Every EFL Home and Away Attendance in Midweek – 19th August

Time to take a look at the crowd numbers from the third tier, first up it’s the home attendances for the midweek League One fixtures.

The game with the most fans in through the turnstiles came at Hillsborough, as Sheffield Wednesday played host to Fleetwood Town and ended up winning 1-0.

Lee Gregory scored the decisive goal early in the first half to open his account and secure a second successive victory in four days.

His side showed flashes of brilliance in a contest the hosts largely dominated, although Town did have their moments.

But the Owls kept the Cod Army at bay and remain one of a handful of teams yet to concede this term.

1) 21,130 – Sheffield Wednesday v Fleetwood Town

2) 14,471 – Portsmouth v Shrewsbury Town
3) 10,532 – Plymouth Argyle v Cambridge United
4) 9,130 – Lincoln City v Bolton Wanderers
5) 8,671 – Wigan Athletic v Wycombe Wanderers
6) 7,939 – MK Dons v Charlton Athletic
7) 6,757 – Oxford United v Crewe Alexandra
8) 4,746 – Cheltenham Town v Ipswich Town
9) 4,239 – Burton Albion v Sunderland
10) 4,004 – Morecambe v Rotherham United
11) 2,223 – Accrington Stanley v Doncaster Rovers
-) TBC – AFC Wimbledon v Gillingham

Time to continue our look at the crowd numbers from the third tier, next up it’s the away attendances for the midweek League One fixtures.

1) 1,565 – Charlton Athletic fans at MK Dons

2) 1,444 – Sunderland fans at Burton Albion

3) 1,002 – Bolton Wanderers fans at Lincoln City

4) 995 – Ipswich Town fans at Cheltenham Town

5) 920 – Gillingham fans at AFC Wimbledon

6) 640 – Rotherham United fans at Morecambe
7) 463 – Doncaster Rovers fans at Accrington Stanley
8) 337 – Wycombe Wanderers fans at Wigan Athletic
9) 259 – Shrewsbury Town fans at Portsmouth
10) 214 – Cambridge United fans at Plymouth Argyle
11) 204 – Crewe Alexandra fans at Oxford United
-) TBC – Fleetwood Town fans at Sheffield Wednesday

There were modest increases in attendances so far in the English Football League compared to the last season without capacity limits.

With Covid still lingering around, on this occasion, it didn’t deter fans from attending matches over the weekend, with crowds up overall in each division compared to the average for the 2019/20 season.

Data gathered by the PA news agency shows that there is a modest increases in the third and fourth tiers of English football, though there was a drop at Championship level.

On the first weekend of the season, an there was an average attendance in League One which was up by almost 1,000 overall compared to the average among the weekend’s home clubs in 2019/20 – 11,200 compared to 10,319.

The total number of fans in the grounds in League Two was up by more than 500, which was 4,595 compared to 4,026. That figure excluded Harrogate and Hartlepool, who were in the National League in 2019/20.

The figures will be a boost to lower league clubs, who generally depend more heavily on matchday revenue than those in the Premier League and the Championship and were therefore hit hardest by being forced to play the entire season behind closed doors in some cases last term.

The average second-tier attendance in the first round of Championship games was 16,294, 1,437 lower than the combined average for the clubs playing at home in the 2019/20 season.

Clarke says the FSA membership has a broad range of opinions on whether vaccine passports is something that should get the green light, but adds the most important thing is a clear, rational approach.

“Speaking to the leagues, I get the impression they are a little bit frustrated that there hasn’t been central guidance on this on what measures are appropriate,” he said.

“The result of that is that local safety advisory groups, advised by their local directors of public health, seem to be taking some different views in different areas. Where that’s justified by higher infection rates, that’s fully understandable and you might expect the measures taken are a bit more stringent. But where it’s not, it feels a bit arbitrary.

“If fans feel that a decision to do a particular procedure at a ground that isn’t being done at a different ground can’t be explained by infection rates then they’re likely to get a bit annoyed and frustrated by it.

“The key message from us is for all the Cs – clear communication and consultation about how it works in practice. If clubs do that I think fans will understand. It’s a problem for all of us, and we’re all on the same page.”

 

Take a look at photos of League Two away ends on the next page.

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