Painting The Towns and Cities (Johnstone’s) Red

It was last season’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy that gave Coventry City supporters their best memories for many years and also acted as an inspiration for the Affordable Football blog.

‘Football For A Fiver’ was the club’s offer as they progressed through the rounds via home games against Sheffield United and Preston North End to a Northern Area final against Crewe Alexandra that was witnessed by over 30,000 fans at the Ricoh Arena.

All three fixtures created superb atmospheres as families watched together and lapsed CCFC fans were attracted back.

The competition has its detractors but the vast majority of clubs will be offering reduced price tickets for their games this season while the evening kick-off times are often brought forward to reduce the possibility of late finishes (games also go straight to penalty shoot-outs) for children who are there.

Last Saturday saw the 1st Round draw being made with ties taking place in the week commencing Monday 2 September.

Coventry have a bye for this season’s opening round but, ironically, are likely to attract a record low crowd if they have a home tie due to their current circumstances.

Affordable football elsewhere this month? There are plenty of offers from the clubs themselves and the sponsors for the Capital One Cup 2nd Round (adult tickets for Norwich v Bury for example are £10 and Shakers fans can also travel free to the game) while the reserve team leagues are also kicking into action which sometimes offer the chance to sample a match for just a couple of pounds.