Friday, April 21, 2006

MEN: FC eye record gate

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United should again shatter the North West Counties League attendance record at Gigg Lane tomorrow.

The attraction is not the visit of Great Harwood but the presentation of the Division Two trophy.

Average attendances of just under 3,000, with a peak of 4,328 for Winsford’s visit in January, mean gates not only eclipse that of every other minnow in the region but some Football League outfits as well, including their landlords Bury.

And the men who launched the club are convinced they are having an effect on their mighty neighbour at Old Trafford.

“I am not naive enough to think David Gill is looking at us wondering what we are doing right and he is doing wrong but I do hope it is registering that United’s hard-core support is being eroded,” said foundermember Jules Spencer.

“The speed of FC United’s growth has taken us all by surprise. We knew there was an appetite for something like this but never could we have envisaged attracting 4,300 to a game.

“We are not claiming the moral high ground in any sense. We exist to provide people with an alternative, either to Malcolm Glazer or the escalating cost of tickets which is pricing so many families out of the Premiership.”