Early Bird extension spells trouble

Whilst the recent extension in the Early Bird season ticket offer provides cash strapped fans with the benefit of an increased time frame in which to snap up what is a pretty inviting offerm I do worry about the reasons for the extension.

Not least when the free shirt to first 500 to renew offer is also still available. I don't think I'm being overly cynical however to suggest that the purchasing window hasn't been extended because the club has run out of season ticket books.

Quite what our pre-August kick off ticket sales will be like is still clearly open to a number of factors. A winning streak similar to those five straight wins at the back end of Paul Merson's first (and only) full managerial season, however unlikely, could only help to improve sales, as in contrast another sale of the family silver would serve to do nothing but further depress them.

There is one sale that I suspect would immediately and dramatically improve the take up in season tickets. However despite the hopes of many, I fear that come next season the same vehicle number plate will be parked in the owner's car parking space as it has been for a while.

There will also be fans wondering whether the car parked in the manager's spot will also be driven by the same man. Results like last night do little to help his case but personally I think that Hutchings has done just about OK in his year or so at the helm. Indeed given that I've never been a fan of change for the sake of change – Colin Lee aside obviously – I'd hope that Jeff sticks by his appointment for some time yet.

Cast a quick look across the message board forums or an ear around the stands and you'll no doubt find a swelling of disagreement with this sentiment but in leading us towards a finish around the bottom section of the top half Hutchings will have produced a decent return from a relatively miniscule budget and what appears to be an over reliance on youth. Clearly there will others who had hoped for or expected more, and maybe it is they who have a point. Steve Jones's comments earlier this week when noting quite how many late and poor points we've dropped serve to reiterate this opinion but in the same article he says the players went into the season expecting to find themselves in a relegation battle.

The best teams at any level thrive on stability, the teams who under achieve chop and change too often, just look at the mess we made in the five years post Graydon or the state that Southampton have found themselves in. We certainly don't need any more of that.

And rare as it is for me to agree with Jeff and Roy, I'm sure it was one of them who correctly noted that over time your attendance numbers define what level you eventually end up at. Yes, you can defy the numbers game for a while, not least if you can develop a conveyor of talent from your youth ranks, but eventually the numbers – or lack of them - will catch up with you. With an average attendance ranked 23rd in League 1 and a legion of fans currently choosing to stay at home the achievement of (hopefully) getting to the 50 point mark before the end of March shouldn't be underestimated.

To suggest we can keep achieving this with attendance numbers quite so poor would be foolish however. For the sake of the Club, the fans and the manager's future budget the more early bird season tickets that are sold the better.

Sales extensions are more than welcome but they can only help for so long however. Our average attendance is down 11% on last season's horror numbers and if your customers don't believe in your product or, more to the point, in those selling it then no matter how long the sale goes on you're in trouble, just ask the shareholders at Woolworths & MFI.