Brilliant Mr Bolt

Just tagging this addition to the thread, as above the lowest attendance was mentioned so thought I'd keep this all here........

I recently discovered the Isthmian League provide a load of their historical data in Excel form, so I have had a look at a few things.  With attendances the detailed stuff only goes back to the 1989/1990 season so I haven't seen before then.  In the league structure of recent years the Egham Town game in 2004 with an attendance of 97 was the lowest (until this year as mentioned in the Thatcham Town thread where there was a gate of 91)  - but on previous structures there's less 

Here's the top ten:

29/09/1992 Abingdon Town 64
16/02/1999 Bracknell Town 71
03/03/1998 Hungerford Town 72
05/09/1992 Purfleet 78
09/03/1999 Hertford Town 82
28/04/1998 Chalfont St. Peter 83
06/03/1999 Thame United 83
14/03/1998 Tilbury 84
27/02/1990 Chalfont St. Peter 85
15/09/1992 Wembley 86

A couple of pinch point areas there, notably September 1992 and March in 1998 and 1999.

Also, when I turned up at IF in 2007 there were a lot of people getting the hump if 250-300 wasn't reached which made me think things must have been great in the good old days.  However it doesn't seem so rosy, a lot of the average gates by year don't seem great at all and it seems the Billy & George era bought in the best attendances in ages (granted it may have been way better before, in the 1960s and 1970s but as mentioned the detail only starts at 1989).

(Season) (Attendance) (League) (Very high attendance/notes)
1989/1990 150 Division 1
1990/1991 174 Division 1
1991/1992 149 Division 1
1992/1993 141 Division 1
1993/1994 181 Division 1
1994/1995 219 Division 1
1995/1996 162 Division 1
1996/1997 144 Division 1
1997/1998 132 Division 2
1998/1999 128 Division 2
1999/2000 119 Division 2
2000/2001 170 Division 2
2001/2002 261 Division 1
2002/2003 290 Division 1 South
2003/2004 218 Division 1 South
2004/2005 376 Division 1 2637 AFC Wimbledon
2005/2006 292 Division 1
2006/2007 307 Division 1 South
2007/2008 316 Division 1 South 1041 Dover Athletic
2008/2009 352 Premier
2009/2010 312 Premier
2010/2011 302 Premier
2011/2012 264 Premier
2012/2013 209 Division 1 South
2013/2014 178 Division 1 South
2014/2015 190 Division 1 South
2015/2016 174 Division 1 South
2016/2017 246 Division 1 South
2017/2018 238 Premier
2018/2019 212 Div. 1 Sth Ctrl
2019/2020 291 Div. 1 Sth Ctrl Curtailed-13 Home Games played
2020/2021 335 Div. 1 Sth Ctrl Curtailed-4 Home Games played
2021/2022 230 Div. 1 Sth Ctrl

I'm not 100% but my understanding is that the old Isthmian Division 2 is the equivalent of where we are now as there were less leagues at other levels, is that right?  That still makes our league position the lowest at the minute but over different structures of the Isthmian we haven't seen the lowest attendance yet (which I thought we had when looking at the Thatcham thread). 

While I was at it I decided to see our first game as part of the Isthmian, Saturday 18th August 1956.  A 2-2 draw against Walthamstow Avenue at Sandy Lane.  Sobering to think our final game of the 66 year Isthmian run could be on the 22nd April 2022 at Uxbridge (or failing that a play off)   

 

Last edited by BernieTheBolt (10/2/2023 8:36 pm)

It would be interesting to see what the average league attendances were like at Sandy Lane in the 1970s. I started going to games as a kid in the mid 70s and I don't remember league games being that high, maybe 300 or so.

Hi Bernie,

I am pleased to  say I attended all of those games, I think you may have missed one when the  two clubs merged and on the opening match of the 1932/33 season they defeated Shepherds Bush at home 9-1.

You should go  to  the "Terrors"  unofficial al website which will provide you with all the info in the archive section. 
32-33 (tmu-fc.co.uk)
 

Mikem wrote:

Hi Bernie,

I am pleased to  say I attended all of those games, I think you may have missed one when the  two clubs merged and on the opening match of the 1932/33 season they defeated Shepherds Bush at home 9-1.

You should go  to  the "Terrors"  unofficial al website which will provide you with all the info in the archive section. 
32-33 (tmu-fc.co.uk)
 

Thanks Mike, I’ll have a look at that link now.  What an opener though 90 years ago!  That’s great, the Isthmian site only covers us back to the 1956/57 season when we joined but I reckon looking further back would be really interesting. 

I found some matches with attendances of 0 and 2 (not T&M) but wasn’t sure if they were typos or a result of formatting, there’s numerous 9, 11, 15, 17 attendances - mainly in the old Division 3 and the North division.  I think my record is a midweek evening fixture I went to in 2014.  Redbridge v Erith & Belvedere with a turnout of 26.  Looks busy compared to some of those figures : 0

For Endo - yes, it was just league games I looked at, I’ll explore the site more when I get a good run at it

Last edited by BernieTheBolt (13/2/2023 3:50 pm)