The clubs most vital asset- the Fans

Fan Power: Some of the Chorley fans in Buxton
Numbers have soared since the arrival of Flitty
photo by Josh Vosper 

If 2011 was the year of the fans club with AFC Wimbledon, AFC Telford, FC Halifax Town and Chester all getting promoted then surely 2012 has to be the same.

99 times out of a hundred when a club is certain to go out of business it is generally the fans are the ones to rescue the clubs.

For example, take Darlington FC case. Last week was a roller-coaster week for Darlo. With the administrators ready to kill the club off following the redundancy of all staff. The Darlington rescue club made up of fans stepped in and matched the £50,000 to keep the club afloat.

It brings back the old saying in football- managers; players and owners may come and go but the fans will always stay.

Also even more and more supporter clubs are taking control of their team. Just take Wrexham of the Blue Square premier for example.

They changed ownership in pre season with Ian Roberts and Geoff Moss stepping down. The board at the BSP demanded a bond of £250,000 before they could start the season; there was confusion with who should pay it.

In the end the fans raised £100,000 in just seven hours to keep the Dragons alive and they have been loving life ever since.

They (at the time of writing) sit 2^nd in the BSP and were in the 3^rd round of the FA Cup with a replay at home to Brighton. The game was put back 24 hours so ESPN could beam SC4’s pictures live to the tune of another £62,000 for the Welsh club.

But for clubs to keep the fans the team needs to play good football generally speaking. Look at Chorley in the 2009-2010 season the Magpies averaged around 250-300 crowds per game.

But when Garry Flitcroft came in as manager and the team soared to the summit of the Evo-stik first division north the crowds to also went up bringing in two 1,000 attendances before Christmas and culminated in just short of 3,000 being on for the Play off final against AFC Fylde.

Looking back at Darlington fans can really rally behind a club when they have to stand up and be counted a crowd of over 5,000 was recorded on Saturday for their home game against Fleetwood Town fc when it would normally pull in a crowd of 1,700.

So clubs really need to respect the fans as they are the lifeblood of the club and can save them as Darlington fans proved last week and many others have in the past.