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I DECIDED to go to watch Wycombe Wanderers next week, so I rang the club to ask what time the game would start. "What time can you get here?" came the reply.

Okay, sorry, that is the oldest football joke in the book, but I can't help feeling there's a grain of truth in the gag.

For whatever the Blues seem to do, the crowds just don't come flocking to see them at Adams Park.

We know the audience exists because Wasps pull in the fans when they play at the same stadium.

But it's just not happening for Wanderers, even though Paul Lambert's team has had an excellent season.

I am genuinely impressed from afar at the way the club has held on to a play-off place and is in contention for promotion.

However, you have to ask yourselves: is the interest really there in the town? Why don't the spectators turn up?

I have an odd theory about this. There was much revulsion about Ashley Cole's disgraceful behaviour when he turned his back on a ref last week after committing a serious foul in a Premiership match.

The hand-wringers cry this type of action is killing the game they love, but it's not actually. The crowds still pack out Chelsea matches, and people love to talk about past glories' such as Eric Cantona's kung-fu attack on a fan.

Soccer is not a game any more; it's a soap opera. The same national media who attack Ashley Cole's behaviour then go on to make a living out of doing so, and the fans love to focus on every spit and cough of the debate.

You don't get that at Wycombe's level. They might win games, they might even play decent football, but I am afraid the spoilt generation of soccer consumers of 2008 expect more than this. They don't want to watch a game; they have been brought up expecting to see a celebrity-type circus.

Rugby is different. Fans still see it as a game of sport. Soccer lost the plot long ago and it's clubs such as Wycombe who are now suffering the consequences.

5:32pm Friday 28th March 2008

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