Comment: Why it's never been harder to get a ticket at Aston Villa

For the seventh league match running, dating back to the end of last season, the crowd inside the famous old ground will exceed 40,000. The last time such an attendance streak occurred was in the final months of 1949, with a 4-1 Boxing Day defeat to Wolves – watched by a crowd of 64,937 – the last of seven consecutive home Division One matches where the attendance topped the 40,000-mark.

In nearly seven decades since, the club has never got close to matching it. At least, that is, until now. If you include the play-off semi-final first leg against Albion – and next Wednesday’s sold out Carabao Cup tie with Wolves – and they have already surpassed it. You might also want to factor in that, were it not for the meagre away followings brought by Blackburn and Millwall towards the end of last term, the streak would be even longer.

The general point remains the same and it is this: Never since it first opened in 1897 has it been harder to get into Villa Park.

The question, then, is why? Sure, the club has experienced an extraordinary few months which saw the team achieve promotion despite all looking lost at one point. Yes, Villa have wealthy owners, who have made no secret of their ambition. They also have a manager and captain who are both steeped in the history and tradition of the club, who lead a likeable team.

But Villa have had better teams in the not too distant past, who challenged towards the top of the Premier League, but never created this kind of buzz.

The longest streak of 40,000-plus home attendances achieved during Martin O’Neill’s reign, a time when Villa really did look set to become a genuine force, was four – a mark reached twice between 2007 and 2008. Yet there was nothing approaching this.

Villa sold 30,000 season tickets – a record – before the start of the season. A further 7,000 supporters are on a waiting list.

It is the same on the road. The only away allocation the club has not sold out this season was a midweek cup match at Brighton. Even then, nearly 2,500 travelled.

“If I am being totally honest, I haven’t a clue where it has come from,” said Dave Woodhall, editor of the fanzine Heroes and Villains.

“I had to smile towards the end of last season, when the club had Juan Pablo Angel and Martin Laursen back as guests for the Blackburn game.

“There was a terrific atmosphere that day and they were probably thinking: ‘Blimey, we never got this when we used to play Manchester United down here!’

“You speak to the older generation of supporters and, of course, Villa Park used to get some huge crowds, when most of the ground was terracing.

“But there has never before been a time when tickets aren’t even going on general sale, as is happening now.”

The rebuild of three-quarters of the ground during the 1990s meant there were seven seasons when the capacity was below 40,000, but even then there was nothing to match the current streak of sell-outs.

Back in 1998, when the capacity was 39,241, Villa sold out six consecutive home Premier League matches. But that featured high-profile clashes with Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, at a time when John Gregory’s Villa sat top of the league.

“You’d always get the crowds for the big games and that showed the potential,” says Woodhall. “But there would always be a drop-off for the lesser opponents.

“That’s the difference now. No disrespect to West Ham, but it is not the most attractive of fixtures. Last month we played them on a Monday night, with the game broadcast live on TV. The ground was packed.”

Woodhall believes supporters have fallen back in love with the club after several difficult years and there has undoubtedly been a togetherness about Villa in recent months.

Fans feel part of something and during the charge to promotion there was a sense they, together with players and management, were pulling as one.

There are other factors, too, but for the club the question is perhaps less why, and more how do they keep it going?

Dean Smith has spoken several times of his desire to maintain that spirit, that momentum, in the Premier League. It remains early days yet to this point, to that end Villa’s boss has been successful.