SEAN MCGUIRE: Sweeping differences in show of fan power

Feb 7 2008 by Sean McGuire, Liverpool Daily Post

FAN power is all the rage at the moment, from Anfield to Accrington, but the demands on the individual fan illustrates the gulf between the European elite and a club struggling in the bottom half of League Two.

Share Liverpool FC’s plans for 100,000 fans to each invest £5,000 demands a commitment from its worldwide fanbase, but it doesn’t require much more than a signature on a cheque.

Accrington Stanley’s fan base is more modest, with attendances this season peaking at 2,200 but increasingly falling below 1,500.

And the expectations that the club, which is still wishing visitors to its website a merry Christmas, has of its fans are adjusted accordingly.

But those fans, few though they may be, were called on to display real commitment at the weekend as they responded to a call from a time that football has largely forgotten – fan power was needed to clear snow to ensure their game went ahead.

And it must have worked because instead of a postponement, supporters were rewarded with 90 minutes’ action.

Well, perhaps rewarded isn’t the right word.

Accrington, with just one win in their last eight home games, were beaten 2-0 by Wycombe.

But they did get to see fan power in action.