Bolton V Aston Villa League Cup

[Marc505]

4 hours ago, radcliffe white said:

Embarrassing that year was it 16k? 

 

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

Summet like that.

Premier league complacency at its finest.

Compare that to Swindon Semi a decade earlier. Mad how folks mindset can change.

It's strange really though as complacency and even boredom with it all may have set in during the later years but this was in the middle of our most legendary PL period.

I don't remember if the tickets were really expensive maybe that had something to do with it, may have been a mentality thing too all our efforts and emotion was going into these big PL clashes every Saturday and the cups took a back seat.

[Lostock Whites]

4 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

 

It's strange really though as complacency and even boredom with it all may have set in during the later years but this was in the middle of our most legendary PL period.

I don't remember if the tickets were really expensive maybe that had something to do with it, may have been a mentality thing too all our efforts and emotion was going into these big PL clashes every Saturday and the cups took a back seat.

It is strange looking back upon it.

This game took place in the very same season where we broke our home attendance record at the Reebok with a 28,500 crowd and averaged 27,000+ the whole season. 

[Zico]

6 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

 

It's strange really though as complacency and even boredom with it all may have set in during the later years but this was in the middle of our most legendary PL period.

I don't remember if the tickets were really expensive maybe that had something to do with it, may have been a mentality thing too all our efforts and emotion was going into these big PL clashes every Saturday and the cups took a back seat.

Aye, not sure about complacency, it was our 3rd season in the PL after just staying up the two seasons previous 

Just had a look 

We had 16.3k on v villa 

Either side of that in the league we had 26.5k v Pompey and 27.5k v Liverpool 

In the previous round we had 14k v Southampton which was probably a similar amount if not more home fans 

Probably a combination of shite weather, not cheap tickets and on tv 

Or complacency 

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

It's not the same competition, but as complacency has been mentioned:

Bolton Wanderers v. Aris Thessaloniki

Attendance: 10,229 (2,300 away supporters)

😳😳😳

[Marc505]

3 minutes ago, Lostock Whites said:

It is strange looking back upon it.

This game took place in the very same season where we broke our home attendance record at the Reebok with a 28,500 crowd and averaged 27,000+ the whole season. 

Not sure if there's any explanation for it other than it being on Sky and making people give it a miss thinking ah well there's only going to be me missing, there'll still be loads there 🤣

I remember the away leg being packed and obviously the ticket situation for the final was a debacle, I think (?) we took our allocation at Anfield and looking at the other rounds they were home games v lower league and attracted the standard 5-6k.

So the Villa home game was a strange one.

[Marc505]

1 minute ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

It's not the same competition, but as complacency has been mentioned:

Bolton Wanderers v. Aris Thessaloniki

Attendance: 10,229 (2,300 away supporters)

😳😳😳

Now, the home European game attendances really were embarrassing bar a couple

[Marc505]

5 minutes ago, Zico said:

Aye, not sure about complacency, it was our 3rd season in the PL after just staying up the two seasons previous 

Just had a look 

We had 16.3k on v villa 

Either side of that in the league we had 26.5k v Pompey and 27.5k v Liverpool 

In the previous round we had 14k v Southampton which was probably a similar amount if not more home fans 

Probably a combination of shite weather, not cheap tickets and on tv 

Or complacency 

"I'll skip this one and go to the final if we get there, I'm a ST holder so there will be plenty of tickets about..." 

[stevieb]

20 hours ago, stevieb said:

Stevie Gs villa away at a lower league stadium that was made for prem cameras. 

I'd be surprised if we weren't the tele pick. 

Super fan points for those in attendance! 

What'd I say 

 

[Not in Crawley]

Was crap weather if I remember, watched it in a pub near trafalgar Square after work if I recall.

Was a piece of piss getting final tickets through London Whites, as a supporters group they just got the requested allocation, mind you was so long ago could be totally wrong!

[e2e4]

it (the league cup home villa game) were on itv , a lot of the uefa cup ones were on ch5. 

thats probably worse for crowds than subscription telly. 

i remember villa fans tut-tutting but then they played (at home) portsmouth on monday (?) night about two weeks later on sky. it looked empty as fuck. think they lost. 

also remember sunderland and newcastle doing that (at us) but remember half full home games in various cup comps on tv not long after. 

"thats coz we were boycotting mike ashley"

"protest against howardwilkinson/chriscoleman or whoever"

haha

 

[mickbrown]

1 hour ago, Not in Crawley said:

Was crap weather if I remember, watched it in a pub near trafalgar Square after work if I recall.

Was a piece of piss getting final tickets through London Whites, as a supporters group they just got the requested allocation, mind you was so long ago could be totally wrong!

The ticket allocation for the final was one of the club's finest of fuck ups.

[Steejay]

12 minutes ago, mickbrown said:

The ticket allocation for the final was one of the club's finest of fuck ups.

Aye, I’d been a ST holder for 20+ years and didn’t get one. Fortunately I had ‘connections’ who managed to get me tickets for me and the lad.

Can’t imagine how pissed off I would have been if I didn’t get there.

[victor meldrew]

7 minutes ago, Steejay said:

Aye, I’d been a ST holder for 20+ years and didn’t get one. Fortunately I had ‘connections’ who managed to get me tickets for me and the lad.

Can’t imagine how pissed off I would have been if I didn’t get there.

elvis (season ticket holder) didn't get one.

we applied by post as requested and nearly didn't get them.

would never have gone again if i didn't get a ticket.

[Underpants]

23 minutes ago, victor meldrew said:

elvis (season ticket holder) didn't get one.

we applied by post as requested and nearly didn't get them.

would never have gone again if i didn't get a ticket.

Aye, righto!

[SatanGreavsie]

2 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

It's not the same competition, but as complacency has been mentioned:

Bolton Wanderers v. Aris Thessaloniki

Attendance: 10,229 (2,300 away supporters)

😳😳😳

Aye, never understood that - you talk about complacency but I'm pretty sure that results that day could have put us out - and that would have been out of what realistically could have been the last Euro competition we'd ever be in in most people's lifetimes.

[Leyther_Matt]

2 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Not sure if there's any explanation for it other than it being on Sky and making people give it a miss thinking ah well there's only going to be me missing, there'll still be loads there 🤣

I remember the away leg being packed and obviously the ticket situation for the final was a debacle, I think (?) we took our allocation at Anfield and looking at the other rounds they were home games v lower league and attracted the standard 5-6k.

So the Villa home game was a strange one.

The away leg was full behind the goal but we also had a little bit of what is now the away end along the side and didn’t sell much of that area. Don’t think we quite sold out at Anfield but wasn’t far off. Proud to say I went to every game in that cup run even though I was only in sixth form. Queued up at daft o’clock for final tickets so was fine on that score, but I need even more than a decade later the whole debacle was still used as something of a watershed/benchmark internally. 

[Steejay]

39 minutes ago, victor meldrew said:

elvis (season ticket holder) didn't get one.

we applied by post as requested and nearly didn't get them.

would never have gone again if i didn't get a ticket.

 

16 minutes ago, Underpants said:

Aye, righto!

Seriously, I get that.

I was fuckin blazing until my tickets eventually showed.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

Didn't get any neither. Mate got us a couple from elsewhere. 

A fuck up and a half.

[gonzo]

Aye Kevin Nolan got ours. Daft Tony from over this way was a full on bum spider in his Dads underpants.

Came in handy. 

[Zico]

1 hour ago, mickbrown said:

The ticket allocation for the final was one of the club's finest of fuck ups.

I got 8 off 4 STs  

6 of us were Bolton 

One for a mate from Westhoughton who was a Utd fan but wanted to come and offered to drive 

Another for a friend of a friend I've never met before or since but who bought me double vodka red bulls all day in Bristol the day before for getting him one 

No idea who he supported 

No regrets 

[Take Hunt Off]

That Villa home game deserved a bigger crowd than turned up.There was an attitude prevailing at the time that if you had committed to a season ticket your loyalty couldn’t be questioned , I had a good few mates at the time who blanked that game & I didn’t understand it then & don’t now. The ticket price was £22 , but relative to the prize ?

I know for a fact that the club hierarchy were unhappy with the turn out & in part explains their cavalier  attitude with the final tickets ,as actually only around 11k -12k home supporters turned up to one of our biggest games at the Reebok .

Edited August 11, 2022 by Take Hunt Off
Wrong ticket price

[radcliffe white]

Got tickets in the extra allocation at Cardiff, think it was around another 600 but was mixed with boro 

[paulhanley]

That Villa and some of the European games are an example of how fickle our support can be. From memory it also took ages for our attendances to warm up when Rioch was pushing us towards promotion in the Prem. We were top of the Championship and getting 10-12,000 until about Feb I think. 

Just now things feel different. That's why I compare what's happening now under Evatt to what happened under Armfield and Greaves in the 70s rather than what happened under Rioch and Todd. Irrespective of the team/tactics/personalities of the managers - the support base just feels more like 1970s BWFC than 1990s.

[Benny The Ball]

14 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Now, the home European game attendances really were embarrassing bar a couple

"Where were You on Thursday Night"  from the City fans at the Etihad was funny 

 

14 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Not sure if there's any explanation for it other than it being on Sky and making people give it a miss thinking ah well there's only going to be me missing, there'll still be loads there 🤣

I remember the away leg being packed and obviously the ticket situation for the final was a debacle, I think (?) we took our allocation at Anfield and looking at the other rounds they were home games v lower league and attracted the standard 5-6k.

So the Villa home game was a strange one.

I think the other explanation given was its timing -  it being played at the back end of January ( the 21st )  the week before most people got paid  and coming as it did 4 weeks after Christmas , when a lot of people simply didn't have the money.

  

 

[Dr. Feelgood]

3 minutes ago, Benny The Ball said:

I think the other explanation given was its timing -  it being played at the back end of January ( the 21st )  the week before most people got paid  and coming as it did 4 weeks after Christmas, when a lot of people simply didn't have the money.

Which is all very well, but it's  bollox. After years in the doldrums we have, at last, a really good team, get to a cup semi-final and don't sell out (& then, afterwards piss & moan that tickets to the final were in short demand). It was because it was live on tv. All other factors might have had an influence but, in the end, people not going decided it didn't much matter because they'd be able to watch it on telly.

There was a bit of a "why's this not part of my season ticket ?" moan going on too. Add that to a, now seemingly bizarre, "we're a bit functional, hoof ball, second phase, dull" anti-Allardyce sentiment brewing. Not huge, but it was certainly building.

All in all, too many people decided not to bother. It's about as simple as that.

Shit, we didn't even sell out v Stoke at Wembley & were hopelessly outnumbered.