Fans are a strange breed, that's if you can call some of them fans.
Had 2 guys sat in front of me for the Exeter game. Seemed quite apparent that they weren't regulars, just from their body language.
Guessing they went up because it was a fiver, which is fair enough, but they went down to the mall on 28 mins (yes, the game had been a bit dull up to that point), but they didn't come back until after half-time.
Then on 76 mins they buggered off, either to the mall or maybe home. That was a total of 31 mins of the game they missed. Over a third! Beyond my comprehension, that.
Really get the feeling fans are a different breed these days. Sure, you still get the hard core, but then I think some come along looking for an instant fix and I think their expectations and demands are so much higher and they lack patience too.
Maybe we live in a world with people playing too many video games and having all the entertainment available to you at a touch of a button.
Have noticed with my 10 year old daughter. She just immerses herself in stuff and wants all the entertainment to come to her without her having to do any of the work.
She can be incredibly lazy at times and will play on the Wii lounging on the sofa, barely moving the controller and just clicking away, even in a competitive, sporty game that is supposed to encourage movement.
She loves Minecraft and will play for hours unless I tell her to get off, but worse than that she will just go on Youtube and watch videos of other people playing Minecraft. Not to learn anything in particular, but just to be entertained without her having to put any effort or thought in.
She's a very clever girl, but just wants everything to come to her and doesn't want to put any effort in herself.
I think some people just can't be arsed to get off their backsides and make the effort to go to a game, even though they may be quite keen. Just so much easier to sit on the sofa playing Fifa 15 or Call of Duty or whatever.
It's a different world we live in now. When I was young, if I wasn't out playing football, I was out watching football up the City. The whole day was an adventure, from the getting ready and heading out, to the game itself, to the running home to go and wait for the Pink to be delivered to the local newsagent.
I do think there is a degree of lethargy with some people and surveys say more and more kids aren't going out, or getting any exercise and I just immersed in PS Vita's and Wii's and XBoxes.
As with Gillingham, it seems that some people just came out for the 'event.'
If we were in the Premier there would be a lot more 'events' I guess with Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and Man U coming to town.
I'm sure there is a degree of 'Oh, it's only Crawley, I won't bother.'
It is really tough and what makes it tougher still is when you are supporting a team that has known pretty much nothing other than decline for 14 years.
As I say, I think you'll always get the hardcore, but convincing others to go up regularly can be a hard task.
