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Bradford game sees 500,000th supporter watch FC United at home matches

Bradford game sees 500,000th supporter watch FC United at home matchesSaturday’s match against Bradford Park Avenue marked a milestone occasion in our club’s short history, with the 500,000’th fan passing through the turnstiles to watch an FC United home league match. 500,312 fans have now watched FC at home in the league with 565,216 watching league and cup home matches.

Below, FC United co-owner PAUL HAWORTH looks back at other occasions where big crowds have turned out to watch FC.

The first real biggy was against Winsford United on 2 January 2006 when 4,328 flocked to Gigg Lane. Since early October 2005 we’d been getting crowds in the three thousands, the FC hysteria was taking hold and for many it was surely worth a closer look. As the MRE turnstiles shut before kick-off and the Cemetery Road End opened to allow more fans in, this match confirmed that FC United was definitely here for the long haul, not just ‘til Christmas.

Another New Year’s match which features in our top crowds was the visit to eventual league winners FC Halifax Town on New Year’s Day 2011. A healthy FC away following, many nursing hangovers, made the trip to The Shay making up the 4,023 crowd. Despite us taking an early lead, Halifax ran out 4-1 winners with a goal from that man Jamie Vardy.

In the couple of months prior to the Halifax match, a combined crowd of 19,141 watched FC United compete in three FA Cup matches.

First up was Rochdale away. The all-ticket crowd of 7,048 still remains the highest ever to watch a competitive FC United match. Thousands of us made the short journey to Rochdale on Friday 5th November for a night we’ll always remember. Wisely, Rochdale had agreed to allocate unreversed seats which helped create a terrace like atmosphere. The stand rocked throughout and after Norton’s last minute winner, it was pure bedlam. I normally don’t condone pitch invasions, but for one night only, it felt right.



The jubilant celebrations and subsequent pitch invasion at Rochdale, promptly gave the Brighton Safety Advisory Group reason to make the 2nd Round of the Cup an all-ticket Category C (hi-risk) affair and restrict us to just 900 tickets despite large areas of the capacity 8,850 capacity ground left unpopulated. In the end the Police enjoyed a peaceful nice bit of overtime and for us FC fans stood in the open-air temporary stand positioned miles from the pitch, well, we were on top of the world after a sterling 1-1 draw. A more relaxed police approach could have seen a lot more in the ground that the 5,362 in attendance.



So it was back to Gigg Lane for the replay. On a freezing cold night, we saw all 4 sides of the Gigg Lane open and a staggering crowd of 6,731 attend, with Brighton’s away following barely reaching triple figures.

The 2010 FA Cup run clearly demonstrated there was still an appetite for FC following the giddiness and novelty of the first 2 seasons. With new members joining all the time and in conjunction with the launch of our community shares scheme, we had a glimpse into the future in terms of the crowds we could get once we had our own home.

There may be some debate amongst FC fans as to what our biggest away support has ever been. Some may argue Rochdale, bearing in mind there were quite a few Reds in the home end on top of the 3,200 who had tickets for the away end; or some would argue it was our invasion of Blackpool in February 2006.



Blackpool Mechanics away... a trip we’d been waiting for since the fixtures were announced back in July. Due to Blackpool Mechanics being unable to accommodate such a large expected crowd, the game was switched to Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road. Despite parts of the ground being under-construction, there was still plenty of room for Margy’s huge travelling army to set up camp behind the goal and in the Main Stand. The attendance was announced as a nice round number of 4,300.

There is no doubt however which match was the most ’moodiest’ match in our history. Tuesday 3rd October 2006 - Salford City away played at the Willows in front of 4,058. With many Salford fans turning out to watch their team for the first time and many FC fans choosing not to wear colours, no one had a clue who was who in the unsegregated crowd until Josh Howard opened the scoring for FC on 80 minutes. As the match drew to a close there was a nervous tension in the air. However injury time strikes from future FC players Chris Baguley and Nick Robinson secured the points for Salford. As Salford fans celebrated, we headed for the exits.

Some of our biggest crowds have occurred in mid-week matches where you might not traditionally expect bigger crowds. Rochdale, Brighton and Salford, but also Chorley at home in April 2014.

After stringing together 12 consecutive wins, and with Chorley stumbling a little, the match was all posed to be a potential title decider. Since 2011, we were pretty consistent in terms of average home crowds at a very impressive 1,950 and on the pitch we were consistently getting in the play-offs. So going into the Chorley match many of us thought we may top a crowd 3,000 for the first time in the season and a win could see us actually going on to win the league.



To our amazement the ground kept filling up. The main stand was bulging in both home and away sections and the first few rows of the MRE were filled which was always a sure sign of a big crowd. In the end 4,152 turned out, and despite two late goals from Charlie Raglan and Tom Greaves to come from 2 goals behind to draw, we inevitably ended up in the playoffs once again.

Talking of playoffs, Hednesford made a smart move in May 2013 when they chose to keep the play-off final against us pay-on-the-gate allowing anyone that wanted to attend the match the opportunity to do so. As a result a Keys Park record crowd of 4.412 were present, with 2,256 FC fans passing through the away turnstiles.

Broadhurst Park has yet to see a 4,000 crowd for a competitive match. The authorities took a decision to restrict capacity for our first home match versus Stockport, meaning only 3,300 were in the ground. We came close with 3,808 against Curzon Ashton back in September but for those who stood with 4,232 others for the Benfica friendly match in May, it’ll be a sight to behold when the ground is filled to its current 4,400 capacity.

Our highest ever home league attendance of 6,023 at the end of our first season is likely to stand for some time yet until further structural developments are made to Broadhurst Park. With our first league title secured a week earlier, the Great Harwood Town home match was a time for celebration and an opportunity for anyone that had played their part to bask in the glory. I always remember bumping into a mate at the end of the game as he turned to me and said "6,000 people can’t be wrong".



First Posted ~ 23:18 Tue 5 Jan 2016
News ID ~ 6608
Last Updated ~ 16:00 Fri 19 Feb 2021