Watford tickets: will they sell out?

I have not heard any of the official figures but I get the impression that the Watford away match, which is second up for the Cherries, is going to be a packed game. I was trying to get tickets on the first Thursday and basically give up after a while. Going back to the phone on Friday was more fruitful, but it indicated to me that many season ticket holders are prepared to follow the team to a few away games this season which is good to hear. When go on general sale, I hope that AFCB allocation gets eaten up.

Exactly how many seats do go to Cherry fans for away games during the season will be interesting to see. Watford have a ground with a capacity of around 17,477. It is not a massive stadium and 2000 seats for AFCB is a reasonable number to start with, considering our away support does not usually get to 2500 unless we are about to be promoted or playing a Premiership side. But to take 20 per cent of our club's support to an away match is something that I would hope we can build on, now that we are going to larger stadiums.

AFCB can look to encourage more fans to go to away games with the cheap travel and other offers but the main task seems to be the desire to get the home fan base growing first. This is sensible because we want to win our home matches above all, with things slightly in our favour in these matches. The team though did exceptionally well away from home last season and it is used to seeing our supporters somewhat overshadowed by larger crowds in the away games. What I do like about away matches is that our fans really give their all, you will hear them no matter where they are. I'm sure it really helps the Cherries, so if we can build on that over the coming season we might do even better away from home.

The factors that will hit many are the location of so many clubs up north and the cost of travel to these games. With many of our supporters have become season ticket holders for the first time it is a big ask to get them to go to several away matches as well, but when AFCB are winning it is surprising how people decide to back their desires to see the team with a few days out to more distant matches. Fans get the bug. Let's hope the bug lasts more than the first few games.

I am pretty sure then that the M25 will see a lot of Cherry traffic come 10th August. Make sure you reserve some space on there for me!