Birmingham 7.5k and Sheff Utd and West Brom both under 10k. Football was really in decline in the late 80s. Still preferred it then though lol......
Just sad that 4/5 years previously we were around 13k and seemed to be the only club thriving. Anywhere
Largely a level playing field too.....pre Sky and the Prem. Even the bigger clubs didn't have a lot more money to spend.
It got a bit repetitive though, not moving up or down. I was missing the heady promotion days of the Clarke/Hunter era. We were stagnating a bit
The club did nothing to try stem the flow of fans lost forever, who chose food on the table rather than football, having got out of the habit. I wrote to the club re the last match of season v Carlisle. At home in may 1984. 2 months into the strike. To see if they would reciprocate the offer Carlisle did the yr b4 in the last game of the season (1983) by charging a minimal entrance fee to all fans (home and away) Spinks was Secretary at the time. The board discussed it and decided against it. If I remember rightly nothing was offered the next season. Strike finished march 1985. 81/82 average 12k 82/83 average 15k 83/84 average 12k Start of strike 84/85 average 7k+ End of strike 85/86 average 6k+ Took years to reach a reasonable level. 96/97 to reach double figures
Unbelievable when you look back that the club did nothing and let all those fans just disappear. They lost a lot of goodwill that took years to get back.
Looked bad, but either side of the Clarke/Hunter era, those gates were pretty much our norm dating right back to the 1950s boom time.