 As the 2009/10 season draws to a close Barking Football Club would again like to thank all those supporters that have again shown their fantastic support as we try to rebuild the club.
Barking’s home programme has now finished with an average of 53 paying customers watching the Blues at Mayesbrook this year. Across 17 home league games 904 paying customers came through the turnstiles. And across 22 home games in both league and cup 1,163 paying customers watched the Blues. Saturday’s attendance of 70 against Mauritius Sports was the second highest of the season and the fact that MP for Barking Margaret Hodge was in attendance will give us hope for a brighter future.
The highest home attendance of the season was 71 for a 1-0 win against Takeley on 2 January and was a reward for the club working hard to get the pitch ready while many local games were postponed.
The lowest attendance at home this year was ironically for our best result when 36 people watched us smash Clapton 6-0 on 9 March.
On our travels Barking played in front of three figures on four occasions; firstly on the opening game of the season when 112 people saw Takeley make their debut in the Essex Senior League and beat us 2-0. The second occasion was on 12 October, a Monday evening when we travelled to Bethnal Green for a league cup group game and a Miguel De Souza double gave us a 2-1 win in front of 101 people. Interestingly the following Saturday we played the same opponents away in the league in front of 47 paying customers! On Saturday 12 December we played out an entertaining 0-0 draw at Enfield 1863 in front of exactly 100 people on a bitterly cold day. And lastly we turned on the style to beat promotion chasing Barkingside 3-1 in front of 105 people at Oakside on 24 March.
Of course these attendances are in part down to the home club’s ability to draw a crowd but also due to the fact that Barking continue to take many supporters away from home and enjoy one of, if not the best away support in the league. It was the case again last Saturday at London APSA, as at Clapton and Mauritius Sports earlier in the season that the travelling Barking contingent made up the vast majority of the attendance.
So as we prepare to start planning for next season the question has to be; what will it take for Barking to play in front of triple figures at home? A run in the FA Cup or Vase? Or a team that is there or thereabouts in the league?
We will spend the summer hoping that as many of the current squad as possible return for next season. Likewise we hope that as many supporters as possible will come along and support their efforts. Thanks again to all supporters for all their support this year, here’s to even better things next season.
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