I do think a few people are missing the point slightly.
This isn't about what our crowds were like before we left the city, or how they compare to other clubs, or how they are so much better than Sixfields, this is all about a positive feeling around the club and the city of Coventry itself and how that should have equated to a much larger crowd on Saturday.
We have had years and years in the doldrums and suddenly after a whole season away from our home town, playing 34 miles away, we had our club coming back. Fans were thrilled, elated, delighted. There was a real feelgood factor about coming home and the talk was all about us coming back to the Ricoh, with a good manager at the helm and the team doing well.
There was a tremendous clamour for tickets for that first game and everyone seemed desperate to go and we all know that we have a very large percentage of City fans in this fair city of ours. Would guess at least 40,000-50,000. Yes, many, many thousands of those are armchair/bit part/part time supporters, but I'm sure many of those were in the stands for the Gillingham game.
We kicked off in front of a bumper crowd. It was a real night to remember and the atmosphere was fantastic. The Ricoh was rocking.
To top it all, we won.
Now, it doesn't matter what went on before, the fact is with all the above factors of good manager, team on unbeaten run, the feel good factor of coming home, us winning the match, then 11,000 is just totally unnaceptable.
The fact is there should have been 15,000+ there and there wasn't. I know some people can't afford it, can't make it, unable to get tickets etc., but there are more than enough City fans out there in this city and surrounding areas to have made the attendance so much bigger, in spite of all these mitigating circumstances.
This should be the time now of bumper crowds on the back of the long awaited homecoming and the team doing well and us still in the season of fair weather.
We now have the winter to come and if we go on a bad run of form the attendances are only going to go one way and going one way from 11,085 can only spell disaster for the club.
Was expecting 15,000+ for the first 3 -4 home games or so and then for it to tail off and return to normal levels unless we were doing fantastically well.
I just have my fingers crossed now that we can keep up this form and attendances do increase, because otherwise, a poor run of results and a hard winter could really take their toll.