Rising gates since season started

According to the latest season-on-season figures supplied by official statistician Mike Wilson on Friday, a total of 74,107 supporters passed through the turnstiles of the Ryman League's 72 clubs in August and September.

As only 346 games have been played so far in comparison with 405 fixtures and a combined gate of 82,854 at this point last term, the statistics show a rise of 4.3 per cent to continue the trend set by August's figures which were also up.

The Ryman Premier's fixtures accounted for the lion's share of the gate with 39,877 fans turning out to make up 53.7 per cent of the total. Ryman South was next best supported with a share of 28.7 per cent, the division's total of 21,211 since the opening day of the season beating the 17.6 per cent share posted by the Ryman North's clubs for their 13,008 fans.

Wilson's stats also revealed that average attendances at matches across all three divisions are also continuing to rise with average gates so far up from 205 to 214. The rise in crowds was most marked in the Ryman's top flight with the average up by 15.5 per cent.

Among individual clubs, Greenwich Borough easily led the way, the Ryman South newboys recording a massive 215.8 per cent rise with their average gates up from 63 to 199 since they came up as Southern Counties East League champions.

Another relatively new club to the league after winning promotion the previous season, Haringey Borough in Ryman North, posted the next best figures after enjoying a 77.9 percent lift from gates of 59 to 105.

As you'd expect from a club enjoying their first season playing at their own home in nearly a decade, Hendon were the biggest movers in the Ryman Premier's attendance charts, the Greens up a whopping 58.3 per cent after seeing the average gate go from 161 at Harrow Borough's Earlsmead last term to 255 at their new Silver Jubilee Park stadium.

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