Lowest league attendance at Maine Road

[TedofChume]

Wimbledon midweek game about 8935

I was there, that was the Full Members Cup though

 

[TedofChume]

That’s under counting our figure by about 1000.

I'm not disputing what you say, but where would you get accurate figures from?

 

[city2]

Me and my Dad watched the game and it was the first time we sat in main stand I remember getting pissed wet through I was about 10 , rip Dad

 

[spinney]

wasn't it stockport county, 13 people and a dog.

at old trafford ..... not sure about the dog

 

[plongo]

Just as an aside to this thread, during the 1972 Miners Strike Teams weren’t allowed to switch the floodlights on, I was about 12 at the time and me and my mate l (we’re still mate”s after 54 years and sit together in the CB) went to an afternoon midweek game and wagged school.

I got home about 6pm and eventually the local news came on, they’d had cameras at Maine Road and the story was all about how fans were either missing from work or school to attend. Cue, a little while in and the camera zooms in on me and my pal running to the turnstile, my Dad gave me a right bollocking but in later life he told me he was secretly pissing himself laughing and knew then my dedication to City couldn’t be questioned.

I just can’t remember the game, I wanted to look up the crowd in the History section of BM but I think it was just that one, would have been February/March I’m guessing but seem to recall the crowd was down on usual home games but I maybe wrong, it’s so long time ago, anyone help?

I reckon it was Coventry? Think there was a bomb scare and the ref picked up the ball and shook it next to his ear - hope I haven't made this up?

 

[Gary James]

I'm not disputing what you say, but where would you get accurate figures from?

Detailed research on lots of primary sources; comparisons with other clubs; discussions with club statisticians, archivists and historians around the country; newspapers and much more. It’s a long, hard slog getting City’s (and other clubs) history correct and there are still many myths out there. For me the important thing has always been to get to primary sources and do the physical research on contemporary stuff myself. It’s laborious, difficult, time consuming, costly and more but totally worth it when a gem is uncovered.

Some clubs still have primary material like specific turnstile counting ledgers like this one from the 1950s. Some clubs have this stuff going back to the beginning. This ledger, as an example, shows the attendance for a public practice match. That won’t appear anywhere else, so it’s vital to get to these type of sources.

Sadly, I don’t have images of every ledger, page or record I’ve researched.

I hope this helps explain. That ‘Footo Facts’ booklet that you originally posted wasn’t researched to this level unfortunately and was put together as part of a series on multiple clubs. Booklets like that are quite often a commercial enterprise where Material is lifted from other sources without rigorous checking.

 

[Gary James]

I reckon it was Coventry? Think there was a bomb scare and the ref picked up the ball and shook it next to his ear - hope I haven't made this up?

You‘re right. I was in Platt Lane. In my mind it was Summerbee who picked the ball up and shook it, but it’s definitely that game/day.

 

[The Lightbowne Cowboy]

Detailed research on lots of primary sources; comparisons with other clubs; discussions with club statisticians, archivists and historians around the country; newspapers and much more. It’s a long, hard slog getting City’s (and other clubs) history correct and there are still many myths out there. For me the important thing has always been to get to primary sources and do the physical research on contemporary stuff myself. It’s laborious, difficult, time consuming, costly and more but totally worth it when a gem is uncovered.

Some clubs still have primary material like specific turnstile counting ledgers like this one from the 1950s. Some clubs have this stuff going back to the beginning. This ledger, as an example, shows the attendance for a public practice match. That won’t appear anywhere else, so it’s vital to get to these type of sources.

Sadly, I don’t have images of every ledger, page or record I’ve researched.

I hope this helps explain. That ‘Footo Facts’ booklet that you originally posted wasn’t researched to this level unfortunately and was put together as part of a series on multiple clubs. Booklets like that are quite often a commercial enterprise where Material is lifted from other sources without rigorous checking.

I remember you saying a few years back that you were investigating our historical crowds and you had potential evidence that they were higher than stated. I really can't wait for these results. Good work mucker.

 

[BringBackSwales]

What’s our lowest league attendance at COMS/Etihad?

 

[west didsblue]

What’s our lowest league attendance at COMS/Etihad?

Zero for 18 games in 2020/21.