We have had this chat periodically on here, about the demise of the ultras, what can we do, but it really needs addressing. I got hooked because of the London road atmosphere, not because Nick Cusack and Mark Druce enchanted me with their link up play.
Me and you the same, RO. I do sometimes wonder, though - are we just a vocal minority?
Was talking about this the other day, but if you look at the crowds at the Manor in 95/96 - the year when we got promoted from the third tier playing some scintillating football under Denis Smith - they averaged under 6,000 for the season. And despite the fact that we were in as tight a promotion battle with Blackpool as you could imagine, our penultimate home game of the season (that we won 6-0!) only attracted 5799 and we didn't even sell out the final game of the season, which was a 'win and you're up' scenario.
I know that crowds have grown since the mid-90s across the board, but I wonder if there isn't a silent majority of football fans that prefer a sanitized version of the game? Easy parking, nice cup of tea, good view of the game, have a natter with the fellow in the neighbouring seat then leave.....that sort of thing.
It's been, what, 22 seasons now at the Kasstad? So everybody knows that the atmosphere is likely to be flat (we can make some noise there - the playoff semi against Rushden is the one I remember best - but it's generally been a rarity) but we're still bringing in 10,500 for an end-of-season kickabout with Accrington.