Saints have once again sold out an away section in the Premier league, this time at Newcastle United.

Saints selling out their allocation at St James Park came as a bit of a shock in that the game is not only our longest trip of the season, but has been moved to a Sunday lunchtime, meaning that many of those making the long trip to the North East wont be getting home till nearly midnight.

But perhaps it should not have been too much of a surprise when we look at the support throughout the season and how its been building up over the last three years.

Its fair to say that the last time Saints were in the top flight, although we usually put out good numbers for the trips to London and selected games further north as the occasion warranted, in the main our support although very vocal, rarely filled out the away sections and thinned out the further north we went, although some games would be more popular than others, ie we would usually take three times as many to Liverpool than we would Everton where prior to this season our turn out was always poor.

The change started to happen ironically at our lowest ebb for over half a century and our relegation to League One, perhaps it was the chance to go to new grounds we had never been too before, but suddenly a lot of old faces were back at away games and joined by fresh faced newer supporters who had rarely ventured further than home games, hence being a big fish in a small pond stimulated our away support.

Our second season is League One was just as good and big numbers travelled everywhere even for away games midweek up North, including Oldham, Rochdale and Hartlepool, this continued into the Championship and again Saints always seemed to have the numbers on their travels.

But would it continue in the Premiership with many being put off by higher prices and for the first time in a few years the fact that we wouldnt actually win many on the road or even have the chance to perhaps, initially this seemed to be the case, the 1,900 who went to Man City was some 900 short of filling the away section, yes high prices were part of the reason and a televised unday game was another, but you would have thought that the first Saints game in the Premier league for over 7 years might overide that, it didnt bode well for the rest of the season on the road.

But this has proved to be the exception rather than the rule, OK we are still not yet up to the standards of some of the bigger clubs in this division, but when compared against the rest we are doing very well with sell outs at many of the grounds we have gone to including the latest at Newcastle United.

This site for many years has harped on about more supporters going to away games and has usually been shouted down by those who have told it that in this economic climate its stupid of me to ask our supporters in this affluent area to actually travel, notwithstanding that ironically the clubs with the best away support generally come from the most deprived areas ie Manchester, Merseyside the North east etc, but now it seems that finally our support has woken up to the joys of an away trip.

A decade ago  urged fans to go away and stay away and sang the praises of long weekends in Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and even Birmingham, now the masses have listened judging by the number of Saints fans you see not only going to these games up North but enjoying a night out in the city afterwards, it seems that its not about money but perception.

Long may our great support on the road continue, of course perhaps the novelty will wear off a little next season perhaps, but as I said a decade ago, it doesnt need to be the same 2-3000 going every week, it only needs a few more supporters just to go to an away game once or twice a season instead of not at all, hopefully they will see the fun that it is as have many this season , not to mention the benefit the team gets, earlier i mentioned the word perception and now Saints players perceive that they are not alone in the vast stadiums up north and are backed by fanatical support, this has to help, it certainly did at Aston Villa for instance.

Photo: Action Images

saintgus added 13:27 - Feb 19 I agree our away support has been great over the last three seasons , but there is some debate about how many tickets we have sold for Newcastle, ie have we only requested a smaller allocation so we didnt have to pay for unsold tickets, i beleive the normal allocation for Newcastle is around 2500-3000, so it will be interesting to see actually how many we have, by the way I will be there so im not just someone knocking our away support

0

Mushty added 18:21 - Feb 19 Like all Premier League grounds the 'normal' allocation (unless it's Wigan) is 'up to' 3,000, most don't take anything like that up to the North East. Whatever we're taking, I've read anything between 1,400 and 2,400 (likely somewhere in between and probably shifted quite a few more with a week still to go) is going to be a good turnout up there. Having taken 3,000 to Middlesbrough and the prospect of a big crowd for the last away at Sunderland the extreme north seems to be in favour right now. And we had the best part of a thousand at Carlisle (twice) and Hartlepool (midweek) in League One!

0

blambo added 18:56 - Feb 19 I use away games as 'excuses' to see friends and family spread around the country, not to mention visit some favourite pubs and drink beers that we don't often see in Hampshire. It's a fair trade, I'm prepared to visit in-laws if there's a game attached. Newcastle will be a great game, always is; the fact that it's only £26 a seat is a bonus. No way am I paying over 60 quid to see a league game. Maybe if we charged £26 a seat we could fill a bigger stadium ??? Anywa, back to the point:- I always watch the relegations and promotions with a keen eye as there are places I do want to go and places I don't. I'm happy that we're in the same division as Norwich, I just wish Ipswich could make it back up. As for West Brom, I could do with never going there again as long as I live. If you've been there, you'll know why. It's a worse dump than Gosport, which is saying a lot. The atmosphere at away games it always top, with vocal Saints Supporters, unlike the many 'spectators' we have at home. OK, that's there choice, no-one has to sing and chant if they don't want to, but it's great to be with a lively Saints away following.

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Arsenal Polls