v Sheffield Wednesday (h) - 21/04/2024

[TheRevAshton]

Home Tickets sold so far (via the ticket map SVG);

Jack Walker - 5,573
BBE Lower - 4,432
Riverside - 2,055
Total - 12,060

We normally get a couple thousand walk-ons too, so factoring in that and the away support, it'll be an okay turnout overall.

Massive missed opportunity by Waggott though, could've near-filled the place had he dropped the prices right down a few weeks ago.

Edited April 18 by TheRevAshton

[BlackburnEnd75]

Personally would to see us go back to a 4-2-3-1. 

The back 5 hasn't really worked for us except at Leeds where we've had to play very deep.

This will be a much different game and I predict a similar situation to the Millwall game if we stick to the same shape, where we are allowed the ball and countered on.

[Mattyblue]

6 minutes ago, TheRevAshton said:

Home Tickets sold so far (via the ticket map SVG);

Jack Walker - 5,573
BBE Lower - 4,432
Riverside - 2,055
Total - 12,060

We normally get a couple thousand walk-ons too, so factoring in that and the away support, it'll be an okay turnout overall.

Massive missed opportunity by Waggott though, could've near-filled the place had he dropped the prices right down a few weeks ago.

Probably be about 5k match tickets sold by KO then, nothing wrong with that.

It is what it is when you only have 9k ST holders, sell more STs = bigger crowds, simple as that.

[TheRevAshton]

14 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Probably be about 5k match tickets sold by KO then, nothing wrong with that.

It is what it is when you only have 9k ST holders, sell more STs = bigger crowds, simple as that.

Yup, but this is Waggott we're dealing with!

He doesn't care about bigger crowds or atmosphere... he's happy to price out most of the local population whilst rinsing the loyal supporters who'll pay pretty much anything. All that matters is that he meets the targets set by his overlords.

Edited April 18 by TheRevAshton

[tomphil]

Sheffield is a two club city but it's massive compared to places like Blackburn and iv'e never known them come close to filling the DE before.

Always good support here but usually in the 3 to 4k region like their inner city rivals so they've no need to be spouting bloody Wrexham brough 7k and Boro have had bigger followings here than Sheff Weds.  In the late 90s they had a couple of really small followings because they weren't very good.

Seems we are in an era of clueless social media kids who haven't much clue but we've seen and heard it all before, doesn't matter how many there is they often go home in silence.

[Herbie6590]

https://linktr.ee/twwpodcast?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=7028bf33-88e7-4d18-be8b-c5a05f928677

[superniko]

Jack Walker numbers sound low, do we know how many ST were sold in that stand?

[oldjamfan1]

2 hours ago, tomphil said:

Sheffield is a two club city but it's massive compared to places like Blackburn and iv'e never known them come close to filling the DE before.

Oh I don't know. They brought some pretty big followings in the 80s (which bucked the trend back then). I distinctly remember their fans being on all 4 sides of the ground one night (a la Man City and Bolton) when they were possibly going for promotion? I think that might have been from the third division as well?

Edited April 18 by oldjamfan1

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

4 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Yes, morten I know you think we have shit support, you’ve made that very clear over the years.

I’m talking about other clubs who also have a plethora (but yes, not as many as us) of empty seats. These clubs also have no parachute payments and I would wager wouldn’t mind the extra revenue from 5k+ followings, but they choose to restrict - why? If not to the protect home advantage?

We’re a Championship club with attendances more commonly seen in League 1. What part of that do you disagree with? It’s no comment on the quality of support or underlying reasons for why our attendances are low. It’s impressive that we get c10k fans each week considering pricing and catchment area, but it doesn’t change the overall situation.

I assume other clubs don’t allow such big away allocations because they wouldn’t normally have an entire stand empty of home fans to reallocate. They’d probably also expect to sell out whenever the big games come around which we never do even with cheaper tickets. Oxford is the only outlier and that’s once in 12 years.

[Mattyblue]

Nobody thinks we have impressive crowds, but we also know there are mitigating factors.

All those other clubs could give more tickets in their existing away areas - they choose not to. 

Edited April 18 by Mattyblue

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Oh I don't know. They brought some pretty big followings in the 80s (which bucked the trend back then). I distinctly remember their fans being on all 4 sides of the ground one night (a la Man City and Bolton) when they were possibly going for promotion? I think that might have been from the third division as well?

Clearly i'm on about the current DE which is considerably bigger than what was allowed on back then and like i said late 90's they didn't many at all..... in the Prem.

First Sheff Weds game i remember they had a lot in the old DE and Megson scored a 30 yard screamer then they were all fighting with the old bill for some reason 🤣

The one and only club iv'e never seen have even one single low following at Ewood no matter what their form or division is Leeds Utd.

Man U as well but that was always the Prem and they don't count seeing as the coach park is always full of vehicles from Oxford, Wales and Ireland !

[JHRover]

Simple explanation for it is that all other clubs have one eye on factors other than immediate cash flow. Factors such as positive atompshere, growth, medium to long term consequences of decisions, footballing concerns.

Here we have a charlatan masquerading as CEO employed to take the focus off the owners and cut their expenditure. With that remit he will do whatever he needs to do to keep his figures looking well, and as we've seen with some of his 'policies' to date there's nothing off the table in pursuit of that. Last I heard one was renting out Ewood for Liverpool and Man Utd legend events, a clear sign to anyone just what sort of people we are dealing with here.

 

[Mercer]

3 hours ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Oh I don't know. They brought some pretty big followings in the 80s (which bucked the trend back then). I distinctly remember their fans being on all 4 sides of the ground one night (a la Man City and Bolton) when they were possibly going for promotion? I think that might have been from the third division as well?

I remember the Owls pretty well from the Jack Charlton era.

Their fans didn't half make some noise in the old Darwn End.

They were a physical and aggressive team and names like Bob Bolder, Mel Sterland and Terry Curran readily spring to mind.

Some good battles were had home and away.

Edited April 18 by Mercer

[Uddersfelt Blue]

I think we should worry more about their team rather than how many fans they are bringing. They will be tough opposition despite their position. We need to stop Bannon from running the show as he invariably does. We also need to avoid being bullied as they are a big physical side. Not giving away silly free kicks and corners would be a start. 
 

 

[MarkBRFC]

3 hours ago, tomphil said:

Clearly i'm on about the current DE which is considerably bigger than what was allowed on back then and like i said late 90's they didn't many at all..... in the Prem.

First Sheff Weds game i remember they had a lot in the old DE and Megson scored a 30 yard screamer then they were all fighting with the old bill for some reason 🤣

The one and only club iv'e never seen have even one single low following at Ewood no matter what their form or division is Leeds Utd.

Man U as well but that was always the Prem and they don't count seeing as the coach park is always full of vehicles from Oxford, Wales and Ireland !

Only one I can recall is early doors in the 97-98 season when we lost 4-3 under Hodgson, just about filled the bottom right corner of the Darwen End.

Agree on Sheff Wed though they bought some really low followings in the 90s.

Edited April 18 by MarkBRFC

[Michael123458]

2 hours ago, Uddersfelt Blue said:

I think we should worry more about their team rather than how many fans they are bringing. They will be tough opposition despite their position. We need to stop Bannon from running the show as he invariably does. We also need to avoid being bullied as they are a big physical side. Not giving away silly free kicks and corners would be a start. 
 

 

2 0 rovers. 

[ABBEY]

10 hours ago, superniko said:

A certain Man City match comes to mind.

Aye true ...didn't stop near us tho haha

[bigbrandjohn]

I can see why they are called Sheffield Wednesday. I have been worrying about this game since Wednesday. 😉

[Ossydave]

On 17/04/2024 at 20:30, JHRover said:

Yes I know we are rock bottom.

So what's the solution? Just hand over the ground to whoever wants it and shrug shoulders?

Or make the effort to get more home fans in, and fill the ground up a bit that way?

Of course filling it with home fans is the ideal scenario, but, we ain't getting anything close to 23k home fans any time soon REGARDLESS. The only time that's even a possibility is if we ever got promoted now, the closest otherwise is lucrative Cup games. No way on this planet would we sell 23k home tickets vs Sheff Weds in current circumstances.

Even Waggott himself would prefer to fill the ground with home fans, lower policing costs etc, him and the other cronies involved are too simple to think of anything remotely viable to help though with that.

[RTM08]

So we managed to get a good win last time out but this game is going to be a very different beast. The pressure is on and SW will have a big following behind them. That said, Wednesday have dropped off since Poveda got injured and we should be confirming safety this weekend with a win. 

Rovers 2-1 Wednesday

[RoversTilliDie]

On 14/04/2024 at 09:49, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Team selection will be interesting. Although a draw would probably be enough for us, playing for one is fatal more often than not. 

Let's not make the fatal mistake of taking the foot off the gas, Sheffield Wednesday will be out to win this one 100%. Let's give it 200% and give the loyal supporters what they deserve, a first win on home soil since the Stoke City  match at Ewood.

[wilsdenrover]

On 14/04/2024 at 09:49, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Team selection will be interesting. Although a draw would probably be enough for us, playing for one is fatal more often than not. 

I think we should set ourselves up to go for the win but we shouldn’t change things late in the game to ‘chase’ the win.

If it is level going into the last 20 Wednesday will probably feel they have to force things and, if this happens, hopefully we’ll be able to exploit the holes this will create.

 

[roversfan99]

We have to go into the game with the objective not to avoid defeat but to win and seal our survival. Its a game we have to be favourites to win against second bottom at home. Sheffield Wednesday have definitely improved under Rohl but their team on paper is nothing to fear.

Team selection wise, there should normally be the temptation to move away from the back 5. The only issue is beside the 3 attackers we played last week, I dont think we have anyone else in attack who is good enough, so that might force our hand to go with the same team again.

[Upside Down]

We should be going into every game looking for a win, regardless of the opposition.

[WacoRover]

Our marketing people stink.
The below is only an example:

if Rovers sold 20,000 tix at £10/each, they would make more money than selling 10,000 tix at £20/each. 

How?

20,000 would buy more kits, pies & pints. it would also be more likely to encourage fans in Rovers’ catchment area. Young, old, & families alike. 

Winning improves attendance. IMO, the club can’t reduce ticket prices to every single game. But they can drop prices to insure fans still want to attend to see “their team”, even if that team is not chasing promotion.
The club flubbed on this a long time ago, when they didn’t drop ticket prices on the final 2 or 3 home games, when it was obvious our fans were not going to see a promotion-chasing Rovers team this year. 

Edited April 19 by WacoRover