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Phil Brown took time out of transparently touting himself for the vacant Bolton hot-seat to have a pop at the ‘big spaces’ in the Boro crowd.

The perma-tanned Southend boss is a fixture on Channel 5’s Football League highlights show and is cast as an expert in Championship matters so should know that the Riverside is heaving most weeks.

The empty acres in question were, of course, the sterile areas around the away fans. Any other camera angle but that damning fixed one from the West Stand gantry would have shown the burgeoning red army bouncing in every stand.

But that one image - the one most armchair opposition fans see - feeds into a narrative that Boro’s crowds are sparse, the ground is empty and that the Premier League fans have melted away.

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That tired old trope still stings a bit when hurled over the banter barricades but it is hopelessly outdated.

If there is a story about supporters on Teesside it is one about a Riverside resurgence.

The numbers, volume and passion of the amazing away day army has been talked about before at length but the impressive home crowds need bigging up too.

We don’t want to go down the road of our seat-counting neighbours to the North (and South) and treating crowds as a substitute for success but we should certainly stop beating ourselves up over it.

Boro’s gates are very high for the Championship, higher than Boro’s historical crowds in the second tier, greater than in most previous promotion campaigns and compare favourably with attendances at clubs who have gone up in recent years.

Riverside Resurgence

Gates are on the up at Boro, a reflection of the rude health of the club, the direction of travel over the past few years and the teasing proximity to a Premier League promotion.

The “Boro snake” is back with frustrating online and physical queues for tickets the norm, the final day potential title decider with Brighton is already sold out and early bird season ticket renewals are brisk even though supporters don’t know yet what division they may be for.

That is the result of success: Steve Gibson has invested heavily in the squad (almost £25m in transfer fees this season), Boro have been challenging in the promotion spots for most of the past two years and they are winning games most often than not.

They have lost only five home league games in two seasons and in the current campaign have leaked just six goals.

There is a scent of glory in the air and that will always prompt lapsed loyalists to return to the faith.

And why wouldn’t crowds come back? What is on offer is light years from the days under Gordon Strachan when the club felt like it was drifting on the pitch and falling into disrepair off it and belief was ebbing away fast.

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Crowds reflected that. Whatever the officials “tickets sold” figures said, there were games during the calamitous cul-de-sac of the Great Tartanisation when real gates must have dipped into four figures.

Tony Mowbray steadied the ship but the erosion of the season ticket base continued and even with a series of offers the average ebbed away to a precarious low of 15,748, a figure that prompted alarm bells and was nowhere near enough to support the still onerous wage bill.

The two years under Aitor Karanka have a steady increase by the month and the current average - 23,559 - is already the highest since relegation by a comfortable cushion of 3,000.

And with big crowds expected for the last three home games that could yet be nudged up to within touching distance of the lowest Riverside top flight figure of 26,092 in the post-Eindhoven hangover of 2006-07, Gareth Southgate first year in charge.

The Championship

Whatever the jibes, Boro’s gates compare very well with the division as a whole.

The crowd for the Preston game was a healthy 26,390, part of a steady upward curve over the past two years.

It was the second biggest gate of the day in the Championship with only Derby’s 4-1 battering of Bolton drawing more, an impressive 29,674.

It was higher than three Premier League gates on the day - Watford, Swansea and Crystal Palace - and should Boro be promoted they could expect to be in the middle range of top tier crowds.

And the Preston gate was 8,000 more than table-topping Burnley’s 18,229 - and that is despite visitors Leeds ‘taking more’.

Boro have recorded the second highest Championship gate in the division this season - 32,870 for the 2-0 win over Derby on 2 January - with only the Rams clash with neighbours Nottingham Forest higher. By 25.

And Boro’s average gate is currently third in the Championship behind Derby and Brighton, both bigger towns with higher employment and wage levels (and with some creative marketing) enjoying a purple patch.

Riverside gates are comfortably higher than Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Wolves, Forest and Ipswich, all regarded as big clubs with decent crowds.

So we have nothing to be ashamed of at the turnstile.

Above Historic Average

There is a myth that Ayresome Park was always heaving and that in the glory days everyone got a squeeze whether they wanted one or not, vast swathes of humanity jammed onto the Holgate roaring on our heroes to promotion. Not so.

In fact, the current average gate is already higher than all but one of Boro’s previous elevations to the top flight.

And that one arguably was a freak, in 1997-98, when the still box-fresh Riverside was a Red Book sell-out (and even had a waiting list) while fans were fired up with righteous anger after the Three Points red-tape relegation.

Bruce Rioch’s top flight promotion leading a troop of bottle blond local lads, a season that shaped the folklore of a generation, was played out in front of an average gate of 14,509 and the Lennie Lawrence promotion to the inaugural Premier League just a few hundred more.

Even Charlton’s Champions averaged just 22,264 with massive gates in the run-in off-set by some meagre early crowds before the momentum of inevitability sucked supporters in.

George Camsell scored 59 goals in 1926-27 to drive Boro to success in front of an average gate of 21,828... although in mitigation both those season were during biting recessions.

Above Recent Promotion Average

Of the 15 clubs promoted to the Premier League in the past five seasons only three clubs have had higher average gates than Boro have now.

West Ham went up in 2012 with over 30,000 watching Big Sam’s side grind out a route through the play-offs, Southampton had an average of over 26,000 that same year and twice Norwich have gone up roared on by 25,000 plus in 2010-11 and then a shade over 26,000 last year.

Some others have gone up on the back of crowds well short of Boro’s current mark. Hull had an average of just 17,369 in their promotion season while QPR and Palace were below 17,000.

And Burnley is a small town hemmed in by neighbours and in the shadow of two big giant clubs but have along and proud history and you would expect more than their 13,719 average in 2013-14, although that has gone up to 16,444 this term as part of their Premier League dividend.

Of course, big gates aren’t necessary for success - Bournemouth’s average was just 10,265 last season and Watford just 16,664 - and they are more an indication of the capacity of the stadium than anything.

But it does give an indication of momentum of a club and the ability to survive the step up and flourish while the atmosphere of a full house may just swing tight games or help attract new players.