Two home games at
Sixfields in the last seven days have witnessed pitifully low crowds.
City fans have become used to small attendances in their temporary
Northampton 'home' but the gates against Crewe Alexandra &
Hartlepool plumbed new depths. The 2-2 draw with Crewe was watched by
the club's lowest ever league crowd of 1,618 whilst on Tuesday night
for the FA Cup replay with Hartlepool there were only 1,214 in the
ground, the lowest FA Cup crowd for a home game since records were
kept. Low crowds are the norm for FA Cup replays these days. City's
last home replay in the completion four years ago, against
Premiership Portsmouth, attracted just over 7,500 - less than half
than the crowd three days earlier for a league game with Barnsley.
Compare that to some of the crowds for home replays in the 1950s &
60 - 23,500 that watched Huddersfield in 1955, 25,000 for Pompey in
1963 & almost 28,000 for Crewe in 1966. The FA Cup just doesn't
get the pulses racing like it used to. One record still intact is the
lowest home crowd for a competitive game set in 1985 when 1,086
turned up at Highfield Road for a meaningless Full Members Cup tie
with Millwall. Who, that night, would have thought that eighteen
months later a quarter of a million people would turn out in the
streets of Coventry to acclaim the Wembley heroes.
Talking of Barnsley,
City's replay victory earned a trip to the Championship club on the
first weekend in January and early indications point to a large City
following at Oakwell. Barnsley might be struggling in the league but
with Danny Wilson appointed as manager this week and an excellent FA
Cup pedigree in recent seasons, they will be tough opponents. The
clubs have never met in the FA Cup but City's recent record at
Oakwell is good. They have lost their last two visits there but
before that had registered four consecutive victories.
The Sky Blues travel to
Swindon today for a league game & their record at the County
Ground does not augur well. Since 1953 City have won just one of 12
league visits to the ground although they have won two FA Cup ties
there (1966 & 2001). I can also vividly remember a League Cup tie
there in 1968-69 season. Swindon, then a Third Division side, had
held First Division City 2-2 at Highfield Road and most City fans
relished a trip to Wiltshire to put their lower status opponents back
in their place. Swindon, inspired by the irrepressible Don Rogers
blew City away and deserved their 3-0 victory. The Robins went on to
win the League Cup final at Wembley adding other First Division
scalps Burnley & Arsenal on the way to lifting the trophy.
Leon Clarke continued
his impressive scoring record on Tuesday night, netting twice to take
his season's tally to 14 from 22 appearances. Since making his debut
on 1st January he has scored 24 goals in 38 appearances (36 starts &
2 subs). Tuesday's brace was his fourth of the season, equalling
David McGoldrick's record last season. The last player to score five
braces in a season was Michael Mifsud in 2007-08. It is four years
this month since Freddie Eastwood scored City's last hat-trick and
maybe Leon can crack that record before the season is out.
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