Crowd-puller

RAIN CHECK: Athletic full-back Kieran Lee gets stuck in against MK Dons on Monday night, watched by a crowd of 2,410.

Latics hoping slick TV success will boost attendance
ATHLETIC hope that stay-away fans will flood back to the club after watching the MK Dons display in relative comfort.

A crowd of only 2,410 turned up at Boundary Park on Monday for the televised encounter, won in a style that belied miserable weather conditions thanks to goals from Shefki Kuqi and Tom Adeyemi.

Though Athletic have had a lower attendance figure this season — 1,786 for the all-pay Carlisle game at home in the Carling Cup — this was the poorest league crowd in a whole generation.

However, the club’s chief executive Alan Hardy sympathised with supporters who preferred to sit in the comfort of their own homes to watch the game.

He made the point that the club took almost as much in gate receipts as when Athletic played Carlisle in a special-offer league match at home last season.

That fixture drew a crowd of 8,546, with an admission price hacked down to £2 thanks to support from local businesses.

“We know that if the weather hadn’t been as atrocious as it was, we would have had more people attending the game,” said Hardy, explaining that the club received £30,000 from Sky Sports as a result of their coverage.

“It is understandable that in those conditions, people preferred to stay at home and watch the game on television.

“The good thing is, a few 100,000 viewers will have seen how good we can be in beating a team of so-called high-fliers.

“Hopefully, it will encourage many to come and watch us in the future.”


DEAN Furman and Paul Black make comebacks for the reserves tonight at Morecambe (7pm kick-off).
Captain Furman made a late appearance as a substitute against MK Dons after recovering from knee surgery two months ago, while left-back Black has been out for a similar time-scale with a groin problem.

Ryan Brooke also plays in the Central League, West Division clash after returning from an unsatisfactory one-month loan spell with Barrow in which he made only one start.

Reserves: Simpson, Parkes, Black, Burns, Carr, Tarkowski, Millar, Furman, Smith, Brooke, Hughes. Subs (from): Belezika, Gerrard, Fitzgerald, Jones, Riley, Laird.


ANDY Todd, the 37-year-old former Bolton defender who had a spell with Athletic last season, is on trial at Port Vale.