Football League World
·11 November 2024
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·11 November 2024
A capacity crowd watched on as Birmingham drew 1-1 with Northampton
St Andrews was close to capacity yesterday, as 27,485 watched Northampton net an equaliser deep into stoppage time to deny Birmingham City all three points.
Mitch Pinnock was the man who broke Blues' hearts, popping up in the 97th minute to fire home and earn Northampton a point in a game Blues will feel they did enough to win given their total domination of the stats.
The result was the weekend's coupon buster, and although it was incredibly disappointing for the Blues, they still reside in the top-two heading into the international break.
They do so in second though, no longer in top spot, after Wycombe's 1-0 win against Wigan moved them up to the League One summit, and the Chairboys' form will be something of a concern to Birmingham, as they've now won six league games in a row.
Birmingham will be praying Coventry poach Wycombe manager Matt Bloomfield to stunt their momentum somewhat as they bid to bounce back to the Championship at the first time of asking, and doing so in style by winning the league is the ultimate goal.
There's an expectant Birmingham crowd assuming that will be the case come May, and here we take a look how their attendance yesterday compared to the rest of League One.
As one of the biggest clubs in League One, if not the biggest club, it's little surprise to see Birmingham attracting such large crowds, and their fanbase is something most other clubs in the league simply can't compete with.
The Blues' crowd of 27,485 was comfortably the largest in League One at the weekend, and for context of just how large that crowd is, it was at least 20,000 more people than four other games in League One managed to attract.
Flying high around the top of the table certainly helps get fans through the turnstiles, but that's not the sole reason for Birmingham's healthy attendance figures, as even in last season's relegation campaign they averaged in excess of 21,000.
League position certainly affects the attendance figures of some clubs though, Burton Albion being one of them, whose crowd of 2,935 against Shrewsbury Town was a little over 10% of the crowd Birmingham managed, which is simply incredible.
Even the second-highest attendance in League One this weekend, Barnsley with 14,731, was still roughly half of the crowd the Midlands club managed, which just shows how big of a club they are at this level.
With the points earlier alluded to, it's no real surprise that Birmingham have been the best supported club in League One this season
Their average home attendance of 26,763 is comfortably the highest in the league, over 5,000 clear of the next closest side, which is Bolton Wanderers - another ex Premier League club.
In fact, the top-five average attendances in League One this season all come from sides who have played in the Premier League, so the fan bases are naturally larger.
There is one small caveat to be added, and that's in the fact that a recent study conducted by Fanhub actually dictated that based on the population of the city/town a team is based in, Birmingham were one of the worst supported sides, with just 2.34% of the city's population coming to St Andrews.
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