Urban Myths........True Facts

TIME TO DEBUNK A MYTH, AND PROVIDE SOME CHEER

For those of you who might have been taken in by the "little brother" syndrome promoted by our eastern siblings, time to desist !

You may feel that we have at the moment a crap team and a crap manager, but you can certainly take comfort from the fact that you are part of a great set of fans.

This, of course, is about attendances. It's a subject I have no intention of gloating over, but some facts need to be pointed out and appreciated.

There has been a reluctance by our Cardiff neighbours to accept that we have, this season, been better supported at home games than they, and various reasons put forward for this - the new stadium effect in particular.

Of course, that should be more than countered by their strive for the ultimate promotion for most of the season, but that is something that they conveniently ignore.

However, this is not initially about home attendances, of which there is no question who is currently in the ascendancy, but of our relative away followings.

It has long been propagated on their sites (and of course on their visits here) that their away support is far in excess of ours, with them mocking us for followings such as 227 at Scunthorpe and 495 at Huddersfield.

Now, if we look at the global picture for the season, we have each completed 21 of our 23 away matches and surprise, surprise, our aggregate away following is 20905,

compared to Cardiff's of 20168.

Alternatively put, our average stands at 995, with theirs at 960.

With two away games each left, either team could come out on top - that does not concern me - whatever the end result, it will be close.

What it does is give lie to the fallacy that they are a better supported club than we are.

It reinforces the view that I have always held - the core support of the clubs is on a par.

I am sure that the statisticians out there will use averages, means, medians to support whatever they wish to promote, but the end result is that the total numbers who will have watched each club in away league games this season will be very closely matched.

Turning to the question of overall attendances - home and away -

I would not take issue with the contention that Cardiff could command potentially bigger crowds than us, but that is a spurious argument as can be applied to any areas of differing population catchment - the potential numbers of casual fans will be related to the overall population. Hence, with both teams enjoying the same degree of success, they could attract bigger crowds than us, in the same way that Leeds and Sunderland would far outstrip Cardiff by the same token.

Things change - so no point in gloating, but it all provides further evidence of an underlying equal level of base support, unlike the east would have us believe.

Photo: Action Images

Queens Park Rangers Polls