Nigel Adkins has issued a plea for Saints fans to back the team once more against Charlton.

Nigel Adkins has spoken of the geat part the fans played in the win over MK Dons and called upon them for more of the same against Charlton on Tuesday night.

Speaking on the club website he stressed how much of a part the supporters played in the comeback against the Dons, by not just sticking with the team when it looked like things might not be going to plan, but raising up the volume as the comeback started.

"They will play a massive role for us in the rest of this campaign and i would urge them to get along in their numbers and get right behind us once again"

The words from the Saints boss couldnt be more clear and its time for those stayaway Saints fans to boost the crowd as well.

This season has seen a good hardcore of fans turn up for league games at SMS and the average of 21,582 is by far and away the best in the division, however the strange thing is that unlike last season we have not managed to get anywhere near filling St Mary's, our biggest crowd so far in the league this season is the 26,289 that came against Bournemouth six months ago and that included over 3,000 away fans meaning in reality even for that game there were only around a 1,000 more home fans in the ground than on Saturday againstMK Dons.

Thats been the story of the season so far, gates have been between 20-22k in the main depending on the number of away fans, but unlike last season the floating supporters just dont seem to have turned up in numbers as they did last season for the big games.

Given the feel good factor from the JPT Final these statistics are surprising, but it seems that of the 50,000 who went to Wenbley just over a year ago, very few of the non regular fans in that number have bothered turning up for a league game this season and there has to be a reason for that, the credit crunch is no different than it was 12 months ago so that would only be a small factor.

So why are the ssemi casual supporters not getting behind the team as they did lastyear ? after all we are now heading into a promotion run in and there are only four home games left, this should see the Charlton game with a 25,000 plus attendance, at least it would have done a year ago.

The hardcore of 20-22K who come to St Mary's regularly are superb, the away support is phenomenal not just in numbers but the way it gets behind the team, but we need more at St Mary's for these final homegames.

This is not just another rant from me about attendances, Nigel Adkins has spoken and clearly stated that the supporters will be important in this run in, its a winning side, automatic promotion is a real possibility, but on Saturday our gate was virtually identical as the ones last April when we had nothing to play for realistically.

As supporters we need to try and encourage everyone we can to come to the final four home games, starting with Charlton tommorrow, why not rng up some of your Saints supporting friends who you know arent going and encourage them along 

Photo: Action Images

channonite added 17:23 - Apr 4 Good article Nick. The crowd really can make a difference by encouraging the team, even when two goals down as on Saturday and not getting on the players backs if they make mistakes.
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bstokesaint added 17:35 - Apr 4 It'd be nice to start seeing attendances again heading towards 30k. It might also give us some idea of what to expect next year if we got promoted.
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