Record Away Attendances
Record ground attendances are rare events so it was remarkable that we managed to set three last season. It got me interested in how many we have set and this is my list so far, there may be others.
7 Apr 1947, York Road, Maidenhead – 8,277 on Wikipedia, 8,237 in Official History
Slough United 1-2 WW, Berks & Bucks Senior Cup Final
14 Jan 1950, Recreation Ground, Bungay – 2,498 on Wikipedia , 2,500 in Official History
Bungay Town 0-4 WW, FA Amateur Cup 1R
In the absence of a stand, officials perched on an old farm cart pulled into the ground. Before kick-off, Wycombe captain Peter Birdseye presented the Bungay captain with a full sized Windsor chair.
23 Feb 1952, Underhill, Barnet - 11,026
Barnet 0-2 WW FA Amateur Cup 4R
20 Nov 1976, Jubilee Park, Waterlooville – 4,500 on Wikipedia, 3,377 in Official History, 3,600 in BFP.
Waterlooville 1-2 WW, FA Cup 1R
When Wycombe made it 2-0, the BFP reported: “This second goal caused a nasty accident behind the goal when the barrier broke as Wycombe’s fans surged forward. The spectators spilled onto the pitch and one Wycombe fan broke a leg which was trapped in the crush. It took three or four minutes to repair the damage and take the unfortunate supporter to hospital.”
11 July 2007, Watchet Lane, Holmer Green – 800+ on HGFC site, 700 on chairboys.co.uk.
Holmer Green 0-5 WW, Friendly
15 Feb 2022, The ASM Stadium, Thame – 1,904
Long Crendon 0-4 WW, Berks & Bucks Senior Cup QF
22 Mar 2022, Racecourse Ground, Ascot – 1,267
Ascot United 0-0 (3-1 on pens) WW, Berks & Bucks Senior Cup SF
18 Apr 2022, Cherry Red Records Stadium, Plough Lane, Wimbledon – 8,502
AFC Wimbledon 1-1 WW, League One
Another possible record is for the Berks & Berks Senior Cup Final in 1922-23, at Slough, when Maidenhead United beat WW 4-0 in front of 11,500. I am not sure of the ground yet, it could have been the Dolphin Stadium before the greyhound track was built in 1928.
Comments
I was there at Waterlooville and it was my mate Alan nicknamed Belcher who broke his leg,some nasty scenes at F/T i seem to remember when fans of both sides invaded the pitch for a scrap.
Did we set a ground record at Bromsgrove when we played them in the Conference? Or has it since been broken?
On a related note, what about times we've outnumbered the home fans? We definitely did at Solihull Moors in the Cup the other year.
The 3,675 crowd was said to be their biggest post-war league attendance. The following season they had a capacity crowd of 4,893 against Barnsley in the FA Cup Third round.
Our game was bad tempered, Creaser sent off, Cousins remonstrated with the referee at the final whistle. Some of our fans went onto the pitch at the end and at least one was arrested. One of the Bromsgrove stewards provoked the away fans, I wrote to the Bromsgrove chairman about that, I don't think I got a reply.
20 August 1994, Kirklees Stadium, Huddersfield Town, 13,334
Imagine it didn’t last long, but as the first team to play at Huddersfield’s new stadium that would have been a record at the time.
Also, a close run thing in the snow at Barnet during the same season. 2103 (1072 Barnet, 1031 WW).
Of course, in our Isthmian League days, especially in the 70s, we would regularly outnumber the home fans, often by a large margin.
I'm a friend of Alan ' Belcher', but I'm pretty sure it was 'cheese roll' who broke his leg, when the wall collapsed ar Waterlooville.
Hitchin Towns record attendance was 7878 against the Wanderers in 55/56.
Yeah, I guess that still happens quite a lot with some of the disparities in fan base size in non-League these days
@Steve_Peart How about Hitchin Town, 1955/56 Amateur Cup 3rd Round, lost 1-0?
7860 (7878 from some sources).
Edit - @ChasHarps, just beat me to it re Hitchin.
Barnet have always struggled for fans at the Hive. It's not near Barnet and there's too many other clubs of all sizes round that way. Sure we had nearly as many as them last time we were there and I don't think I've ever heard them make any kind of noise.
That was my (now) wife’s first ever football game (one of four…). Wasn’t planning going but remember being on the Handy Cross roundabout after going to John Lewis or somewhere at around 2 and thinking ‘sod it. We’ve been brilliant so far this season…’
not sure I kept to the speed limit but I assume the kick off must have been put back a bit as I think we only missed 5 minutes. Walked to the far end where the Wycombe supporters were first half through the covered terrace along the side. As wife stepped out one of Creasers hoofs onto the stand bounced off and landed straight on her head. I can only assume that the incident caused her lasting brain damage hence her still being with me, despite me finding it very very funny whilst the local Bromsgrove supporters were a lot more sympathetic.
Is that the game during the international break and a load of Aston Villa hooligans turned up looking for a bit of trouble?
Farnborough was a fixture where we used to regularly outnumber the home fans. One year in particular the ground struggled to cope with the numbers. Some Wycombe fans didn't even bother to enter, climbing trees outside the ground to get a view. Think that was the same fixture where the referee paused the match and O'Neil came over to the Wycombe fans and asked us to move out of a very rickety wooden terrace that was on the verge of collapse.
The following season Farnborough wisely decided to make it all ticket to control the numbers.
According to the press clippings available at the incredible treasure trove that is the Chairboys Archive website, the game where fans were moved from the rickety stand in 1992 was all-ticket.
Thanks @ChasHarps and @NewburyWanderer for flagging up Hitchin. That line would be:
18 Feb 1956, Top Field, Hitchin – 7,878 on Wikipedia, 7860 in Official History
Hitchin Town 1-0 WW, FA Amateur Cup 3R
Top Field has always been one of my favourite grounds, because of the unusual and extensive wooden terracing. It stands on common land meant for grazing animals, managed by the Cow Commoners Trust. The club successfully challenged, in court, the building of a Tesco supermarket on the land a few years ago, and now have a lease to stay there until 2039.
@ReadingMarginalista Ah, hadn't realised that game was also all ticket. The following season was much more sedate certainly.
For such a small crowd, I remember what there was in terms of stands being packed. Farnborough's ground was probably the smallest I've visited as a Wycombe fan mind you. Not much more than a fence around pitch in places. Those of us in the small covered terrace had no idea that it was apparently swaying from the celebrations from 2 early Wycombe goals.
Egham Town FA cup 1972/73.
Wanderers Bible says 2000, Wiki says 1400.
Good one Mr Harps , I wasn't aware of that one. The Official History used the figure in the BFP report - "The crowd of over 2,000 broke the ground record of 1,500 with spectators bordering all around the pitch." The local match reports says a "1,500 crowd". The Wiki figure of 1,400 is based on the Non-League Club Directory 2013, and is the figure used on https://www.eghamtownfcltd.co.uk/.
What was this other game which drew a crowd of 1,500, and why is that not quoted as the biggest by Egham Town, if 1,400 is their figure now?
The line would be:
7 Oct 1972, Runnymede Stadium, Egham – 1,400 on Wikipedia and ETFC site, 2,000 in Official History
Egham Town 2-6 WW, FA Cup 2QR
Egham were leading 1-0 at half-time but four goals in eight minutes after the break prevented a major shock.
I am intrigued by the current quoted capacity of 5,500, with 262 seated and 3,300 under cover, quite a big stadium it seems. Egham probably have the jokiest nickname in football, The Sarnies. I think that is a fairly recent adoption so what was their original nickname?
What about our attendences at Villa Park for the FA Cup Semi-Final or our trips to Wembley (Southend & Sunderland) would they not be classed as Away fixtures?
Actually, it would be interesting to see the comparison between all 3
Remember the game against Egham, was quite a shock when they took the lead. We played in our new change kit (for that season) of yellow shirts and light blue shorts. It wasn't the first time we'd used it, but my mate hadn't previously seen it, and he assumed it was the Egham team when we came out until I set him straight.
We discussed our Wembley support in the run up to the Sunderland play-off final.
1957 Bishops - 30k out of 90k.
1991 Kiddy - 23/25k out of 34,842
1993 Runcorn - 28k out of 32,968
1994 PNE - 17k out of 40,109
2015 - Southend - 15/17k out of 38 ,252
2022 - Sunderland - 23.5k (I think) out of 72,332.
I think we took 19,500 to the FA Cup semi-final in 20001, out of 40,037.
If we’re doing games at neutral venues, we massively outnumbered the Hendon fans at Griffin Park in the Amateur Cup semi in, what was it, 72
No it was Cheese Roll that broke his leg. Real name Steve Stroud?