Some say the real strength of English football is its depth of support. Four-figure crowds reach farther down the pyramid than anywhere. The English game is culturally robust, if nothing else.
Wycombe Wanderers are second in League One after 25 games. Manager Matt Bloomfield’s reputation is growing by the week and the story of Richard Kone, the Chairboys’ star striker and the second highest goalscorer in the division, is told almost as frequently as he puts the ball in the net.
Yet Tuesday night’s vital fixture at home against Huddersfield Town, who are seven points behind them in fourth place but on a long unbeaten run, was revealing. This was a big game for both teams but it didn’t feel like one. Adams Park was as quiet as it was cold. The occasion, the teams, the setting, the situation, the fans who were there – it all deserved better.
Will low gates hold Wycombe back?
There’s not much of a case to be made that low attendances affect results absent any other context. The very fact that Wycombe occupy an automatic promotion spot gives lie to that idea. But the sense that echoed in the chilly Buckinghamshire silence was that the environment might yet play its part this season.
The Huddersfield manager noticed it too. After his team’s 1-0 win, Michael Duff noted the challenge it presented to his own team: “It felt a little bit low-key because the stadium was fairly quiet.”
Neither Duff nor anyone else believes an attendance barely above 4,000 won the game for the Terriers. Herbie Kane’s sumptuous volley won them the game. Matty Pearson’s fabulous defensive performance won them the game. Jacob Chapman’s triple save in the second half won them the game. But it was difficult to avoid the thought that Wycombe needed twice as many voices behind them after conceding.
Wycombe have scored 50 times in 25 games this season, nine more than anyone else in League One. They’re two points behind leaders Birmingham and 13 points clear of the first team outside the play-off places. Their average home attendance of 5,184 is higher only than those of Crawley Town, Stevenage and Burton Albion. It’s around half the League One average.
It’s not a criticism of the football club or its supporters to wonder about the reasons behind such a disparity. After all, the supporters are the ones who are there, lending their voices week in and week out.
But Wycombe’s new owner must have faith that there’s an untapped swell lurking in a town of more than 127,000 people, just as he sees the potential in Wycombe’s location, management and players to sustain a return to the Championship.
On a freezing night in the first week of January, a below-average gate was expected even for an important game. The match was televised and people can’t afford to go to every match, much less so soon after Christmas.
Wycombe’s average attendance is up from last season but lower than each of the two before that – the cost of living crisis battling against football worth watching, perhaps.
High Wycombe’s proximity to London is something owner Mikheil Lomtadze plans to turn to the Chairboys’ long-term advantage on the pitch but it’s hard not to wonder whether a few thousand prospective match-going supporters might have been lost to the capital clubs.
In the grand scheme league football, this is still a young club. Wycombe don’t have the benefit of several generations of large support.
Leaders Birmingham City do. They’re averaging 26,775 this season. Huddersfield do too; 18,533 is the average attendance at the John Smith’s Stadium. Wrexham, sitting between Wycombe and Huddersfield in third, have an average attendance of 12,869 since reaching the third tier and could go higher if their ground allowed.
Wycombe’s results have been fantastic and it’s not accurate to overlay a half-empty stadium on a promotion race and assume it’s going to be a problem, but when Bloomfield’s team were up against it on Tuesday, it seemed like there wasn’t enough of a crowd to provide a spark.
If there are fine margins to be exploited as these four teams and indeed Barnsley (average 12,587) and Reading (12,287) battle it out to go up, one team is at a disadvantage.
How that plays out remains to be seen. Whether Wycombe’s plans to put cheeks on seats bear peachy fruit is anyone’s guess. But this is a very good League One side and another slice of Chairboys history is within reach. That’s worth celebrating.
It is, at the very least, worth watching.
