3,501 for a game against a Prem team which had all the ingredients of a giant-killing? Is the credit crunch biting or do not enough people care?

Hartlepool people are tossers, it's a big problem!!!

probably people with no money as it was during the last week before pay day for a lot of people

PS not Pools fans or those who could not attend - I mean the ones who WON'T attend Pools, just buy Liverpool and Man U shirts!!!

I wasn't there, but it's nothing to do with funds or not caring.

I didn't get home from work til nearly seven and had the option of spending a bit of time playing with my boy before he went to bed or going to Pools.

I'll be there Saturday though.

I was there, but if you've just lost your job and it's the bills or Pools, ... it's a no brainer.

Does success = more support ? If so then the crowds should reflect it. Hartlepool is geographically well placed to attract wider support from the "local" area up to Durham and down to York. If the team do well ( dare I say it....get promoted) then there will be a shift in local interest !

What colour is the sky in your world?

Eh ?

Pools support from York? Dream on.

It was more of a generalisation ( Durham and ork ) but I stick to the argument that success attracts attention,hence, support. As a Teessider working further afield it would be easy for me to watch football at any club near me..Coventry,Leicester,Wolves,Nottm For to name but a few. However I stick with my home team,Hartlepool, for others it may require a bit of success. That may sound shallow, but then some football "fans" are !

Not when a season ticket for Pools is more expensive than a Premier League one for the Boro

....So 3000 plus support is a "fact of life" then ? Come on !

the most pools will get on a regular basis would be at most 7000, i live near Peterbrough with a potentially massive potential for support and they only get 10,000

http://www.emfootball.co.uk/attend.html Perhaps any number of reasons can be listed as to WHY some ,seemingly, unfasionable clubs do well to attract supporters despite bigger clubs nearby ? Economic is one reason , town population another...but success has to be a contrbuting factor too ??

I totally agree. When I heard that attendance last night, it raised an eyebrow with me.

I know Burnley may not be perceived to be attractive, but there a Premiership side for a reason (beat Man U, Everton etc)....they just didn't show it last night.

I was disappointed with Burnley last night and it seems to me they may have come into the game intending to do a "smash-and-grab" job.

Were you there?

I was making a general comment about last night based on my opinion.

ANYONE from Hartlepool who buys a season ticket for the aforementioned bunch of coontyhole teams is a bounder and deserves to share my piles, the bounders

Totally agree my uncle has a boro season ticket (he lives in the town but is from the boro) and couldnt believe they were cheaper than Pools. I know it shouldnt matter but could be a factor

LOL, I know this has cropped up before but I dont see how you can say that you were "disappointed with Burnley" if you were not even at the game. I was not at the game either so I wouldnt dream of stating an opinion which is clearly not your own opinion but that of other peoples.

But by the reactions of people on here and listening to reports etc, everything I've heard about Burnely's performance last night was poor.

Even their fans on their message board were unhappy with how they played, one even admitting that they "robbed us".

For me this match surpasses the Leeds Cup game last year, in the category of "How Did We Lose That?"

A little tip PoK, to stop this happening again, next time you comment on a game your not at, try wording it differently, put summit like...

"Looking at the comments on here it sounds as though..."

or

"Judging by what i've read on the bbc website..."

Regardless of whatever you read on the game last night, you can not possibly form an opinion on it cos you didn't watch the full 90 and just where not there.

It was more than we got against West Brom last season, if you are a pay on the gate punter you would have had to part with up to £76 in the last three weeks to watch Pools at home. Not everyone can afford to spend that on football in the space of three weeks.

With the economic situation is it really any surprise? I was expecting about 3,000.

It doesn't matter how "successful" Pools are, the Vic will only attract its hard-core support until it comes to TV appearances and play-offs. We might get 4,500 regulars if we got to the Premiership.

The cup's not what it was. Premiership teams play second string teams or reserve teams in these matches nowadays. That doesnt fuel excitement. And they may be premiership and doing very well, but still Burnley doesnt excite like the major established premiership clubs - or the idea of playing mags, mackems, boro or the loids. Glad we played well though and looking forward to my first match of the season on Saturday.....

Yeah, and if managers continue with that type of attitude, the League Cup will die within 10 years.

If anything, these teams need to start treating their lower league opponents with a little bit of respect by fielding strong teams. Leading by example.

There is so much on the line for them in the premier league though, financially, support wise, players they can attract.

They pin every possible hope on staying up, that league cups and fa cups, are just not priority.

I agree they need to show it more respect, but i can only see it getting worse.

I'm surprised you never came to the game last night, you'd have been on time considering your indiscretions on the Rec...

Never a red card!!!

i'm not making exuses. It frustrates me as much as it does the rest of you, but a large portion of our catchment area is the north sea. Burnley and Barnsley and other teams in those areas don't have this problem.

Damn you Global Warming, stealing our crowds.

We would get more fans if they stopped playing shite music after goals etc

theoretically then.....IOR help extract oil, which is one of the main causes of global warming, global warming causes sea levels to rise which in turn reduces our catchment area.

So it's IORs fault the crowds are low..........

IOR OUT!!!!!!!

I'm not dressing it up at all. As I said, it frustrates me. It's fact though.

Are all Burnley, Barnsley and other teams fans all solely from Burnley, Barnsley etc? I doubt it!

I agree with you.

At what point did I say otherwise? All I did was state a geographical fact. FACT!!!

I agree with what your saying Chip but surely the reason behind that is because both Bradford and Burnley were both high up the leagues recently and therefore kids etc will have been happy to start off supporting them and will continue to do so where as we have been lower league fodder forever really.

Deal

The number of exiled fans contributes to the problem.

Employers in far flung parts look at people from Burnley, Wigan and Bradford and are shocked at their annoying Yorkshire and Lancashireness. On the other hand when their recruitment consultants offer them prospective employees from Hartlepool they smell the Strongarm, are delighted and immediately offer tax-free salaries, houses with hot tubs, attractive relocation packages and gigantic bonuses. All the big multi-nationals want a monkeyhanger on the board nowadays and this shows in Pools' attendance figures for League Cup matches. Sadly, you just can't justify a midweek private jet when battering Delia's lot in the league on Saturday is a priority.

I think the pot is calling the kettle black there like. When I was at university we did a genetics assignment on people in the north-east generally with information collected in the collieries and hartlepool / stockton areas as it a genetic bottle neck.

Pools attendances always worry me.

I don't accept any of this 'I have no money' business, I reckon that excuse would only account for at maximum a couple of hundred people, the only time attendances rise at Victoria Park is when the 'residents' of Hartlepool turn up to see the OPPOSITION!

It's a sad state of affairs.

Have to say money is potentially a bigger factor than you think. I would be at the match on Saturday but cant afford the time and travel money home as going on holiday and have bills to pay.

Was just thinking about what I wrote earlier and the points ADG made

Well, Burnely is one of those places nobody would ever go to, unless you wanted to watch your team, - how many people actually come to Hartlepool

The people of Burnley probably never leave the place, unless its to watch their team, - same again with Hartlepool I can honestly say I know of 4 people in my year at school who now live away from the town (me, mampi, my mate in leeds and one in Hong Kong)

Burnely reminds me of one of those red neck towns out in the sticks of America, everyone is related to someone, - walk around Hartlepool town centre or go on a night out I bet within ten minutes you either see someone you are related to or someone who is related to a mate.

Isnt Burnley, with its loyal, we all support Burnley, fans, one of the heartlands of the BNP - Hartlepool will be soon as everyone know there is large racism in the town.

It's not money, it's the opposition, if we were playing Tottenham on Tuesday night, I bet all those people who used money as an excuse for not going would have been there, programme in one hand, pie in the other.

Its money, quality of opposition and "meaningfullness" (is that a real word) of the competition involved.. Lets face the milk cup is hardly the competition it was when we played tottingham all those years ago...

Well lets just hope IOR stick around for a whole lot longer. If I was the chairman of IOR i'd be well sickened by the apathy of the general public towards the football team and would have foooked off ages ago.

If it wasn't for IOR we'd now be in division 5.

I agree, a fair percentage of people in Hartlepool never leave, just like the League of Gentleman.....

Get yourself into some pubs and clubs in this town and it looks as if the old adage 'Incest is best' rules

Must be a generational thing. A lot of people in my year at school and a lot of my friends have moved away.

Not the case with me I am affraid I will be back home next weekend I am going to a wedding reception and I bet out of all the people I see at the thing (old mates from school etc) all will live in the town apart from one mampi. Not a bad thing I love my town and know why people stay but I was just bringing up the point as ADG was saying this about Burnley, people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.

Are you sure they didn't move to get away from you?