March 1st 1981

I've just dropped on an old News Of The World and I thought I'd post some of the crowds from that day.In those days Division one was the Premiership as now division 2 was the Championship etc.
Biggest crowd of the day Man.Utd v Leeds 45.733 lowest crowd Palace v Everton 14.594
Division 2 Watford v West Ham 23.786 lowest crowd Cambridge v Shrewsbury 4.007 with special mentions for Oldham v Newcastle 5.887 and Preston v Chelsea 8.129
Division 3 Highest Sheff.Wed v Huddersfield 14.426 lowest Carlisle v Oxford 3.552 special mention for Burnley v Chester 4.993
Division 4 Highest Bournemouth v Peterborough 5.334 lowest Hereford v Hartlepool 2.331

As for Barnsley we played and lost 2-0 away at Swindon 7.819.

 

Looks like Man U//Leeds wasn`t a sell out and the massives 14,000 for a Yorkshire derby.

 

I was at Swindon that day. My one and only visit and a rare defeat that season.

 

I seem to recall we were getting bigger home crowds that season than Chelsea and possibly not far off Newcastle.

 

We had Barrowclough making his second debut that game. Also, Hunter dropped both Glavin & Banks. Unsurprisingly, we produced our worst performance of the season.

 

I was there.If i remember right it was Grand National day & over the speakers Aldiniti was announced the winner

 

Am I right in thinking that our crowds in 96/97 were sub 9000 before Christmas, and only started going above 12k from February onwards when we had a series of big games against teams in and around the top 6?

 

Probably, as the whole town started to believe it more and more and the crowds increased considerably. Prior to the miner’s strike, it wasn’t uncommon for a crowd of 14- 15k for an ‘ordinary game’ of course the Derbies and other bigger games could easily see 20k plus inside the ground, well at least officially.

 

I seem to recall a crowd of 6k against Southend? during our promotion run.

 

I remember being at Chester, drawing 2-2, with King Ronnie scoring a late equaliser, and them announcing Aldaniti had won the Grand National. According to the record books the Swindon game was on February 28th 1981.

 

March 1st 1981 we didn’t have a game.

 

Spot on. Glavin's equaliser was a beautiful flick of his heal.

 

Correct we played on the 28th but the report in the NOTW was the day after, Sunday 1st March.

 

I remember that, I can't remember what minute but it was very very late possibly injury time.

 

Virtually the last kick if I remember correctly and sparked a mass pitch invasion by Reds fans.
A certain Ian Rush turned out for Chester too I think?

 

I see. It was the Aldaniti thing that threw me. That was definitely the day we played at Chester.

 

And a boring 0-0 draw if i remember correctly.

 

We won promotion that season from the 3rd tier to the second, ending our 22 year stint in the 3rd and 4th tiers. Since 1981 we have spent 33 years in the 2nd tier, 7 in the 3rd, plus one, of course, in the Premier League. I have a programme from autumn 1981 which shows our average home attendance for the first half dozen or so matches as being higher than Chelsea's or Newcastle's, if my memory serves me well. I'll try to root out the programme at some point.

 

I'm pretty sure we had 30.000 on one occasion v Wednesday.

 

Yes you`re right it was at Chester & not Swindon when Aldaniti won the national.I was at both games & was mistaken.