Hibees need to listen to Bobby's plea!
Rachel Sproule takes a look at the dwindling numbers coming through the Easter Road gates...

IN YESTERDAY'S DAILY RECORD, I NOTICED A PLEA FROM Bobby Williamson to the Hibs support.  He was asking them to turn out in good numbers for tomorrow’s friendly against Sunderland at Easter Road.  The game against the Black Cats is the second pre-season friendly which the club has been involved in this year.  He whet the appetite by saying that all four new signings – Morten Hyldgaard, Stephen Glass, Colin Murdock and Stephen Dobbie – will play a part in tomorrow’s game.  Hyldgaard and Dobbie have already donned the colours of their new club when they both played a bit of the 1-1 draw with Preston North End at Deepdale last Saturday.  Now the fans will get to see the other two players, both full internationalists, play in the famous green and white of Hibs.

Williamson’s plea to the Hibee support to turn out on Saturday made me think about attendances and how many people have been turning out to watch Hibs in the past few seasons.  So after sifting through a mound of programmes and attendance figures I was amazed how attendances at Easter Road have changed between 2000 and 2003.

Taking first the 2000-2001 season.  The attendances during this season were very good.  At Easter Road we rarely had fewer than 10,000 people making their way through the turnstiles at each home fixture.  The figures that I have and I will admit some are missing show that the lowest attendance at Easter Road that season was 8,224 against Kilmarnock while 14,523 people watched Hibs win over Rangers in the highest home attendance.  That was the season of course that we were doing extremely well.

Even into season 2001-2002 attendances remained high.  Our highest reached more than our previous season best at 14,701 this time against Celtic with a 4-1 defeat while our lowest was lower than the previous low with 7,701 against Motherwell in a 4-0 win.  Attendances did fall dramatically during and just after the reign of Franck Sauzee.  But again very rarely at home did the club see less than 10,000 per week come to watch the team.

Stephen Glass set for Hibs debut? (Hibs.net)

Then to last season beginning 2002 and ending 2003.  This time the club were lucky if they saw the number of fans coming through the gates at Easter Road reach above 10,000.  The only times this seemed to happen was when the Old Firm or Hearts came calling and occasionally for the odd game like one against Partick Thistle and Aberdeen.  Our lowest last season was 7,518 again lower than the previous two seasons and our highest was 15,560 again higher than the previous highs of the two seasons preceding it.  Fair enough our highs have usually been against the Old Firm or our bitter city rivals but we are still not fulfilling our full potential and our stadium.

The plea from Bobby seems to me to indicate that he also knows that attendances have been dwindling over the past few months.  He knows that his team needs the fans back on side.  The sale of season tickets has been about average if not a bit down on last season.  If the sales are down then the club will be relying on walk up fans to bolster the gate receipts this year.  And this like seasons before it will depend on results and that goes for season ticket holders too!

Hopefully many of the Hibee faithful will answer Bobby’s plea and make their way to Easter Road to watch the Hibees play Mick McCarthy’s Black Cats.  Good luck to the boys for that game play well guy.

In other news fears over the proposed move to Straiton seem to have been eased after Chairman Ken Lewandowski when speaking in the Edinburgh Evening News said that the clubs priority is to remain at Easter Road.  This was said at a meeting between the club and various supporters’ agencies and a spokesman for the Hibs support said fans were heartened by the statement.

Mathias Doumbe says that he is up for the challenge for places that there will be in the defence this year with the arrival of Colin Murdock to add to the already difficult competition between defenders.  Now Gary Smith, Yannick Zambernardi, Paul Fenwick, Colin Murdock, Alen Orman and Doumbe himself will be competing for a place in the manager’s line up come Saturday.

Also the sale of the new home tops began at 7am this morning with orders up 35% on the last home kit so get yours today!