As you see them.

[SF_]

To be fair Blackburn are averaging 12.4k

I looked at this: http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-league-one-2017-2018/1/

Always been accurate unless its not currently up to date.

Either way, they're going for automatics, while we were crap.

 

[SoutheySWFC]

I looked at this: http://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-league-one-2017-2018/1/

Always been accurate unless its not currently up to date.

Either way, they're going for automatics, while we were crap.

Looks like I cocked up the away attendances, what a tit. Cheers.

 

[SF_]

Bradford's attendances still going well, would love North End to gamble on a similar initiative to them and Huddersfield.

 

[roversfan2001]

Don’t believe it was.

We’re also not really arsed about you either. The only reason we’ll be taking a respectable following to Ewood is the fact we haven’t played you since the Premiership days.

It seems that a fair few of your fans think differently... http://www.owtb.co.uk/topic/50351-blackburn-away/

I've never claimed we're bigger than Blackburn, I just called them up on the 'little cousin' comment.

Our crowds have never dropped as low as 8k since 1995 when we were in Div 4/ L2 and in our first season back down here (2012) we averaged (11,800) which is more than Blackburn are currently averaging (11,600) despite us finishing 15th. So will be interesting to see the comparison if they miss out on promotion.

I don't think there is much in it in terms of fanbase, if anything you would expect Blackburn's to be much higher than ours considering time spent outside the top flight.

You'll cry "plastics" at this no doubt but that's obviously not including the boycotting fans, of which there are a lot of. Our fanbase is considerably bigger but we have a portion that don't attend home games due to our owners. Obviously not all of the 12k missing fans since we were relegated from the Prem are boycotters, but given that we had ~20k in the second tier in 1999-2001 compared to ~14k in the second tier 2012-2017 that's a fairly good guide to how many fans are staying away.

 

[SF_]

It seems that a fair few of your fans think differently... http://www.owtb.co.uk/topic/50351-blackburn-away/

You'll cry "plastics" at this no doubt but that's obviously not including the boycotting fans, of which there are a lot of. Our fanbase is considerably bigger but we have a portion that don't attend home games due to our owners. Obviously not all of the 12k missing fans since we were relegated from the Prem are boycotters, but given that we had ~20k in the second tier in 1999-2001 compared to ~14k in the second tier 2012-2017 that's a fairly good guide to how many fans are staying away.

People don't attend because you're not in the Prem anymore, its just convenient to call them boycotters, even with the Venky's your crowds were holding up in the top flight, 22,500 in your relegation season.

You had a good attendance back then because winning the Prem was only 5 years previous and fans were confident of a quick return. Before Walker in the second tier you had an 8k average in 1991, that rose to a 13k average, then a 17k average when you first got into the top flight and then 27k after winning the league...

You're down to your core fanbase now and have lost the glory hunters who have crawled back to United and Liverpool.

This website has all the attendance figures - http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm

 

[roversfan2001]

People don't attend because you're not in the Prem anymore, its just convenient to call them boycotters, even with the Venky's your crowds were holding up in the top flight, 22,500 in your relegation season.

You had a good attendance back then because winning the Prem was only 5 years previous and fans were confident of a quick return. Before Walker in the second tier you had an 8k average in 1991, that rose to a 13k average, then a 17k average when you first got into the top flight and then 27k after winning the league...

You're down to your core fanbase now and have lost the glory hunters who have crawled back to United and Liverpool.

This website has all the attendance figures - http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm

That 22.5k is also almost 3,000 down on the final season pre-Venky's, people were already boycotting before the first relegation. I've got mates that I go to away games with that haven't set foot in Ewood this season, yet they've been to every away game; they aren't plastic Premier League fans, boycotting is a real thing amongst our fanbase.

 

[SF_]

That 22.5k is also almost 3,000 down on the final season pre-Venky's, people were already boycotting before the first relegation. I've got mates that I go to away games with that haven't set foot in Ewood this season, yet they've been to every away game; they aren't plastic Premier League fans, boycotting is a real thing amongst our fanbase.

I'll have to take your word for that.

 

[Hurrikeen]

It seems that a fair few of your fans think differently... http://www.owtb.co.uk/topic/50351-blackburn-away/

1. A thread on our next opponents is, unsurprisingly, very common.

2. I’ve seen one post claiming to have a hatred for Blackburn, that’s pretty much it.

 

[roversfan2001]

1. A thread on our next opponents is, unsurprisingly, very common.

2. I’ve seen one post claiming to have a hatred for Blackburn, that’s pretty much it.

1. That's not really the point.

2. "it's these twats and Noblot that I hate most"; Blackburn is referred to as "the failure zone" (somewhat ironic coming from an Oldham fan, but hey ho); "bastards". And this is still 4 days before the game, there will be more to come I'm sure. Surprisingly enough, there's no hatred on the match thread on our forum.

 

[Hurrikeen]

1. That's not really the point.

2. "it's these twats and Noblot that I hate most"; Blackburn is referred to as "the failure zone" (somewhat ironic coming from an Oldham fan, but hey ho); "bastards". And this is still 4 days before the game, there will be more to come I'm sure. Surprisingly enough, there's no hatred on the match thread on our forum.

Referencing point 2, the first comment is the one I referred to as the single post which hinted at hatred. Each to their own of course.

As for the next part of point 2, apologies for someone claiming failure zone in reference to Blackburn. I mean, we, and probably every other team in the FL, have probably labelled a town/City as something negative - it doesn’t mean its hatred.

Finally - the term bastards - again, big deal. If those incredibly brutal, oh so common names in reference to Blackburn suggest that we care greatly about some made-up rivalry, then we could probably class every team in L1 as our rivals.

 

[CT70]

In the eighties we had a good rivalry with Oldham due to us both being mainly the only 2 Lancashire clubs in the old 2nd division at the time. We were both very evenly matched on the field and attendance wise.
Maybe not a fierce rivalry, but to the older fans it was a rivalry.
As for our boycotters, there's not that many, most lost interest when we dropped out of the Prem.

 

[beaufighter]

Was that in the early 80's? crowds were piss poor up and down the country back then, weren't they?

We've been worse than third division rubbish to be fair, all be it briefly.

Yes, that’s right, up to about 1984 anyway. Everybody else then seemed to get bigger while we stood still.

 

[beaufighter]

Were currently in only our 6th season of third tier football and have never been in the 4th tier. We also have never averaged below 7k in the third tier. So your either thinking of some other club or your just making shit up.
71-72 = 8,256 average
72-73 = 9,214 average
73-74 = 7,432 average
74-75 = 12,650 average
79-80 = 10,311 average
Ps. Size wise and crowd wise there's nothing between us and PNE. It's just that we've had a tad more success, but we're definitely not remotely anything like you.

PMSL that you went to all that trouble to prove me wrong. Maybe I was thinking of another Lanky club, you all look the same.

 

[CT70]

PMSL that you went to all that trouble to prove me wrong. Maybe I was thinking of another Lanky club, you all look the same.

That last comment is a bit regionist and crosses the line.
And to be honest it wasn't any trouble whatsoever. Especially to out a bullshitter.

 

[beaufighter]

Lol, touchy much? what a ridiculous response. “Regionist” . It’s just banter mate, lighten up, I was agreeing with you if you noticed.

 

[SoutheySWFC]

Lol, touchy much? what a ridiculous response. “Regionist” . It’s just banter mate, lighten up, I was agreeing with you if you noticed.

I suspect he was taking the piss back mate.

 

[T.A]

I suspect he was taking the piss back mate.

Not the quickest in Rotherham as we've seen already.

 

[OUFC Dan]

Only got swindon and they're vile, disgusting scum

All the others mean nothing, hopefully Reading get relegated and we can finally bloody play them though

 

[SF_]

Yes, that’s right, up to about 1984 anyway. Everybody else then seemed to get bigger while we stood still.

Two years after that we were applying for re-election to stay in the Football League!

Glad I missed the 80's!

 

[Moomin]

I am not from Devon so any rivalry is not in my bones, but my observation is that Torquay is well-liked and that the reaction to Exeter varies from pure vitriol to sensible respect. It is however the game we want to win. My own personal view is that I like Exeter’s ownership model, their academy is better than ours at present and I respect Tisdale. The problem for them is that their ownership model limits how far they can go, and given the crowds our respective teams attract they are most often below us. A position many greens would suggest is the natural order of things down these there parts.

Given we have so few near neighbours I note that some try and manufacture rivalries with Yeovil, the two Bristol teams and even Pompey. Though Swindon never gets mentioned. This seems odd to me, and as a Londoner feels a bit like the Irons having a rivalry with Peterborough geographically. Though I suppose it makes a bit of sense when you factor in that our closest game this season is the 220 miles round trip to Bristol.


I did like the games against Pompey in league two but that was a respect thing, both in terms of crowd sizes and behaviour and the closeness of the matches, not a local rivalry. And as to the dockyard rivalry, in a few years they will have one and we won’t.

There’s definitely a distinct hatred between us and Argyle. Some Janners pretend they don’t care about us but it’s always a bit of feisty and has had many occasions where it’s kicked off. Not least when we met for the first time in years back in 2009.

It’s clear they’re a much bigger club than us and we’ve only been in a higher league than them for one season (I think) so that’s likely to continue for years to come unless something drastic happens. As you say our model can only take us so far....

Torquay was always more of a friendly rivalry from our point of view.

We did have a random rivalry with Colchester for a couple of seasons in the mid nineties which all sparked from our supporters’ bar having its windows caved in by some of their fans. It then kicked off during half time at the away game at Layer Road where some of their fans nicked one of our flags and then burnt it. How very tinpot.

 

[K-Win]

The complex network of rivalries above is confusing to me. We save all of our hatred for Liverpool's feeder club down the road, and they return the favour to us. Nice and simple.

 

[beaufighter]

Two years after that we were applying for re-election to stay in the Football League!

Glad I missed the 80's!

Wow, I didn’t even realise that you had been that low. Surprisingly enough our lowest ever finish was 17th in Div 4. so we escaped that ignominy since four divisions were established.

 

[beaufighter]

Not the quickest in Rotherham as we've seen already.

Not you as well, you’re all Rotherhamist and it’s not fair.

 

[SF_]

Wow, I didn’t even realise that you had been that low. Surprisingly enough our lowest ever finish was 17th in Div 4. so we escaped that ignominy since four divisions were established.

Only spent 5 seasons in the bottom tier but if it wasn't for the unfair re-election system then fuck knows what would have happened to us.

Luckily we were promoted the following season.

 

[beaufighter]

Only spent 5 seasons in the bottom tier but if it wasn't for the unfair re-election system then fuck knows what would have happened to us.

Luckily we were promoted the following season.

I always think of Altrincham when this subject comes up. Poor bastards must have felt there was a conspiracy to keep them out of the league in the 70’s. Going by the way the label ‘Rotherham fan’ is greeted on this site, maybe they were waiting for us to hit the bottom four before letting them in