Zico, this is the one !  

All is good at 5pm and the bwfc football experts are back in their box.

28 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Does anyone know why there were no BW fans in ESL yesterday?

Can't be to do with expected demand, not much different yesterday to any Saturday game.

Unless they've decided to sack it apart from big games?

It was as sparse as I've seen it for a league game. Flat as a pancake too.

 

What was the  crowd, looked well down on recent games. The weather didn't help.

fuck me, we're quick to slag our own players off.

3 minutes ago, waffer cup 07 said:

What was the  crowd, looked well down on recent games. The weather didn't help.

20k ish official.

Reckon there was about 12k on in reality.

55 minutes ago, gonzo said:

It was as sparse as I've seen it for a league game. Flat as a pancake too.

 

We never know how many will turn up for each game but in terms of home tickets sold it was virtually the same as Wimbledon (19,700) and was more than Lincoln by a few hundred, about 250 less than Plymouth.  So taking Wigan out of it, very much the usual average for a Saturday.  Something else must have been different yesterday, and South Lower not currently on sale for the Cardiff game, so maybe its a policy change.

Edited October 5, 2025Oct 5 by Johnnyrotten

7 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

We never know how many will turn up for each game but in terms of home tickets sold it was virtually the same as Wimbledon (19,700) and was more than Lincoln by a few hundred, about 250 less than Plymouth.  So taking Wigan out of it, very much the usual average for a Saturday.  Something else must have been different yesterday, and South Lower not currently on sale for the Cardiff game, so maybe it’s a policy change.

I’m sure someone said we aren’t giving the free tickets away anymore and it’s gonna be a £10 scheme thing again where the seller gets half.

What's the craic with the ESU getting grief for standing?

2 minutes ago, gonzo said:

What's the craic with the ESU getting grief for standing?

The Stewards said it’s the only bit of the ground the club is arsed about and supposedly the EFL aren’t happy with it. I suspect the truth may be a tad different 

49 minutes ago, tomski said:

The Stewards said it’s the only bit of the ground the club is arsed about and supposedly the EFL aren’t happy with it. I suspect the truth may be a tad different 

I saw the stewards up there in the second half yesterday, but why would the EFL have any knowledge or even care about a section of about 200 fans that dont particularly cause any problems??

Genuine question. But I know there is no way you or anyone would have an answer to that, it's nonsense.

4 hours ago, mickbrown said:

I had nips like docker’s thumbs

Winter Nips may have helped 

Just now, boogs said:

I saw the stewards up there in the second half yesterday, but why would the EFL have any knowledge or even care about a section of about 200 fans that dont particularly cause any problems??

Genuine question. But I know there is no way you or anyone would have an answer to that, it's nonsense.

Agreed. I’m in that section and it’s difficult to understand what the actual issue is. I think the old stand manager has moved on, she was pretty sound after realising that no one was causing bother. It could be anything though.

fwiw the stewards were pretty sound and took some light stick in good nature.

We were told it wouldn’t be the end of it though and they’d see us next time.

We also had emails sent this week which look like they were targeted at our block only. Odd stuff.

It's a funny mix at the moment crowd-wise that I think is contributing to the atmosphere (or lack of). There seem to be 2-3k ST holders who often don't show up for whatever reason, but still plenty of walk-up occasional visitors turning up. 

A lot of them seem to be sold in the West Upper, where I am, and while its good they're adding to the club's finances they're not very invested. Three blokes I'd never seen before turned up on my row and apart from the 15-20 up to and including our goals they were more interested in taking selfies, nattering and checking their bets on LiveScore than getting into the game in front of them. 

By no means the first time I've seen that sort of thing, even this season. It's a bit like a small scale version of being at City, big numbers on the face of it but not enough of them really that up for getting behind the team.

Reminded me of how it was last season, when in Evatt's last game we were down to the real hard core but the atmosphere was loud and supportive 

2 minutes ago, tomski said:

Agreed. I’m in that section and it’s difficult to understand what the actual issue is. I think the old stand manager has moved on, she was pretty sound after realising that no one was causing bother. It could be anything though.

fwiw the stewards were pretty sound and took some light stick in good nature.

We were told it wouldn’t be the end of it though and they’d see us next time.

We also had emails sent this week which look like they were targeted at our block only. Odd stuff.

If anything you'd think they'd be more interested in the growing number in the west lower choosing to stand next to away fans. I'm not near it but looks/sounds like a few are deciding to congregate there. Still doesn't even look like a problem from where I'm sat though. Agree it's all a bit odd. 

4 minutes ago, boogs said:

If anything you'd think they'd be more interested in the growing number in the west lower choosing to stand next to away fans. I'm not near it but looks/sounds like a few are deciding to congregate there. Still doesn't even look like a problem from where I'm sat though. Agree it's all a bit odd. 

I’m sure we will find out more. They kept at it all game time 80 mins when a couple of them came over to say bye. For context I am right at the back and wasn’t asked to sit once. An impressive amount of wasted man power used and a poor lady who had to clean bird poo off a few seats at ht.

6 minutes ago, tomski said:

I’m sure we will find out more. They kept at it all game time 80 mins when a couple of them came over to say bye. For context I am right at the back and wasn’t asked to sit once. An impressive amount of wasted man power used and a poor lady who had to clean bird poo off a few seats at ht.

Keep us updated. I'm nosey bastard at heart 😂

39 minutes ago, tomski said:

I’m sure we will find out more. They kept at it all game time 80 mins when a couple of them came over to say bye. For context I am right at the back and wasn’t asked to sit once. An impressive amount of wasted man power used and a poor lady who had to clean bird poo off a few seats at ht.

I never understand the issues the stewards have with standing. We get negativity about the atmosphere being flat but there are only a few areas of the ground that generate atmosphere and they rely on fans congregating and standing.

We have the OG crazy corner at the south end of the east lower, the section above it in the east upper, and south part of west lower which all have standing. North stand is the outlier which doesn't seem to have any standing area and I have no idea where the chants come from but there are some. 

As a north end of the east lower I'm absolutely in favour of these areas continuing to stand and create atmosphere while I get to sit down.

1 hour ago, tomski said:

The Stewards said it’s the only bit of the ground the club is arsed about and supposedly the EFL aren’t happy with it. I suspect the truth may be a tad different 

Is it covered by tv cameras? Assumingly ESL is too though so doesn't make sense

24 minutes ago, DaisyHWanderer said:

Is it covered by tv cameras? Assumingly ESL is too though so doesn't make sense

Yes and yes. The camera is shot near us but they have cameras all over from the security room. They aren’t bothered about ESL apparently. Doesn’t make any sense but what we were told.

4 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Does anyone know why there were no BW fans in ESL yesterday?

Can't be to do with expected demand, not much different yesterday to any Saturday game.

Unless they've decided to sack it apart from big games?

 

19 minutes ago, tomski said:

Yes and yes. The camera is shot near us but they have cameras all over from the security room. They aren’t bothered about ESL apparently. Doesn’t make any sense but what we were told.

I’m genuinely confused as to what you’re talking about, what happened and where!? 😂

I didn’t spot anything going on.

No Bolton fans in ESL? I was there? 😂

I think he meant SSL

On the subject of standing, I can understand it on the first 2 rows or so

1 minute ago, Casino said:

I think he meant SSL

On the subject of standing, I can understand it on the first 2 rows or so

But I thought @tomski sat in ESU?

I think @tomski might've been replying to the below

3 hours ago, gonzo said:

What's the craic with the ESU getting grief for standing?

 

10 minutes ago, desperado said:

But I thought @tomski sat in ESU?

Yes

I think bonzo meant SSL

26 minutes ago, desperado said:

 

I’m genuinely confused as to what you’re talking about, what happened and where!? 😂

I didn’t spot anything going on.

No Bolton fans in ESL? I was there? 😂

Apologies, I meant SSL as @Casino says.

Could have sworn I'd edited it ages ago!  Done now.

Based on no intel whatsoever, I would suspect that the council will have been in the club’s ear that persistent standing in an upper tier is something they can’t necessarily turn a blind eye like they do in the lower.

It is of course ignoring the fact that it is entirely of their own creation given that ESU never had any groups of standing fans until they cleared the corner of WSL and stopped folk buying in crazy corner. 

1 hour ago, Stig said:

North stand is the outlier which doesn't seem to have any standing area and I have no idea where the chants come from but there are some. 

As a north end of the east lower I'm absolutely in favour of these areas continuing to stand and create atmosphere while I get to sit down.

I’m on the back row of NSL and on my left it only tends to be the back row that stands up, but on my right it’s always the back two or three rows throughout the game. There’s a cluster in the easterly corner too which is where the songs tend to start from.