[St Charles Owl]

Shouldn't be the norm. Fans are being priced out. Away fixtures are one of the things that have to give when times are tough. It makes it especially easy to give up when we're playing so disappointingly, I have to say!

We put away fans behind the goal and it's a bone of contention with those that give a toss, that it's the best of the two ends. Having been given many a crap view, with or without sun in my eyes, I don't know why we do it either. They say its to get the away fans safely away or summat but we have been to loads if grounds where you have to walk amongst the home fans.

To be fair "some" fans are being priced out but not all by any means!!  Personally I think the bigger problem for you guys, and for us at home this season, is the poor quality of the football on offer and the fact that we are both just mediocre midtable teams.  Had this game seen either of us anywhere near the playoffs then I would imagine you would sell probably 5,000 tickets even at 30 quid and we would have 25k home fans in the ground.  Every team has a hardcore of fans who will go to the home games no matter what situation the club is in, but if you really want to increase attendances then win more games, because that puts the bums on seats more readily than any reduced pricing offer does.

At the end of the day if fans want lower prices then there will need to be a significant boycott of these sort of prices.  I think you will probably bring 1,500 fans, if the tickets were half price, then I still don't think you would have brought twice that number due to the general apathy in your fan base with regards to the teams performances.  You brought 5k to Hillsborough in our promotion season for a December 17th fixture, so just before Xmas when money is always tight, not sure what the prices were but I would bet they were at least 25 quid but becvause both teams were having a lot of success nearly 29k were there!!

As regards the positioning of away fans, Hillsborough is still an old style traditional football ground with 4 individual stands rather than the bowl stadiums that get built today.  As a consequence of that there is no other place to put away fans so they still get given the stand behind the goal.  As more and more bowl stadiums have been built there has been a definite shift to stick away fans in a corner section, presumably to limit their impact of the teams in terms of support.  This to me is one of the things that has led to poorer atmospheres at many newer grounds and that is a shame!!  We all remember the great winning games over the years but we also remember that game when the atmosphere was something special because of the away fans - for you that would probably be Barnsley a couple of years ago on the final day - special atmosphere, special occasion due to relegation worries for both sides and a game that you didn't need to win to be memorable!!