Simon Corney has taken a swipe at Athletic's stay away supporters. In front of the lowest crowd for five years (3,878) the Latics beat Walsall 2-1 on Tuesday night but Corney was not a happy camper.Mr. Corney said, “A lot of different factors come into it, but I was very, very disappointed with the attendance. I honestly feel it’s unfair on the directors and owners if we are ploughing lots of money into the club and only the die-hard supporters show any response. The regulars are our lifeblood and we are grateful to them, but the ones who stay away are making life extremely difficult. They are usually the fans who start demanding we sign new players, but we can’t do that if there isn’t enough money in the pot. Gate receipts have a massive bearing on our finances and it upsets me greatly when people stay away from the club in such numbers. Our support last night was about 1,200 down on what might be expected and, from one game alone, that’s about £15,000. There has been a debate all season about the prices increasing, and we totally understand when some people can’t afford to watch every game. We’ve got three home matches in a week – with Christmas coming up – so maybe you do expect attendances to suffer. We know football can be expensive to watch, but it’s also expensive to run and we need more support than we received last night.“
“I’ve got no problem whatsoever with anyone who didn’t come because they couldn’t afford it. But the people who say they won’t come because of the product are the ones who really disappoint me. Okay it hasn’t been a fantastic season, but we could be in the play-off places if we have a decent December. Ronnie Moore, his players and the club need better support if we are going to build from here. It would be great to hand Ronnie a big budget for the transfer window, but how can we do it when not enough money is coming in? We invested quite heavily in players during the summer, and that can only happen again if people come out and support what we’re trying to do.”