Official Attendance today was 29, 604. This is 3085 short of the capacity: 32 689. But, there were great swathes of empty seats in Northern and Itchen.
I for one wanted to attend today but I wasn't sure whether they would be selling any on the door today. The official saints article "Don't Miss a Minute" http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/dont-miss-a-minute-331632.aspx - gave the impression it would be a sell-out and certainly didn't encourage anyone to turn up to buy a ticket.
I tried to get a ticket online but i don't yet have "customer number" and it is not possible to get a customer number at the moment because the club says on its ticketing page - https://southamptonfc.pvxgateway.com/account/login - "Due to the expected high demand for Manchester United tickets, this facility [for registration] is currently turned off. This match is only available to those who are on our database, all of whom have been allocated a customer number on the system."
That just sends a huge middle finger to anyone that is isn't registered.
I think it's a big shame for the team, and everyone that today wasn't a sell-out. Clearly next week against Manure will be a different story. But I still think the Club should be making every effort to get it packed to the gunwales to quote Seb Coe. We need capacity crowds.
[And just to head off this argument: it shouldn't matter if the fans are plastic or whatever - if they come to pay money to watch saints (and scream their hearts out as well), then surely that's in the interest of us all. Besides, it's not as if the hardcore, bitterly, loyal saints fans were making any noise today. You could hear a pin drop at loads of times. As poor as our performance was, we as fans need to take responsibility for our lacklustre effort. Back in the big time? You wouldn't know as it doesn't sound like we are shouting about it.]
