Second crowd promotion at York Road in as many games and for the third game in a row the crowd goes up by about 100. This family centred promotion was basically a grassroots effort, with the hard yards put in by volunteers pounding the local pavements in the weeks leading up to the game. Its success proves what can be done by hard work, although a dividend in terms of a longer term increase in crowds is hard to measure.
The idea of families at football is a very modern one. Although traditionally people of all ages attended matches the trend was definitely one of fathers taking their sons, or if there was was no son, a daughter. Hence my wife was exposed to many a lower division Polish match until her brother came along. Perhaps non league has a real opportunity here to present itself as a community based option, unlike a matchday at a professional club which I imagine would be beyond the regular means of the average family. Certainly the familiar (pun intended) environment of a non league game could give parents the peace of mind that their offspring are safe for the afternoon.
As for the game, once again any newcomers would have got value for money with Staines overturning a two goal deficit in the last twenty minutes to win by the odd goal in five. Staines fans must have left on cloud nine, diehard Maidenhead fans looking to drown their sorrows whilst the newcomer hopefully will consider a second visit to York Road.
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