I thought I would have a look to see how many Sunderland fans were going to their big cup match tonight against Brentford.

For the previous round I knew the Stadium of Light was only half full (photo above), a crowd of 25,000 for their Carabao Cup third round match and that included a healthy few thousand Hull fans who saw their team lose 1-0.

As a Newcastle United fan I know that I’m getting excited about the possibilities now, if getting past Everton on Thursday night the possibility of playing the likes of Fleetwood or Peterborough for a place in the semi-final. That quarter-final draw is tonight after the Liverpool v Chelsea match.

So I just wondered how the Sunderland fans were reacting ahead of their home match against Brentford in a few hours time.

When I had a look at various places online where they hang out, I found a very even split.

Sunderland fans who are embarrassed at how few tickets they have sold for this match that could see them advance to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, then on the other hand you have the Mackems who are coming up with 101 excuses.

Apparently by early Wednesday afternoon, just over 21,000 tickets had been sold to Sunderland fans for this Brentford cup match.

Another half full Stadium of Light awaits.

There were some cracking excuses mind from the Sunderland fans defending the embarrassing ticket sales.

I didn’t see any repeating of the infamous huge nightshift at Nissan excuse.

However, I did see prices too high (£18 adults and £6 under 14s), meaningless competition (a fanbase that haven’t seen their team win anything for 53 years), too many matches because of Europe as well (well it has been 53 years since they have been in Europe so they’ve had plenty of time to save up for those Europa League matches!), a night match so difficult to take kids (it is half-term), not playing well (well surely if a supporter you would want to then go and…support them even more).

Newcastle United have simply got far more fans.

Sunderland fans can’t have it both ways, claiming they are just as big a club and fanbase as Newcastle United and then come up with 101 feeble excuses as to why their stadium will be half empty, again!

Coming into this season and Newcastle United fans had been left reeling by blow after blow and last season when things had dipped in the Premier League.

Whilst Sunderland fans were buoyant after their most successful season in over half a century and only a second European qualification in their entire club history!

Ever since Mike Ashley left in October 2021 and the countless thousands of boycotting NUFC fans felt comfortable to return, there has only been one home match in over five years that hasn’t sold out to Newcastle United fans. Last season the club kept a few thousand tickets back for each home Champions League match and then released them only days ahead of the match, I take it to add extra buzz just ahead of each game. That though backfired for the Qarabag play-off when United hammered them 5-1 away from home and at £70 minimum per adult ticket, NUFC ‘only’ had just over 50,000 at the home leg.

As the embarrassed Sunderland fans are saying, if they end up getting to Wembley in the Carabao Cup this season, all of the Sunderland fans justifying why they aren’t going tonight will be demanding to be at the front of the queue for final tickets.

The demand for Newcastle United tickets continues to be crazy, every match selling out and demand exceeding supply. This despite what many United fans have seen as a disappointing start to the season on the pitch, poor to average at best.

I think I might tune in on Sky Sports tonight to have a look at the Stadium of Light terraces, just for research purposes…