Bristol City will record their biggest crowd for 22 years when Newcastle United visit Ashton Gate this weekend in the Sky Bet Championship.
Lee Johnson’s side started the season impressively with three wins from three, before suffering a narrow midweek defeat at the hands of Norwich City.It was the first time since 2001/02 that the Robins had opened a campaign with three straight wins, and they will be aiming to replicate their 2-1 opening day victory at Ashton Gate when they host Newcastle United on Saturday.
NEW STAND: @bcfctweets unveiled their new Lansdown Stand today - it looks impressive! https://t.co/yhDnJOTre1pic.twitter.com/hJrSb2znXb
— EFL (@EFL) August 6, 2016
City have only attracted nine 20,000-plus attendances since 1990, the largest coming against Chelsea in the FA Cup back in January 1990 (24,535).
With the Lansdown Stand lower tier operating at a 10 per cent capacity reduction for the Newcastle game, and the upper tier – open to home fans for the first time but still with safety limitations on numbers – it looks unlikely the attendance from that Chelsea game will be surpassed.
However, the crowd will top the Bristol derby attendance of 1996 (20,007), which was the last game to attract a figure in excess of 20,000.
Ticket sales have surpassed the 21,000-mark, so this weekend’s Sky Bet Championship encounter will be the biggest football crowd at Ashton Gate since the 1-1 draw with Liverpool in the FA Cup third round tie of January 1994 (21,718).