Boxing Day attendance 1968

[oldtimer]

Yesterday's attendance of 5,866 was the highest Barrow Football League gate since Boxing Day 1968. It is also the first time the gate has topped 5000 since the Fulham game on 30 August 1969 when 5,665 were present. The last time we had a gate in excess of yesterday was ( ironically enough ) Boxing Day 1968. The long arm of coincidence continues. On that occasion 6,358 watched Barrow take a 2 goal lead against Stockport County only to end up drawing 3-3.

Let's hope that the coincidences stop there. We had topped the league only 6 weeks earlier, but had seemed to plateaux in December. In fact that game marked the high water mark of our previous EFL career. As we walked out of Holker Street that day, little did we suspect that we would go on to win only 34 of the next 162 Football League fixtures on offer over the subsequent three and a half seasons.

[xerxes]

Yesterday's attendance of 5,866 was the highest Barrow Football League gate since Boxing Day 1968. It is also the first time the gate has topped 5000 since the Fulham game on 30 August 1969 when 5,665 were present. The last time we had a gate in excess of yesterday was ( ironically enough ) Boxing Day 1968. The long arm of coincidence continues. On that occasion 6,358 watched Barrow take a 2 goal lead against Stockport County only to end up drawing 3-3.

Let's hope that the coincidences stop there. We had topped the league only 6 weeks earlier, but had seemed to plateaux in December. In fact that game marked the high water mark of our previous EFL career. As we walked out of Holker Street that day, little did we suspect that we would go on to win only 34 of the next 162 Football League fixtures on offer over the subsequent three and a half seasons.

Yes, I was at both those games. The coincidence of losing a 2 goal lead against Stockport occurred to me too. I remember Roy McCarthy scoring the first two goals, both left footed, which was unusual as he was a right footed player. The first was a superb volley from outside the area. Just before half time an innocuous ball bounced up and hit Brian Arrowsmith's arm - completely accidental and never any danger of it preventing a goal, but the ref gave a penalty anyway, and it got Stockport back in the game. Ridiculous penalty awards have been there long before VAR!

The decline seemed to start soon after the win over Plymouth in November, when the winning goal was 'scored' by the ref. I think we used up several seasons' luck in that match!

[Falstaff]

When was the last crowd above 5000 in any competition?

[AugustusCorpa]

Without checking, Colne Dynamo’s? We had 6002 in against Enfield.

[Spanner]

When was the last crowd above 5000 in any competition?

5349 against Aston Villa I think. A match also reffed by Martin Coy.

[AugustusCorpa]

I forgot about the Villa game. We’ve had Rotherham and Rochdale in the FA Cup in recent years with biggish crowds. Also, the Dover Trophy game when some fans never even got in.

*Just checked and the Rotherham and Rochdale gates smaller then I thought they were. There must have been over 5k in for that Dover game though.

[mall]

Does anyone know what the gate was when we beat Altrincham in that trophy replay? I never did find out! It seemed massive that night and if I remember correctly they held the kick off back because of the huge amount of people (or so it seemed) queuing to get in!

[snowdropsinjune]

The attendance for the Altrincham F.A.Trophy match 87/88 was 5121 and the Enfield Trophy match was indeed 6002

[saltcellar]

I forgot about the Villa game. We’ve had Rotherham and Rochdale in the FA Cup in recent years with biggish crowds. Also, the Dover Trophy game when some fans never even got in.

*Just checked and the Rotherham and Rochdale gates smaller then I thought they were. There must have been over 5k in for that Dover game though.

4,217 for the Dover game.
Ground capacity a lot lower then.
There were many people locked outside unable to see the match.

[Rob]

Worth adding that Barrow's population has dropped by about 10,000 since the late 60s. This year's attendance is probably a higher percentage of the town than in 1968, just short of 10%