Which side of the JW gregg ? From my seat the kids in the family stand seemed to be milling about, having photos taken with Rover the Dog etc.

Hmm, not something I remember myself very often. I think we often look back to those days with rose tinted spectacles. 30,000 at Ewood for Liverpool with a load of away fans too, of course the atmosphere was great. But there were many games against clubs like Fulham who brought very few and the ground would often have 10,000 or so empty seats, the atmosphere would be average then too, it’s just those empty seats now number 17,000/18,000 - how are you supposed to have a cracking atmosphere with such vast gaps? I go to plenty of away matches and the atmospheres are poor at most of them, so not going to get too worried about it - get safe standing in and we may see changes.

People support how they see fit, they put money into the club, they often bring others who then get the bug, most fans do clap even if they don’t sing and if they don’t, so what? I know you and barry et al are upset about this whole affair. But it was the club that made a mess of the Darwen End issue, not the fans in other stands, so aim your fire at those who deserve it instead of calling long standing Blues, who’ve put up with no end of shite this last few years ‘non supporters’.

Do you? I remember us constantly getting stick about our attendances and atmosphere throughout our PL tenure, it used to rile me up no end, in fact.

Think it’s probably time to move Bennett into the middle at the expense of Smallwood. Richie did a job at League 1 level, but the extra bit of nous and pace that many of those he’s going up against at this level have I feel will leave him exposed.

1,500 up on the equivalent game last season. With the price rises and expectations of a fairly average season, as much as we’d all wish to see a load more of the 27,000 trap, did anyone really expect much more of a crowd than what we saw? At least we now seem to be approaching the levels that we had prior to the Coyle induced nosedive in crowds that saw us struggling to reach five figures...

You don’t sing, you’re not a supporter? Few folk are getting a bit silly now

I’m not staunch anything, I just sit there out of habit really. But it’s obvious surely that a vastly more populated home End has more chance than a few dozen people tucked away in a corner, miles away from that End and seemingly miles away from the away fans too as the club has switched the away half of the Darwen End to the Riverside...

It’s obviously acoustics. There were plenty singing in N01 yesterday, I could hear them loud and clear and it went across the rest of the End at certain points. I used to get told that the Darwen End made plenty of noise but I couldn’t ever hear them, just like I couldn’t hear the JW corner yesterday. End of the day, if there’s going to be around 4,000 folk in the Blackburn End then that is where the noise will come from, not 100 people stood as far as way as possible from that End. If there is not going to be a proper Ultras area set up then the Blackburn End has to be the focal point, so let’s hope it continues to improve, more folk move back and and it gets back to its former glory.

Coyle spotted at Bloomfield Road according to the Blackpool Gazette...

The small clubs seem to be surviving in the PL - Watford, Burnley, Bournemouth etc, so city clubs with decent sized fanbases are getting relegated into this league most years. The Championship of 2001 contained a lot of traditionally small clubs - Grimsby, Stockport, Port Vale, Tranmere, Gillingham, Walsall, Crewe, Wimbledon etc so our standard crowd of 17,000 or so was very competitive as even the city clubs pulled in similar numbers to us. Fast forward to now and the league is full of lots of those city clubs, but for many of them their crowds are much higher- 20,000+ all the way up to 35,000, whilst ours have declined from that era. Doesnt mean we can’t compete, but it is a vastly different league than it once was.

Not sure anymore, league crowds over the past few years generally are at the highest they’ve been in this country since the 1950s/60s. It’s a new golden age in many ways, our decline was just terribly timed. Plus, most clubs now leaving the PL retain most of their support - Stoke, WBA and Swansea as examples- ours collapsed overnight and haven’t come close to recovering.

This is a league now full of city clubs, so as attendances have risen across the board, a lot of these clubs have big catchment areas to pull from. And just as attendances started to rise across England our fan base was being decimated under Kean, this coupled with our small catchment area and it is going to be a slow process for us.

About standard for the Riverside?

Definitely seemed to be more standing and singing in N01 than last year...

The way it is these days. We just aren’t going to get the crowds we’d all like to see for mid table Championship football with £300-£400 season tickets.

12,500 home fans today. 11,000 against Doncaster on the opening day last season. So if we generally have an extra 1,500 fans turning up on last year, then I suppose that’s ok considering the price hike.

You could do, or just wait until they go on general sale on Monday, no chance they’ll sell out...

I presume that was posted to be ironic?

You don't 'need' to win any game unless you get relegated/miss out on promotion by not winning it. However, on paper August seems to have given us a fairly soft landing in the league and we want to be taking advantage, especially with a tough looking September...

I never get the 'if I can't sit/stand in my seat I'm not going'. I've been in my seat for nearly 25 years, I too would be narked and I'd have a good grumble if my area was closed, but give up watching my club over it, never (yes this is easy for me to say because they won't be closng the BBEnd lower, but I can promise you!) However, without doubt the club has missed a trick here, a decent bit of PR could have been something like; 'With the Darwen End now away supporters only, we invite all singers to join our new Barmy Army (or a better title ha!) section, bring your banners and flags!'

And that’s the view most probably had in June. So where has all this £4million stuff come from?

I’m sure that’s the intention, that’s not what his point was at the time.

I thought you said earlier in the window that fans just needed to be patient? Didn’t quite work out ay? But still, have a pop at other posters like seems to be your way these days...

The cricket became secondary a while ago. Just look at the collapse in memberships, the dreadful marketing outside the Roses T20. Amazes me that Notts, who are one of three clubs in the relatively small east midlands, consistently pull in considerably bigger crowds across all formats than the whole north west's only first class club.