i8therags said:
can anyone find and post the rags attendance when they went 37 years without a trophy.I;m sure my dad said before the war they couldn;t even pull as much as Oldham,infact they very nearly went out of the football league altogether if it wasn;t for a very dodgy end of season score in one game.This may be a tast of their future when City have taken over at the top.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm</a>
and click on the "ENGLAND" on the left hand side then whatever year you want.
Has average attendances going back to 1946-47 but be ready to be surprised at the results.
And have to remember that a lot of clubs were building new stands in the early 90s.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.redcafe.net/archives/history/thirties.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.redcafe.net/archives/history/thirties.php</a>
Interesting how things haven't changed much with City winning the derby 4-1, supporters protests, the board ignoring the fans and a man with cash coming to the rescue.
1930 - 1931: Crisis at Old Trafford
As if the previous season had not been bad enough the 1930-31 campaign had to go down as one of United's worst. They started the season losing 4-0 to Villa, followed by a 3-0 loss to Middlesbrough, and then things continued to go downhill. Losses to Chelsea 6-2, Huddersfield 6-0 and Newcastle 7-4 and United's usual devoted support started to wane. By the time Newcastle were waxing them at Old Trafford the crowd numbered less than 11,000.
There was much discontentment from the terraces and the normally placid Supporters club began to make waves. Handbills were passed out outside the ground on match days calling for the Club to heed a five point plan that they had presented to them. The supporters wanted a new manager, an improved scouting system, some new signings, five shareholders elected to the board, and money to be raised through a new share issue. The club ignored the demands refusing to even meet with them, arguing that the Supporters Club was an unofficial body not recognised by the club and unrepresentative of the bulk of the supporters.
Results continued to get worse and by the end of September they had lost all of the opening eight games and were sitting at the foot of the table. On October 4th the team went across town for the derby with Man City under a threat from the Supporters Club that if the board did not respond to them there would be a mass boycott of the home fixture against Arsenal scheduled for the 18th of October. The club did not respond. Man City defeated them 4-1, and the following week West Ham hammered them 5-1. The Supporters Club called an emergency meeting to be held at Hulme Town Hall and as many as 3,000 were reported to have turned up. Mr Greenhough, secretary of the Supporters Club moved that the boycott against Arsenal should go ahead.
Charlie Roberts, the former club captain spoke against the boycott and argued that the fans should be getting behind the team not boycotting them. Roberts was shouted down and the vote was taken to boycott the Arsenal game which was to be played the following day. The visit of the previous years Cup winning team was considered a huge game, and the newspapers had talked about a possible 50,000 crowd, 23,000 made the effort. United lost 2-1 and followed that with a 4-1 loss to Portsmouth.
After these games the attendances slumped even lower and in fact the only time the crowd bettered 10,000 the rest of the year was the local home derby with Man City. In their final game 3,900 watched them play out a 4-4 draw with Middlesbrough. They had lost 27 matches while only winning 7 and conceding a staggering 115 goals. At the end of the season the board finally acted and fired Herbert Bamlett, there was no immediate replacement for him and secretary Walter Crickmer and Louis Rocca took over the reins. But even the long serving secretary, and the man who had named the club Manchester United could not help United's slide and as 1931 ended the club were once again almost bankrupt.
It was at this point that a fairy godmother came to the rescue, this time James Gibson placed 2,000 pound at the club's disposal and indicated he was ready to make further funds available if the board would reconstitute itself. James Gibson was made President and another financial crisis was averted, Gibson placing cash at the club's disposal and guaranting the players' wages.
