Thetownend.com

Town's FA Cup date with Wigan set to draw huge crowd
           


  FANS are poised to flock to the County Ground on Saturday as Swindon prepare for their most prestigious game of the season against Wigan in the FA Cup.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/9452491.Town_s_FA_Cup_date_with_Wigan_set_to_draw_huge_crowd/?ref=rss
           

And a parking nightmare................

Arrive early to avoid disappointment

"Only here for the Wigan "  :D

Thats such an english reaction to good news.

'The second coming is happening, you gonna come down and see him?'

'No traffic will be terrible.'

Whereas we know the real problem will be all the wankers that turn up at a minute to three but have no idea where their seat is and then spend 10 mins pissing about getting in my way ;)

Hahaha, other fans hey!  When I had a season ticket I sat behind the same bloke for 3 years, he always used to lean right back in his seat, so much so that my legs were virtually at "twenty to four" for the whole match (except when we got a goal, and my knee occasionally connected) .

I had the same problem with a bloke who leaned so far forward that I could only watch one half of a game. My knee would 'accidently' hit his from time to time.

Do they still do parking at the cricket ground?

Just stick it in Tesco

 
As to that....I am not sure I could name a single Wigan player...

I watched Wigan play Chelsea in December and if they play as well as that, we'll get murdered.

Personally I hope Rodallega and Victor Moses don't play as on their day are top class. They have a few Scots in their squad so hopefully they play as well, as Gary Caldwell at the back is ropey as hell. Connor Sammon signed from Scotland but I don't think he's anything like a Premiership player.

Therefore its going to be Swindon 0 Wigan 2 (Caldwell, Sammon)

Caldwell and that South amercian bloke in the centre of defence are as slow as fuck, if they both play its an area to target.  Hope Connor Sammon plays he looks like a league 2 striker playing in Premiership.

If they rest Rodallega/Moses/Diame/2 x Jocks in mid and El Habsi they we will have a chance.

I wouldnt put too much credance on a feisty atmosphere working in our favour either...I should imagine the wigan supporters are outnumbers several tens to one at every pl game...

this game will go one of two ways, a miserable 2 - 0 defeat and the whole day being a general damp squib, or, if we can keep it to 0-0 with say 25 to go... I reckon the big crowd migjht see us home..

Posh Red, spot on.

I missed the first goal against Leeds because these idiots would stand at the entrance then come back down, as they were in the wrong section, causing the queue to keep building up.  :badmood:

Parking spaces have to be booked in advance for those wanting to use St Joeys car park on - 0844 8801099 £5 per car.

Only 25 tickets now remain unsold, looks like it will be a total sell out, lovely jubbly.

Not in the Wigan end, their website says there are tickets available on the day in their end.

What's our capacity these days, still around 15k?

Less than 100 were available yesterday.

I believe its 14,700, so even with Wigans not quite selling out it should be at minimum 14,500.

So we'll have about 3k more Swindon fans at this than at the Oxford game. Surprised this has proved to be the bigger draw for the non-regulars.

I don't get that.

I wouldn't think so - doesn't that part of the North Stand hold around 1,500 ?  If Wigan only took 500 that will leave 1000 empty seats - and I guess they can't put Swindon in the Wigan end....

I would think more like 13,500 at most - which is still a bloody good number !!

Just that the attendance for the home game against Oxford was a bit over 12k, and obviously they had a bigger allocation than Wigan. So there was less demand for that match than this FA Cup game from our fans, which I find mildly surprising. Unless I'm missing something re: segregation or what have you that meant that 12 and a bit thousand was effectively a sell out.

You could well be right, but as you say 13,500 would still be brilliant and we will make it a fortress for them, they will come thinking we are a lower league team waiting to be turned over.

I hope we make it a cauldron of noise for them, make them shit themselves at the prospect of playing us.

I know exactly what you are saying but I don't remember either us or Pox saying we or they had actually sold out fully of tickets for that game, but yes there would be probably a bit more segregation involved for that game hence a few less tickets sold.

sorry, I meant that I can't understand why the Wigan game is a bigger draw than Oxford.

Ah, yeah exactly. Prem team, but not exactly star-packed and will be sending their reserves/kids.

Still, always good to get more people to come and watch the side. Hopefully we put on a good performance and at least a few come back again for the rest of the season.

A few reasons for this game being more of a draw than the Oxford game off the top of my head

1. Its not a silly early kick off on a Sunday
2. Tickets are cheaper
3. People aren't frightened off by the potential for trouble that would have been around for the Pox game.
4. The lure of the Premiership team (even though it is only Wigan)

As I said in a different thread...dont exactly think they will be shitting it....dont forget where wigan play, week in week out.
Cant imagine that the CG with 14k home fans and 500 away is worse than the stadium of light for example, with 40k home fans and say 800 away.

In some ways that is true but Wigan arent setting the world alight in the Premier league this season, they will not like a tight close atmosphere at the CG which a lot of Premier League clubs dont have, its a different kind of atmosphere at a packed out smaller ground than it is in a huge arena, more personal.

Many top league players admit they dont like coming to smaller clubs for games.

Also judging by the comments of Martinez he will be playing a fair few inexperienced players that will not be used to playing in front of large intimidating crowds like Conor Sammon, Callum MacManaman, Adrian Lopez etc who have not played that many games in the Premier League.

Good points, but I actually think that the outcome depends more on attitude than atmosphere....if Wigan have their heads in the right place and are focussed then they should do a professional job and dispense with us no probs....

However, if our boys come out the blocks like men possessed, Wigan are not quite at the races, heads elsewhere etc, we put some pressure on, the crowd pick up on this and get behind them...then anything could happen

Connor Sammon played in the SPL, I assume at Ibrox and Celtic Park which would be relatively similar to premier grounds. Tynecastle, Pittodrie and Tannadice would be similar to a full county ground/ MacManaman was on loan to Blackpool last season so has played at Champs level.

Very much so. They SHOULD beat us, but luckily football isn't that straight forward!

5. An upset is on the cards  ;)

Can't wait for this game. Crawley only just got knocked out by Man Utd.
It should be an exciting game.

For those not going it is apparently being shown on foxsoccer.tv which is an online subscription service, but it should mean that there is a feed available somewhere.  Or you can borrow somebodies log in like me! ;)

And yes, as has been pointed out, the Fox site is using Supermarines badge for us, because Americans are stupid and don't know what football is!

Being thick, I don't really understand.  Does this mean there might be a way I could watch it live, for free, via my laptop, without being sent to prison for 500 years?

Six tickets left in the whole ground according to online, 3 in the Arkells, 3 in Don Rogers. Good work.

Look around the web. www.myp2p.pe (http://www.myp2p.pe) rings a bell. Check the site on the day.

I presume if you get caught while watching a stream from that site, you would still not get into trouble, but more so the website creaters themselves. That being said, the police will never track down their IP, as usually the case, their IP will continuously be changing.

Either way, you're NEVER going to get caught.

If the game is being streamed live, whether subscription or not, it will appear on one of the usual suspect sites somewhere

2 left in the don rogers and thats it.

 This is a tough one to call....we've not had a Prem team at the CG since the Cup lost its lustre and Prem teams are happpy to more or less forfeit the match....so to the outside obsever would it be an upset?  Nevertheless they are a massive cclub compared to us, so should be able to field 2 sides capable of doing a job on us.

All gone chaps.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: The might be in the top league but I wouldn't go that far Reg

I'm feeling confident that we will turn em over

Unfortunately if you look at all the pertinent factors like crowd size, turnover, wage bill, time in the top flight, etc they aremuch bigger than us.

The only reason they are in the top flight is because all of the money thrown at them. They were getting between 5.5-7k average attendance when they were in league one (division 2) just under 10 years ago, this was in their new stadium as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see it fall back to that if they one day drop down to where they belong.

But Reg is rght, they ARE 3 divisions higher than us, have higher crowds than us and have been in the Premier League longer than we ever were, so technically that makes them bigger than us.

BBC have just reported its a sell out for saturday happy days cant wait now for saturday.

Well Giant Pandas are bigger than leopards, but which ones scarier?

Now I could live with bigger, but massive they are not. Guess I'm just splitting hairs about it really, even though I'm not going I'm still pretty excited about it

Also the fact that we can sell out testifies to the pull of a Prem side on the neutral....think the last time we played them and rolled them over with goals by Invincibile and Gurney, the crowd was just over 5000 There weren't that many more for Uddersfield in R1, a club with a lot of history unlike Wigan but still Div 3.

You're [url width=110 height=110]http://freesmileyface.net/smiley/msn-emoticons/msn-emoticon-fishing-175.gif (http://freesmileyface.net/free-msn-emoticons-smileys.html)[/url] again...so I'll respond.

Making that kind of comparison (Wigan vs STFC) is like saying any one of us would end up being savaged by Bambi if our cervine friend was placed on a permanent diet of steroids.  Everyone knows Wigan are minnows punching well above their weight - for no reason other than the cash supplied by their benefactor.  They are a waste of a Premiership place.

Personally I'd say it's a good thing that an unfashionable club can punch above their weight for a while, with nothing more than some astute financial backing from the owner, and mostly decent management. I rather wish it could have been us..

I can see that too...but, for me, the stronger, more important argument is that competition is devalued if you're able wade in and skew it with a cheque book.  All teams are guilty to a greater or lesser degree...but you have to draw the line somewhere.  While they all operate at different levels, I dislike Wigan, Man City and Crawley for precisely the same reason.

if anyone wants a spare ticket i have one as i have work to complete a contract so i can get paid :badmood:, its in the DRS :cry:

Is it free?

it is dave, and if its for you i will put bells on it to :D

I'm sorely tempted but I've got to stay here and make sure the recording gets done, thanks anyway Gary

What a sell out does say, Is "build it, and they will come".

Must show the board what happens when ticket prices get lowered. Not the must attracted tie. Yes its Premier League at home, but I think the ticket prices had a huge influence.

but anyone who thinks their club can get to the premiership and sustain their place without a significant backer is deluded, what Wigan have done could have been any club with a wealthy backer....its just a lucky dip. There are very few clubs that make a profit these days...

You say its devalues football but football was devalued years ago, probably when blackburn won the premier league...

ou can add Chelski & Ethnicburn to that too.

What are Wigan ticket sales like, technically it cannot be a sell out unless they have sold their allocation as well

Dont agree...Bradford will say they are bigger than us?....in fact technically they are not but in reality they are one of the biggest clubs outside the Championship.
Wigan are small fish swimming in a big pool.....not technically but for sure in reality.

Around 500. To be specific it should state sell out for home fans.

Norwich and Swansea seem to be doing ok at the mo without spending too much. Jury is out on those two really until next season, so many promoted teams seem to do fine the first season and it unravels in the second

Anyhow fuck the Premier League, this game's about us and a great chance to see how good our side is

when i collected stratton bank tickets today at lunch they said that there are no 2 seats together left for the other stands. so technically it will never be a sell out unless people started buying on their own. should be a playoff atmosphere cant wait

all the tickets have now been sold, that was the case for the other stands yesterday i believe. All home tickets have now been sold

When was the last proper sell out? was it the Charlton playoff game, I can't remember if that was a sell out or not.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/8673059.stm

13,560....so no not a sell out but fairly close.

Really? When was the last sell out then. Quite impressive that potentially we could have more for this game than the playoffs semis.

I think with certain games segregation of fans may cut the full capacity?....Wigan will be close to capacity i reckon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/8450995.stm

Looks like this one...crowds at bottom of link.

Haha a smile came on my face the second I saw the score.  :D Brilliant night that was. The away game wasn't bad either. 

Dunno if it's been posted but: http://www.setanta.com/ie/TV-Listings/

Means there should definitely be a few streams about.

We've gone Europe wide, showing on this lot

Al Jazeera Sport +3   
  Al Jazeera Sport +5   
  C+ Fútbol (spain)   
  Idman TV   
  Nova Sport (czech rep)   
  Setanta Ireland (ROI only)   
  SK Prime (serbia)   
  Sky Calcio 2   
  Sky Sport 1 (italy)   
  Sport 1 (russia)   
  SportKlub (poland)   
  Tring Sport 1   
  TRK Futbol   
  TV10 (sweden)   
  Viasat Sport (norway)   
  ~ C+ Fútbol HD (spain)   
  ~ Sky Calcio HD2   
  ~ Sky Sport HD1 (italy)   
  ~ Sport 1 HD (russia)

Should be a very good chance of finding a decent quality stream then.

...or the 14,731 against walsall in 2007   :)

I don't think the ground even holds that now.

14,508 for our midweek 3-0 dicking of Leeds.

That was good.

Games on in jesters

I think it does without the netting in the DRS.

Don't forget the BBC radio Swindon preview 7-8pm tonight. What else would you be doing on a Friday night!

Waiting for Take It Like A Fan on Sky Sports!

Sounds like a terrible nightclub.

Assume it isn't

It's a Snooker Club nr Greenbridge  in Swindon

Fulham as well.