Bolton Wanderers Forum The-Wanderer.co.uk

for me

Fullest - when we played Madrid in the Uefa cup in 2008

Empiest - when we played Wigan in the Fa Cup at DW Stadium about 4 years ago.

Fullest? Probably at the AWD Arena (or whatever it's called now... Niedersachsenstadion for it's proper name) for Hannover vs Real Madrid back in 2007 I think. Pre-season friendly and it was a full house, but then lots of the games I went to there were full as well. I miss living in Germany for things like that... going to Bundesliga games was great fun.


Fantastic place to watch football.

Emptiest? I really don't know. I've never been to a ground of a professional side that's been THAT empty, other than some matches that I went to see my then-local semi-pro team TuS Celle play now and then... Couple of hundred people sometimes. Was okay for a couple of euros though and a decent bar.

I watched a Barcelona league game around 6 years ago in the Nou Camp. I think they were playing Villarreal or Deportivo. Although the official attendance was near to 60,000 this was mainly season ticket holders who didn't turn up (I think it was a 10pm kick off). There couldn't have been much more than 7000 fans in the ground.

Although it is not the game with the smallest attendance it felt like it as the ground has a capacity of 100,000.

Oh and Barcelona were dire and lost 2-1.

I don't know if it really counts but I went to watch a local pub team play and I was the only person there apart from the 22 players that were playing and the officials, there was also a couple of substitutes.

Depends what you mean by fullest. Do you mean had the most people in it, in which case it's probably one of the Wembley trips/or Redshite away @ 75,000 or one that felt fullest, in which case it's probably Everton at Burnden in the League Cup semi in 77 (that was only 50,000, but standing largely and felt a lot fuller than Wembley with 75,000 on it)


Emptiest probably against Chester in the early 80's in the League Cup @ home. Couple of 1000.

Aye, I was in Burnden for that semi, and also there on the embankment in 1970 for the Leeds -v- ManU replay, surrounded by reds! Leeds won 1-0.

↑↑↑ Again that semi when I was in the Lever End and also on the Paddock v Newcastle around 1976 (3-3, great game) when there was, simply, no room to move.

Empty, Burnden pre-seaon in 1976 in (I think) an Anglo-Italian match v ....... Burnley. How Italian were they then ? Must have been about 1,500 tops. Also a Welsh Cup match at Wrexham v Bangor. The kids were given free tickets and wanted to go. The only side allowing fans in was the one opposite the TV cameras. Both ends were shut. At a guess there were less than 1,000 and few of those had paid. Loads of kids bored after 20 minutes were playing tig. The football was appalling.

Any ground where you can hear the players and there's an echo is a strange experience.

Went to a Sherpa Daf Paints game against Rochdale one evening in the 90s at Burnden. 1500 or so of us were treated to a Reevesy hat-trick on the coldest night I've ever watched football.

In May 99 we played Watford at Wembley in front of 70,343. The very next time I saw us was in the August of that year in the 1st round of the League Cup against Darlington at The Feethams in front of 5,361. That was a bit weird.

The lowest crowd I've been in for a league game was also against Darlo on Bommy night 1985. A 3-0 home defeat in front of 2,902 on a night so wet that the attendance would have been further reduced by four but we couldn't get our bommy lit. I'm sure I'll have seen us play in front of less if Freight Rover and Lancs/Manx games though.

I was at the Darlo game too. Highest league crowd would be watching us at old scumford although biggest crowd I've been in would be the 1982 cup final - 100, 000

Harry Genshaw wrote:I was at the Darlo game too. Highest league crowd would be watching us at old scumford although biggest crowd I've been in would be the 1982 cup final - 100, 000

Good call, I went to the 1986 one after my Grandpa was given some tickets. 98,000
Wanted Everton to win but Liverpool did. Great experience. he also took me to Wembley 9 years later for the playoff final, that was greater!

Biggest crowd I've been in at Burnden was 58692, 14 02 1959, v PNE in the FA Cup. 2-2.

Was a tight fit!

Don't know what the smallest one was for a game of significance. Several around 5000 I'd guess.

I once went to watch Leigh RMI play at Hilton Park. The attendance for the game was about 250...sadly the away team brought 230ish. Completely bizarre atmosphere with literally about a dozen home fans.

Wembley, today, for the birds FA cup final. They may as well have played it on Newhouse Farm. Look, I'm all in favour of birds footie, but let's remember how shit it is and how embarrassing the goalkeepers are. What is it with the BBC that they insist on portraying it so as to be equally important?

I watched National v Beira Mar in 2004, National were about to finish 4th in the Primeira Liga behind Mourinho's Champions League winning Porto side, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon. The gate was less than 250. Some depth in that league.

Bruce Rioja wrote:Wembley, today, for the birds FA cup final. They may as well have played it on Newhouse Farm. Look, I'm all in favour of birds footie, but let's remember how shit it is and how embarrassing the goalkeepers are. What is it with the BBC that they insist on portraying it so as to be equally important?

A combination of being all metropolitan and right on .... and having next to no other sport contracts nowadays.

I can cope with the latter, but there's a terrific drive to publicise Wimminz footy as being equal. It's "Super League" gets more news coverage now than the Championship for proper football.

It's excruciating to watch. You may as well show local school football for the ability that's on view.

I await the day when proper clubs are made to select a minimum of 3 wimmin per game.

Titter ye not. You read it here first.

bobo the clown wrote:I await the day when proper clubs are made to select a minimum of 3 wimmin per game.

Titter ye not. You read it here first.

Surely there'll never be quotas in the beautiful game!

Mind you .... slightly related ;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... shirt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

bobo the clown wrote:Mind you .... slightly related ;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... shirt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well it might get a few more spectators through the gate!

Has anyone ever been the first in, or last out of a ground? After a game when there's been thousands in, there's a very funny sensation when everyone's gone, bar the groundsmen pulling down the nets, maybe a TV interview packing up and just silence (or maybe the wind rustling the crisp packets)?