind the ones we shouldn’t.

 

I get the OP, I felt similar while at the game.

Although walking away from ground I wished I’d not bothered so I can’t really blame those who stayed away. 2 home wins in the league in 9 months is absolutely pathetic. This run of 3 games at home has been so predictable.

I might not bother next Saturday.

 

For me it isn't just the performance or anything like that that stopped me going today. It's that due to a few years now of mismanagement of all well and what people would call the matchday experience that I feel like attending is a chore. I have to use the car park due to mobility issues (not mine) and in order to use the car park and stand any chance of getting home within two hours of the match ending I have to arrive 90 minutes before the game. And then what? I even stand in a dull dingy cold damp breeze block concourse where the food and drink is ridiculously overpriced or I sit in an empty stadium with absolutely no entertainment provided and no attempt to engage me for an hour and a half.

And even after that f****** about it's then a complete lottery getting out of the stadium with the club changing its policies on a match by match this without telling anyone, the club and council closing off roads seemingly randomly after home fans are forced to stay locked in the carpark until everyone else has vacated the s70 postcode including away fans who are bizarrely allowed to the same beaver court that home fans are told is off limits due to emergency access being required at all times. Apparently fire engines can pass through away fans...

The performance on the pitch and the cost are secondary sadly to the absolute hell of a day that going to Oakwell has become and until they acknowledge that it is a huge factor and put some effort into sorting that out then attendances will stay low.

There's also the fact that all of this ******* around with fixtures has meant people are out of the habit of going on a Saturday. Previously football was one in two Saturdays for me, now it appears to be something that is occasionally on a Saturday so it isn't in my routine. And EFL clubs only have themselves for that. They took the short term small monetary gain and have created a situation that will see attendances suffer an irrecoverable decline
The fans arent

 

I think what you’re saying would have made more sense around the time of the Sheff Utd league cup tie.

The truth is we haven’t struggled to break teams down recently. We’ve created loads of chances across the last four home games. We just haven’t taken them.

 

I agree with a lot of that. We have to walk a fair bit further since they shut the road off through the business park. Not the end of the world but when it’s cold & wet & 9.30ish at night it’s a pain in the arse. The prices are a piss take too.

Even though we haven’t had the results we wanted I’ve really enjoyed having Saturday 3pm football for two Saturday’s running.

 

I get the argument about Christmas coming soon but they made the tickets very cheap.

Agree about the draw. I always hate getting sides in the same division especially if they’re from way down south & there’s no rivalry.

I expected a low ish crowd but I thought we might get 6,500-7,000.

 

One thing I’ll say is I don’t buy this argument that the football is crap & if you’re adamant it is you must have hated watching us for the vast majority of the time.

At this stage of the season Duff didn’t have us playing scintillating stuff & we only really started showing promotion form from November onwards.

I backed Collins all the way but the general consensus on here seemed to be that the football was dull to watch.

Most of our other seasons have been spent fighting relegation from the championship.

In general we aren’t great to watch. We never really have been & even when we are for a short spell our best players & managers are soon headhunted.

I don’t think it is the quality of football that puts people off otherwise they’d have given up following us a long time ago.

I’m more inclined to go with Super Tyke’s post about a general apathy towards the matchday experience & kick off times than anything on the pitch.

 

He probably meant crap end results, despite the performances.
And it brings about that question again...
Seeing as we apparently can't have both, do we prefer good performances or good results ?.

 

It’s not just ticket prices though is it? Mum or Dad and two kids might get in for £12 in total - but little Jonny and Louise are going to want a bottle of pop and a sausage roll or burger or whatever - you’ve got to get there some way too.

You’re looking at twice that £12 again potentially. £30-£40 might otherwise be a couple of presents or needed for the extra food shopping.

If we weren’t in such poor home form, if we’d signed an actual centre forward and if the match day experience in the stadium had improved even remotely since the 90’s, there’d have been more than 4000 there today. You can’t blame people for prioritising elsewhere. Nor can you blame them for apathy.