Thetownend.com

I would hope we can take the Leeds atmosphere into this game and a 11-12k crowd, but I really don't know what to expect. I was surprised at the crowd for the Gill's game, really expected +2k on that gate.

I have a bad feeling it'll be a shit crowd.

9065 with 1000 from Charlton. I hope I'm wrong.

Surely we will top 10k for this one?

Home to a glamour club that we have a good shout of beating

8500 ish

9273 with 800 from charlton.

About 8,000

8,812 with 625 from Charlton.

whilst I suspect 8-9k isnt far from the mark, that would be very very dissapointing. If this was the case Fitton et al (and the players) must be thinking, what do we have to do.?
Breaking the 10k barrier would be nice...

OS think it'll be a 10,000+ crowd on Saturday. I see Charlton only took 400 up to Walsall last night; are they saving their dosh for Saturday or plain shit support?

Think it will be a nervy atmosphere on Saturday. Charlton to bring about 1,000 I predict.

From what i've been told we can expect between 10,500 & 11,500 but that was from the bloke in the ticket office soapy tit wank  :D

you mean this guy?

Gills attendance was very poor. Fingers crossed that was a one off.

Anything less than 9,000 is a bit worrying saturday.

My son is coming with me on Saturday, he has been three times this season but he was so impressed with the Leeds game that he is also bringing a mate who has never set foot in the CG before!  Let's hope it's a good game and they all come back again.

Pretty poor effort on charlton's behalf so far,they are yet to sell the 1200 tickets for the away section in the arkells.

What a shit away following they have,considering they are only four points off automatic promotion and have good travel links.

8,268 and disappointed

The OS isn't usually wrong with their crowd prediction (they do sell the tickets!) so it should be over 10k. Agree that Charlton's away support is shit, taking into account their home attendances. Must be all the pikey supporters they used to bus in free from Kent in the early 90's.

Sell out, with 2000 supporters locked out of the ground.

I still think that was as much to do with the game being immediately after people had had a recession-hit Christmas they couldn't afford and before Jan payday. I don't think people are making as much allowance as they should be for how hard recession hits gates - bear in mind for the "floating voters" in the crowd, football is firmly in the "discretionary spending" camp and is going to get cut when they have to tighten belts.

Fuck knows what the gate will be on Saturday mind. Anything over 9000 and 3 points and I'll be chuffed

10800 with a thousand from Charlton, why dont they just stick the away fans on the bank then at least the nosie of the inevitable irritating drum that the Charlton fans will constantly bang will drift away in the wind. Do we have to provide a covered away area under League rules ?

I stupidly agreed to go away for the weekend without checking the fixture list. So i hope it's crap.

That's the trouble with gingers, no thought for others.

The bullying from a young age leaves us bitter and vengeful...

"Must be all the pikey supporters they used to bus in free from Kent in the early 90's"

Think you have hit the nail on the head there system. They still do bus all these in, when we played at the valley on boxing day there were a long line of coaches all coming from Kent- Herne Bay, Canterbury, Whitstable, Margate, Ramsgate. My relatives indeed live in Margate and they said that Charlton have a huge following there.

May explain why the away support is so low.

I remember Paul Scally getting very upset about those buses on SSN once. It made me like Charlton a lot more than I had before.

Charlton are seen as the first team of Kent, not really a London team. We get all their coverage on our regional BBC news programme South East. Gillingham, Charlton and Brighton.

No, but putting them in the Arkells makes financial sense as they have to pay more and we don't need stewards, catering etc for a fourth stand.

It would be dissapointing not to get over 10000 against a big team.

10432 with 1023 from Charlton

They'll bring easy over 1k, probably near 1500.

Well Arkells holds 1200, so more than that and they have to open the bank. Speaking today to a Charlton fan he said that they seemed more interested in tickets for their game at Southend.

God knows why, bar geography i suppose, colder and shitter than our ground by miles, oh and they might win that one!

The buses are a great idea - something we could consider....

You're joking right? Charlton is one of the most weird grounds i've been to. You know you generally see away coaches scattered around the surrounding areas etc well all the buses and coaches at The Valley were "Charlton FC Kent Supporters" etc. WTF is all that about? For a club with a huge catchment area (I mean London is huge even if you have Millwall and West Ham down the road) that's just silly.

Why on earth would we need buses when Swindon has a population of 180,000 and the nearest football league club is 29 miles away?

The people of Kent are very loyal and Welling is in Kent and basically 2 miles from the Valley, Charlton is almost a Kent club rather than a London club.

It is/was a good idea.  They were bankrupt, lost their ground and spent years nomading, which was hardly condusive to retaining or building a fanbase.  They had a massive enough job on getting back to the Valley, to have the ideas to fill them damned thing and have to expand it was all credit to them.

They got oo carried away with their success in the end though, which is a shame because they were the club to aspire to be like for most of us for a while.  I suppose they now are a warning that even well run clubs can have their heads turned and chase a dream.

It worked for Reading.

Know a few lads from Hungerford and they said there used to be busses for Town fans there and back, subsidised by the club. It meant they never really missed the lack of a train service. Think the bus from Stroud also used to be very popular. Plenty of fans who used to use those busses still come today.

Obviously our support in the actual Town of Swindon is fairly pitiful. But it has to be said that Swindon has become a fairly mobile population because of its rapid growth, whereas the Towns around Swindon the populations are more static.

Plus youve got the fact that comming in from small Towns like Chippenham, Melksham, Stroud, Bassett and Hungerford makes it much more of a day out, something different. I know Town fans who have actually moved into Swindon and then stopped going to the County Ground!

There always used to be a coach from Devizes on match days when I was a little kid. Don't know if it was paid for by the users or the club.

Against Leeds...5 mins before kickoff Leeds fans were silent...so were the Town fans....the players inspired the Town fans,it was a great atmosphere because the players played with guts, passion and no little skill...at last weve got a team we can get behind...even as a loyal Town fan ive found it hard to get behind them in recent years...

I remember that, Bodmans coach used to pick up from various places around Town. 
I also used to get a coach from Calne sometimes (can't remember if it was Rimes or Thomas').

No idea if it was subsidised, but was great for us as kids, 'cause it was a fairly cheap way of getting to games.

Ashton keynes and Cricklade was serviced by Ellisons.  Privately run and used to park in coleburn street

They've sold 900 apparently, would imagine there will be a few more pay on the day, cant see them opening the SB, which would be embarrassing the other way round.

Malmesbury and surrounding areas were serviced by Athelstan coaches.  Usually two buses, one from the villages and one from the town.

silver knight used to knock around gloucestershire i think

Usually in the dogging spot on birdlip hill