Villa Park, not a ground unused to showcasing empty seats, saw it's lowest attendance for a first team game in 15 years last night as Villa managed a point against in-form Southampton.
Only 25, 000 showed at the 43,000 capacity stadium last night. Those who stayed away were possibly prompted by the home side's dogged refusal to score any goals in October and their determination to restrict themselves to just the one or two this month.
However, it is not the lowest attendance ever for a Premier League game. No, no the lowest attendance at a match in Premier League history (as we are all aware, the game of association football was invented in 1992 by Richard Keys and his friend Andy Gray) occurred down in South London.
3,039 distinguished souls turned up at Selhust Park on 26 January 1993 to watch Wimbledon take on Everton. It was crowds like this that led Sam Hammam and Joe Kinnear to try and take the club to Dublin in the mid-1990s. It should be acknowledged by many Wimbledon fans went on strike after their exile from Plough Lane, which would have still been fresh in the mind in early 1993.
Here is the game itself.
