' CARDIFF CITY FANS DUBBED THE WORST '

' CARDIFF CITY FANS DUBBED THE WORST '

Rugby player Andy Powell is wrong to criticise Cardiff City fans, the paltry FA Cup attendance was utterly predictable


Andy Poweell:"Cardiff fans are the worst for their support"

By Paul Abbandonato

Monday 9th Jan 2017

The fact remains that Cardiff v Fulham was the third lowest attendance of the round. Worsened only by Sutton v MK Dons, which was actually a 5,013 sell-out and thus had the feel of a proper rip-roaring cup tie, and the 5,163 who saw Wigan beat Nottingham Forest.

Cardiff City even fielded virtually their first team.

Empty seats, empty seats, empty seats.

Crowd 5,199 including 700 Fulham fans

Compared to any other club in the Facup Cardiff had the worst loss of home gate compared to they average gate -68% and there were plenty of other live tv games.

Andy Powell has never been short of a controversy or six and he duly put his giant size 12s firmly in it as Cardiff City crashed out of the FA Cup.

It was not quite BuggyGate, but the former Wales and Lions star certainly sparked plenty of furore as he dubbed Bluebirds fans 'the worst' and pinned the blame firmly on them for the near empty stadium against Fulham.

In for a penny, Powell goaded further 'at least Swansea fans are loyal' and claimed there were officially more pigeons in the ground than supporters.

Wow. How to make 'enemies'... and this from a bloke who doubtless enjoyed the cheers from many of the very Cardiff City fans he chose to criticise during his own five-year spell as back row star for Cardiff Blues.

Powell's social media posts predictably provoked a backlash from Bluebirds followers. Being labelled the worst of the lot was bad enough, but being compared in such unflattering terms to their Swans' counterparts was particularly below the belt for them.

Cue inevitable counter criticism about golf buggies, the need to stick to rugby and the Blues' own previous derisory attendances down at Cardiff City Stadium.

Why am I handing further airspace to Powell's needless and off the mark comments, I can hear some saying?

The answer is because they are worth exploring as part of the wider debate about why there were really so many empty seats for a match played out in front of a TV audience which would have had viewers asking that very question themselves.



Officially, the 5,199 attendance wasn't quite as bad as the previous Cardiff City Stadium record low of 4,194 who turned up to watch Russell Slade's Bluebirds overcome Colchester in another FA Cup tie two years ago.

But that one, again moved to a Friday night to fit into TV schedules, was played against a backdrop of supporters' unrest, rebrand protests and dismay at the dire football served up by Slade's Cardiff.

The Fulham clash came at a time when Cardiff fans had reconnected with their manager and club. Just six days earlier, more than 21,000 had packed in to create a wonderful atmosphere as Warnock's Bluebirds overcame Aston Villa.

If Powell reckons Cardiff fans are the worst around, he should have been inside Cardiff City Stadium that afternoon to witness the Together Stronger mantra that saw the supporters drive their team to victory.

That's what Cardiff fans can be like. Far from being the worst, they are amongst the best you will find for passion, fervour, vociferous backing for their team and hounding of the opposition.

There is a wider debate to be had about where the FA Cup stands on the priority list these days, for clubs and supporters alike. Warnock didn't help matters by stating he planned to pick fringe players - although at least he was being honest with the paying customer right from the start.

As it happens, he chose a stronger team than expected, naming six of the XI would started the win over Villa and supplementing them with Rickie Lambert and Anthony Pilkington, who can hardly be classed as second-string.





Where were the fans?


Still Cardiff faltered badly and the lack of atmosphere inside the ground was perhaps the key component in that. It was the exact opposite of what we had seen against Villa a few days earlier, when the fans and team fed off one another.

There were a number of things that conspired to create this. One was the fact that it was a Championship club versus Championship club fixture, as opposed to David versus Goliath which is what the FA Cup has been historically about.

Another was Warnock's assertion that fringe figures would be playing, thus he wasn't overly-prioritising this competition.

Most significant of the lot though, in the view of many, was the 11.30am Sunday morning kick-off time to meet those TV schedules.

That was simply never going to work for a fixture such as this. Fulham and Cardiff fans made their views clear beforehand, let alone on the day itself as they voted with their feet.

Come on, since when was professional football in this country played at that time? At what silly hour were Fulham fans expected to leave London to arrive in the Welsh capital for kick-off?

We will never know for sure, but it's my guess the fixture would have attracted at least double the fans had it been played out on a normal Saturday afternoon.

TV viewers were greeted with gaping gaps in just about every corner of the ground. What made matters worse was the fact that the night before, we had been greeted with the sight of some bumper attendances and joyous celebrations as Match of the Day showed the third round highlights from other games up and down the land.

Wycombe versus Stourbridge had a bigger gate than Cardiff v Fulham. Around 5,000 Lincoln fans went to Ipswich, 6,000 from Peterborough headed to Chelsea on Sunday. There were 9,000 Plymouth followers at Liverpool (4,000 more than the Cardiff City Stadium crowd).

Try telling that lot the glamour of the FA Cup has gone. Cardiff fans would have come out in their droves for a bigger fixture, of course, but also in greater numbers for a more sensible kick-off time and day.

There were lots of other third round games where supporters also stayed away. Like Hull v Swansea (6,608) and QPR v Blackburn (7482).

However, the fact remains that Cardiff v Fulham was the third lowest attendance of the round. Worsened only by Sutton v MK Dons, which was actually a 5,013 sell-out and thus had the feel of a proper rip-roaring cup tie, and the 5,163 who saw Wigan beat Nottingham Forest.

Cardiff would have had a substantially bigger gate had they too played on a traditional Saturday. If Andy Powell wants to blame anyone for the derisory crowd, then perhaps he should turn his attention to those who decided upon an 11.30 Sunday morning kick-off, not Cardiff City supporters?




Empty seats, empty seats, empty seats.

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A crowd of 5000 is around the average crowd for most of the clubs that mongo played for. He's mischief making here, he's probably still a bit brain damaged after the QPR lads battered him in the walkabout in west London, mind he was never the brightest bloke to begin with, hence his nickname 'mongo'.

This guy is a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

If he would have done his homework he would have found out that 4 times as many were at the CCS for the Villa game. He would have seen that most clubs excluding the top 4 to 6 in the country only attack a fraction of their supporters for the 3rd round of the FA Cup. perhaps the guy never did any homework and is the reason he plays rugby.

I was in Brecon Jazz with some mates a few years back. My one mate really looked up to Andy Powell. We saw him in the street so my mate went and said hello. My mate is harmless as anything as well. Never says a bad word about anyone. Not people he knows or doesn't know. Powell told him to f*cking leave him alone and then wandered off into the night on his own. Even started getting aggressive with my mate from the beginning. My mate still refuses to slate Powell but ever since then I've just seen him as a prick.

So my general opinion is that his view is pointless. Needless antagonising from someone who had a public audience. Further proof of the individual he is. I'm not even saying we have the best support. I'm not biased. I know our support is thin on the ground but we all know why that is, particularly for the game on the weekend. Don't let this idiot wind you up though.

A blues v ospreys match in AWC only had 4,000 crowd Have a look at regional rugby and what is wrong there before open your mouth Woukd be interesting to see what a Cardiff v Swansea match would have had in the cup

I HATE the egg with a passion so the comments from a Neanderthal egghead mean nothing to me.

Gary Lineker mocks Cardiff City's paltry FA Cup crowd on live TV as fans fume over BBC scheduling.

I HATE the egg with a passion so the comments from a Neanderthal egghead mean nothing to me.

I detest the egg as well.

Sunday morning live on TV, lack of public transport, the Manager for warns the fans it won't be a first 11, I actually think our crowd wasn't that bad.
Had we played at 3.pm on the Saturday we would probably seen a crowd of around 7-8 thousand.
That would have bettered QPR, Hull and a few others to name a phew, even Norwich only had just over 10 thousand and against a premier team, a team they won't play again this season, we will be seeing Fulham down here in the league in a couple of weeks.
Personally I only expected around three to four thousand all things considered.
Like a lot of clubs we have other priorities like Staying up and A local derby against Bristol City on Saturday.

In my earlier post I failed to name the has been/never was, he's more famous for driving a golf cart than playing rugby.

its not just the FA.CUP in retrospect, or the time, and what I say, I know many on here will go ape shit about, but Tan, drove away a large number of loyal supporters (myself included) who just fell out of love of it all. who no longer go, who probably would of added a few extra numbers. then there is cost added...(again fans will say it was £10 a ticket) but me and two others went to Cardiff a while back for a day out, and we paid around £36 for train tickets for 3 of us from port Talbot, (£12 each).... then you got the atmosphere, granted it was good against villa, but lets be honest its been dire since leaving Ninian, and I know we were never going to re-created that kind of atmosphere but I don't think no one could forsee how bad it really is. loads of different factors not just the FA cup

its not just the FA.CUP in retrospect, or the time, and what I say, I know many on here will go ape shit about, but Tan, drove away a large number of loyal supporters (myself included) who just fell out of love of it all. who no longer go, who probably would of added a few extra numbers. then there is cost added...(again fans will say it was £10 a ticket) but me and two others went to Cardiff a while back for a day out, and we paid around £36 for train tickets for 3 of us from port Talbot, (£12 each).... then you got the atmosphere, granted it was good against villa, but lets be honest its been dire since leaving Ninian, and I know we were never going to re-created that kind of atmosphere but I don't think no one could forsee how bad it really is. loads of different factors not just the FA cup

I agree,Tan/Red Brigrade are the reasons why we have lost our a lot of our hardcore support.

I HATE the egg with a passion so the comments from a Neanderthal egghead mean nothing to me.

I detest the egg as well.

So do I!

Cardiff City's hard-core support has always been about 5k even in the Ninian Park days?

Sunday morning live on TV, lack of public transport, the Manager for warns the fans it won't be a first 11, I actually think our crowd wasn't that bad.
Had we played at 3.pm on the Saturday we would probably seen a crowd of around 7-8 thousand.
That would have bettered QPR, Hull and a few others to name a phew, even Norwich only had just over 10 thousand and against a premier team, a team they won't play again this season, we will be seeing Fulham down here in the league in a couple of weeks.
Personally I only expected around three to four thousand all things considered.
Like a lot of clubs we have other priorities like Staying up and A local derby against Bristol City on Saturday.

I agree, Sunday morning kick off, live on TV against fellow championship opposition, soulless ground, rip-off catering, dreadful parking and NW always indicating league is priority all contributed to the low turnout. Let's move on

Multiple work colleagues have approached me today and said "what happened with your attendance? Was there a boycott?"

And to be honest trying to explain with the feeble excuses like an early KO and other priorities was just embarrassing. It's strange how it really stood out to them.

its all Tan's fault.

Multiple work colleagues have approached me today and said "what happened with your attendance? Was there a boycott?"

And to be honest trying to explain with the feeble excuses like an early KO and other priorities was just embarrassing. It's strange how it really stood out to them.

Jack, I had texts from over 20 different friends from other clubs, they asked the same and said it looked shocking, I tried to explain, but gave up on excuses in the end.

its all Tan's fault.

Martin, your not far off

Fulham brought 700 fans and yes their coaches were paid for but only half came by coaches, so fair play they made the effort

' CARDIFF CITY FANS DUBBED THE WORST '

Rugby player Andy Powell is wrong to criticise Cardiff City fans, the paltry FA Cup attendance was utterly predictable


Andy Poweell:"Cardiff fans are the worst for their support"

By Paul Abbandonato

Monday 9th Jan 2017

The fact remains that Cardiff v Fulham was the third lowest attendance of the round. Worsened only by Sutton v MK Dons, which was actually a 5,013 sell-out and thus had the feel of a proper rip-roaring cup tie, and the 5,163 who saw Wigan beat Nottingham Forest.

Cardiff City even fielded virtually their first team.

Empty seats, empty seats, empty seats.

Crowd 5,199 including 700 Fulham fans

Compared to any other club in the Facup Cardiff had the worst loss of home gate compared to they average gate -68% and there were plenty of other live tv games.

Andy Powell has never been short of a controversy or six and he duly put his giant size 12s firmly in it as Cardiff City crashed out of the FA Cup.

It was not quite BuggyGate, but the former Wales and Lions star certainly sparked plenty of furore as he dubbed Bluebirds fans 'the worst' and pinned the blame firmly on them for the near empty stadium against Fulham.

In for a penny, Powell goaded further 'at least Swansea fans are loyal' and claimed there were officially more pigeons in the ground than supporters.

Wow. How to make 'enemies'... and this from a bloke who doubtless enjoyed the cheers from many of the very Cardiff City fans he chose to criticise during his own five-year spell as back row star for Cardiff Blues.

Powell's social media posts predictably provoked a backlash from Bluebirds followers. Being labelled the worst of the lot was bad enough, but being compared in such unflattering terms to their Swans' counterparts was particularly below the belt for them.

Cue inevitable counter criticism about golf buggies, the need to stick to rugby and the Blues' own previous derisory attendances down at Cardiff City Stadium.

Why am I handing further airspace to Powell's needless and off the mark comments, I can hear some saying?

The answer is because they are worth exploring as part of the wider debate about why there were really so many empty seats for a match played out in front of a TV audience which would have had viewers asking that very question themselves.



Officially, the 5,199 attendance wasn't quite as bad as the previous Cardiff City Stadium record low of 4,194 who turned up to watch Russell Slade's Bluebirds overcome Colchester in another FA Cup tie two years ago.

But that one, again moved to a Friday night to fit into TV schedules, was played against a backdrop of supporters' unrest, rebrand protests and dismay at the dire football served up by Slade's Cardiff.

The Fulham clash came at a time when Cardiff fans had reconnected with their manager and club. Just six days earlier, more than 21,000 had packed in to create a wonderful atmosphere as Warnock's Bluebirds overcame Aston Villa.

If Powell reckons Cardiff fans are the worst around, he should have been inside Cardiff City Stadium that afternoon to witness the Together Stronger mantra that saw the supporters drive their team to victory.

That's what Cardiff fans can be like. Far from being the worst, they are amongst the best you will find for passion, fervour, vociferous backing for their team and hounding of the opposition.

There is a wider debate to be had about where the FA Cup stands on the priority list these days, for clubs and supporters alike. Warnock didn't help matters by stating he planned to pick fringe players - although at least he was being honest with the paying customer right from the start.

As it happens, he chose a stronger team than expected, naming six of the XI would started the win over Villa and supplementing them with Rickie Lambert and Anthony Pilkington, who can hardly be classed as second-string.





Where were the fans?


Still Cardiff faltered badly and the lack of atmosphere inside the ground was perhaps the key component in that. It was the exact opposite of what we had seen against Villa a few days earlier, when the fans and team fed off one another.

There were a number of things that conspired to create this. One was the fact that it was a Championship club versus Championship club fixture, as opposed to David versus Goliath which is what the FA Cup has been historically about.

Another was Warnock's assertion that fringe figures would be playing, thus he wasn't overly-prioritising this competition.

Most significant of the lot though, in the view of many, was the 11.30am Sunday morning kick-off time to meet those TV schedules.

That was simply never going to work for a fixture such as this. Fulham and Cardiff fans made their views clear beforehand, let alone on the day itself as they voted with their feet.

Come on, since when was professional football in this country played at that time? At what silly hour were Fulham fans expected to leave London to arrive in the Welsh capital for kick-off?

We will never know for sure, but it's my guess the fixture would have attracted at least double the fans had it been played out on a normal Saturday afternoon.

TV viewers were greeted with gaping gaps in just about every corner of the ground. What made matters worse was the fact that the night before, we had been greeted with the sight of some bumper attendances and joyous celebrations as Match of the Day showed the third round highlights from other games up and down the land.

Wycombe versus Stourbridge had a bigger gate than Cardiff v Fulham. Around 5,000 Lincoln fans went to Ipswich, 6,000 from Peterborough headed to Chelsea on Sunday. There were 9,000 Plymouth followers at Liverpool (4,000 more than the Cardiff City Stadium crowd).

Try telling that lot the glamour of the FA Cup has gone. Cardiff fans would have come out in their droves for a bigger fixture, of course, but also in greater numbers for a more sensible kick-off time and day.

There were lots of other third round games where supporters also stayed away. Like Hull v Swansea (6,608) and QPR v Blackburn (7482).

However, the fact remains that Cardiff v Fulham was the third lowest attendance of the round. Worsened only by Sutton v MK Dons, which was actually a 5,013 sell-out and thus had the feel of a proper rip-roaring cup tie, and the 5,163 who saw Wigan beat Nottingham Forest.

Cardiff would have had a substantially bigger gate had they too played on a traditional Saturday. If Andy Powell wants to blame anyone for the derisory crowd, then perhaps he should turn his attention to those who decided upon an 11.30 Sunday morning kick-off, not Cardiff City supporters?




Empty seats, empty seats, empty seats.

This is the guy who nicked a golf buggy and travelled down the M4 on the hard shoulder!

Hmmmm he's going the same way as his Swans!!!!

Multiple work colleagues have approached me today and said "what happened with your attendance? Was there a boycott?"

And to be honest trying to explain with the feeble excuses like an early KO and other priorities was just embarrassing. It's strange how it really stood out to them.

It's funny how you should say this as in the past 24 hours I have had numerous texts and work colleagues approaching me about how dire our attendance was.

I did not attend yesterdays game for various reason but my first response to each and every one of them is "why didn't you go to watch it"? Each and every one of these people are big football fans and were born and live in around Cardiff but not one of them attends any of our games or classes themselves as a Cardiff fan. If anything they actively dislike Cardiff.

My argument is, why do these people who like watching football, actively go out of there way not to watch and to slate their home town club?

If this sort of football fan in the south wales area just attended 3-4 games a season the clubs attendance would dramatically increase.

These are our recent attendances for FA Cup games at CCS.

15/2/2014 - Saturday 3pm - Cardiff 1 - Wigan 2 - Att: 17,123 (approx 1,000 Wigan)
02/01/2015 - Friday 7.30pm TV - Cardiff 3 - Colchester 1 - Att: 4194 (approx 2-300 Colchester)
24/01/2015 - Saturday 3pm - Cardiff 1 - Reading 2 - Att 12,000 (Approx 1800 Reading)
10/01/2016 - Sunday 6pm TV - Cardiff 0 - Shrewsbury 1 - Att 4782 (Approx 4-500 Shrewsbury)
08/01/2016 - Sunday 11.30am TV - Cardiff 1 - Fulham 2 - Att 5199 (Approx 700 Fulham)

Looking at that I don't think there's any doubt that the Kick Off time and TV has damaged our crowd enormously.

If it had stayed at 3pm on a Saturday I believe we would have got 10,000 with Fulham bringing 1-1500 and nobody would have batted an eyelid.

Multiple work colleagues have approached me today and said "what happened with your attendance? Was there a boycott?"

And to be honest trying to explain with the feeble excuses like an early KO and other priorities was just embarrassing. It's strange how it really stood out to them.

It's funny how you should say this as in the past 24 hours I have had numerous texts and work colleagues approaching me about how dire our attendance was.

I did not attend yesterdays game for various reason but my first response to each and every one of them is "why didn't you go to watch it"? Each and every one of these people are big football fans and were born and live in around Cardiff but not one of them attends any of our games or classes themselves as a Cardiff fan. If anything they actively dislike Cardiff.

My argument is, why do these people who like watching football, actively go out of there way not to watch and to slate their home town club?

If this sort of football fan in the south wales area just attended 3-4 games a season the clubs attendance would dramatically increase.

SPOT ON Mikey

Because they are either armchair fans or support glory clubs.

I HATE the egg with a passion so the comments from a Neanderthal egghead mean nothing to me.

I detest the egg as well.

And me - strange how grown men like to roll around on the floor with each other in the mud and then get up and tickle each others balls in a huddle. Once that practice is over, they kick the egg into the crowd and lift each other up to see who can reach the highest before it all starts again - weird or what...

I HATE the egg with a passion so the comments from a Neanderthal egghead mean nothing to me.

I detest the egg as well.

And me - strange how grown men like to roll around on the floor with each other in the mud and then get up and tickle each others balls in a huddle. Once that practice is over, they kick the egg into the crowd and lift each other up to see who can reach the highest before it all starts again - weird or what...

Very

Genuine question then lads, why is there so much apathy towards Cardiff City FC from the City's inhabitants.

Don't get me wrong, I know there are loads of Cardiff lads who are stonewall, out and out as loyal as you can get Cardiff fans but as a City in general there doesn't appear much love for the Football team and as mentioned above, if anything there is even a bit of a dislike of it.

its all Tan's fault.

What an absolute load of bullocks. Anyone who has not returned since the red debacle were looking for any reason to walk away and were not die hards in the first place.

I assume your statement was tongue in cheek Sneggy but wasn't sure.

Does that clown Andy Powell still play? If he does maybe he's too punch drunk to notice the sparse crowds watching the regional clubs. The Blues derby matches are lucky to get more than 10,000 on a saturday afternoon. He should spend more time concentrating on getting his golf buggy driving licence! f*cking dumb ass!

The guy is a knob! I don't need to waste any more tome than that in my analysis.