Pitching In Isthmian North- stat watch- Attendances

When we feature attendances we like to do a little comparing and contrasting, but that's rather difficult when the last two seasons didn't end. But with help from Neil Pilcher at Folkestone, who has done much of the work you'll see here, we're going to share some lists of top attendances so far this season and then look at some averages- although to some extent with the latter, although we're not comparing eggs with oranges, we might be comparing hen eggs with duck eggs! Next up, the North Division

The Pitching In Isthmian North has already delivered some fabulous football this season- and some big surprises. Some of the best games were luckily the best attended- here's the top ten so far this season:

797 Stowmarket Town vs Bury Town
530 Grays Athletic vs Aveley
464 Heybridge Swifts vs Maldon & Tiptree
431 AFC Sudbury vs Coggeshall Town
417 Bury Town vs Hullbridge Sports
417 Bury Town vs Coggeshall Town
412 Tilbury vs Canvey Island
405 Felixstowe & Walton Utd vs Dereham Town
402 Canvey Island vs Hashtag United
388 Bury Town vs Heybridge Swifts

As you can see, Bury Town feature four times, whilst Heybridge Swifts and Canvey Island feature twice.

If we take a look at the averages in the division- and remember that we're only two months in before we draw any firm conclusions- they look like this:

Average Attendances in the Pitching In Isthmian North, Aug/Sept 21-22

Stowmarket Town 502
Bury Town 407
Felixstowe & Walton Utd 385
Grays Athletic 359
Aveley 352
Heybridge Swifts 337
Hashtag United 334
Tilbury 305
Canvey Island 303
AFC Sudbury 292

Now comes the interesting bit, if you like statistics. Again, this isn't really a scientific comparison, as we're comparing a full season average with three or four home matches, but this is how those stats compare with the last full season we had, 2018-19.

Average Attendances Pitching In Isthmian North, 2018-19

Stowmarket Town *289
Bury Town 356
Felixstowe & Walton Utd 385
Grays Athletic 227
Aveley 272
Heybridge Swifts 292
Hashtag United *158
Tilbury 143
Canvey Island 205
AFC Sudbury 255

* note- Stowmarket Town were in the Eastern Counties Premier. Hashtag United were in Eastern Counties Division One South.

If we look at the percentage increase/decrease between 2018/19 and the first two months of 2021/22, this is what we get, with the table changing a little in order:

Increase/decrease in attendances 2018-19 to 2021-22, Pitching In Isthmian North

Tilbury 113.3% increase
Hashtag United *111.3% increase
Stowmarket Town* 73.7% increase
Grays Athletic 58.15% increase
Canvey Island 47.8% increase
Aveley 29.4% increase
Heybridge Swifts 15.41% increase
AFC Sudbury 14.5% increase
Bury Town 14.3% increase
Felixstowe & Walton Utd equal numbers

It would be wrong to draw any firm conclusions from this table- and remember, not only have our clubs played a small number of home matches, but their average will also be skewed by whether the clubs visiting them have been those who traditionally bring large numbers of travelling fans- but it is worth patting rather a large number of clubs on the back for a moment!

Finally, and we'll include this table as we look at every division, here are the top twenty attended fixtures across the Pitching In Isthmian League for August and September 2021:

2,101 Worthing vs Bognor Regis Town (1)
1,214 Hastings United vs Whitehawk (2)
1,148 Worthing vs Bowers & Pitsea (3)
1,051 Lewes vs Horsham (4)
1,028 Worthing vs Corinthian-Casuals (5)
949 Hastings United vs Herne Bay (6)
852 Whitstable Town vs Herne Bay (7)
839 Folkestone Invicta vs Enfield Town (8)
836 Folkestone Invicta vs Worthing (9)
802 Bognor Regis Town vs Carshalton Athletic (10)
798 Worthing vs East Thurrock United (11)
797 Stowmarket Town vs Bury Town (12)
782 Folkestone Invicta vs Potters Bar Town (13)
772 Folkestone Invicta vs Horsham (14)
745 Bognor Regis Town vs Wingate & Finchley (15)
723 Lewes vs Cheshunt (16)
703 Lewes vs Hornchurch (17)
686 Enfield Town vs Cheshunt (18)
671 Binfield vs Bracknell Town (19)
658 Haywards Heath Town vs Burgess Hill Town (20)

Most of the stats courtesy of Neil Pilcher. Image from Neil Dady.

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