Saints are about to play in front of 30k for the first time this season, but sadly it looks like it wont be at St Mary's.

St Mary's seems set to get the biggest home crowd so far this season when West ham visit next Tuesday evening, hopefully it will soar over the 30,000 mark, certainly it should do, lets be blunt if we cant get a full house when we sit at the top of the table and play not only one of our biggest rivals for promotion, but the most star studded team in the division, then its hard to see when we will.

However Saints might get pipped to the post to be the first club to hit 30k in the Championship this season * by Derby County on Saturday who are expecting a crowd nudging into that area on Saturday.

The Rams despite being the second best supported club in the division so far this season with an average of 24,414, exactly 473 above Saints who lie in third, are not resting on their laurels and are mounting an aggressive marketing campaign to drive up attendances at Pride Park.

Despite the Saints game due to it being a top of the table clash likely to be well above average, Derby have boosted the crowd further by offering a deal via Groupon, as well as offering former season ticket holders a free ticket for the game, these measures look set to ensure that not only will this be the highest crowd of their season so far, beating the 27,210 that saw them play Birmingham on the opening day, but also the first gat in the division to top that magical 30k figure this season.

West Ham nearly became the first club to get past that landmark recently falling only 15 short for the visit of Peterborough to Upton Park and their average of 27,884 is more than 3k above Derby in second and almost 4k above ourselves in third with 23,941.

On Tuesday if Derby fail to hit 30k for our visit, we get our own opportunity to get tthe biggest crowd of the Championship season so far* when West Ham visit, as mentioned earlier with this being one of the biggest games of the season and the Hammers likely to completely fill the away section, the ground deserves to be full, in fact the way that this Saints team has played this season they deserve to play to a full house, in fact anything less given the importance to the game, would be a snub to Nigel Adkins and his team and they do not deserve that.  

* Since the story has been written its been brought to my attention that the West Ham V Pompey clash had a gat of 33k, however for some strange reason neither the West ham website or the Official football league website are recording the crowd as such.

I dont know why this is the case or whether there is some dispute as to the official attendance, so in the meantime i have left this story up as originally written as the bulk of it refers to Saints.        

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 12:35 - Oct 12 I don't understand why gates are so low at home. Maybe we need to start getting more aggressive in the ticket selling department. Our football does warrant it. Fair play to Derby for taking the initiative. Let's just hope we take good support and make them the first thoroughly p1ssed-off 30k+ gate of the season!!
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TimSaint added 13:27 - Oct 12 There was some controversy about the attendance for the Hammers v Skates match. The official attendance did not get published in any of the Sunday papers the following day, or appear on Websites for ages after - must have been something dodgy going on !! Agree that our home attendances should be better - but at least it means there is a bit more space for me to take my daughter and there are less queues for a half time pint !! I'm sure things will pick up the longer we stay at the top !! Maybe they can do a few more offers, or at least remove the booking fees, or £2 add on for purchasing on the day ? Our away support has been very good for the last few seasons, so long may that continue - hopefully at Derby on Saturday as well. We should sell out our allocation for our "derby" against Reading. BTW - On the subject of Derby this weekend, apparently, for those not going, it is being shown on some foreign (possibly Greek) channel, so check with your local pub - they may be showing it live. That Landlady taking on the Euro Court over viewing rights will probably have access to the channel, but doubt she will be showing it - not because of the court case, but because she is from Skateland !! :o)

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SaintNick50 added 13:39 - Oct 13 Is it correct that you can purchase tickets on the day?
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