Last Saturday saw the lowest attendance of 1950 for a Conference game at Edgar Street for two years. The last time a lower figure was recorded was for the Halifax game on Tuesday November 25th 2003 when the Bulls put seven past the Shaymen. The low gate came three days after the Bulls had been defeated by Shrewsbury at the Gay Meadow 4-1.
Lower gates just before Christmas are usual. Even so the home game on the second Saturday in 2003 against Tamworth was watched by 2561. The Bulls were second in the League at the time. The average gate for the season was 3704
Last year the Bulls were away on the second Saturday but at home on the first Saturday against Forest Green. The gate was 2166 against an average for the season of 3068. Yet again the Bulls were in second place at that time.
There is a uncanny similarity between the gates just before Xmas as mentioned above and the average for the season. In both the last two seasons the gate just before Xmas was 30% below the average for that year.
If the same calculation is used for this season then the 1950 low gate could translate into an average gate of 2785, which is 142 more than the average to date (2643) although would be down by 283 on last season.
This seasons' figures still look a lot better than those from earlier seasons in this decade. The average attendance in the awful 2001/2 season was only 1552, and in the preceeding season there was an attendance of only 867 for one Conference game.
A run of victories over the next few weeks should increase the support at Edgar Street. If so the pre-Christmas drop in attendance should soon be forgotten.
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Next: Friendly At Alvechurch On Tuesday July 29th - Kick-Off At 7.45pm
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