Taste of the Carabao Cup fails to attract supporters

THE Carabao Cup proved a Tuesday night turn-off for fans across England and Wales, with attendances down more than half from last season’s league averages.

Empty seats were a feature at most of the 21 grounds hosting second-round games in the competition, with crowds overall running at 49 per cent of the same clubs’ 2017-18 marks.

Cardiff attracted a crowd of just 6,953 to the 3-1 defeat against Norwich – just 23 per cent of the 30,720 at their last top-flight home game, a goalless draw with Newcastle on August 18.

The 7,290 fans who watched Stoke’s 2-0 win over Huddersfield represented only a quarter of last season’s average league attendance of 29,280 at the bet365 Stadium, admittedly when Stoke were playing Premier League football. The attendance was dwarfed by the more than 20,000 YouTube views by Wednesday morning for various videos of Juninho Bacuna’s spectacular own goal in the match.

Hull’s KCOM Stadium hosted its lowest crowd, 4,666, as the Tigers lost 4-0 in the first of two home meetings this week with Derby, while fellow Championship side Brentford also failed to crack the 5,000 barrier against Cheltenham and just 5,007 watched QPR beat Bristol Rovers 3-1.

There were some more positive stories, and the visit of Premier League West Ham was understandably a major draw for AFC Wimbledon fans – 3,962 may have been one of the smaller crowds of the night, but it equated to 92 per cent of last season’s average attendance at Kingsmeadow.

Leeds v Preston attracted the highest attendance of the evening, 18,652 - though even that was just 59 per cent of last season’s average at Elland Road and 55 per cent of the 33,699 at the venue’s previous match, a 2-0 Championship win over Rotherham.

It was the only crowd over 15,000 on Tuesday, with Brighton v Southampton (13,651) and Sheffield Wednesday v Wolves (13,597) closest behind and Leicester, West Brom and Middlesbrough the others to break 10,000.

The lowest crowd of the night got the best value for money as 1,934 watched Wycombe beat Forest Green 4-3 on penalties. Walsall and Macclesfield also went to a shoot-out watched by 2,352 fans while 2,228 saw Newport lose 3-0 to Oxford.