Pilgrim faithful lend atmosphere to cold affair

ALTHOUGH it’s true that plenty of Gooners are probably still sunning themselves in more clement climes, in the current parlous economic circumstances, I’m sure this only partially accounted for the conspicuous number of empty seats at Saturday’s FA Cup 3rd round tie.

Hopefully this will have meant the proliferation of predatory, pond scum touts outside our ground, will have taken a hiding, as indifference caused many of our more fickle fans to stay away in their droves. It seems the prospect of an encounter with lowly Plymouth Argyle just didn’t light the fire necessary to persuade folks to freeze their backsides off on the terraces, on a brass-monkey afternoon.

The same certainly couldn’t be said of the fervent Pilgrim faithful, who packed out the 9,000-odd seats in their corner of our ground, determined to make the very most of their big day out. Thankfully they gave voice to the sort of raucous racket, that lent the afternoon just a little of that old-fashioned FA Cup tie atmosphere and without whom it would’ve likely been a far more insipid affair.