Ellis Platten Brought 1,023 Fans to Great Yarmouth, and Two Local Clubs Got a Day They’ll Never Forget

Two storms, cancelled trains and 500 stubborn inflatable pigs couldn't stop a crowd of strangers from filling a non-league ground where every ticket they bought went straight back into grassroots football.

Ellis Platten set out to surprise a bottom-tier amateur team from his hometown of Great Yarmouth with a crowd of 1,000. It started as a typically ambitious Away Days idea, but it quickly became about much more than a record. AC Mil Lane play in the very bottom league of the English football pyramid and they usually draw about ten spectators. Great Yarmouth Town, which hosted the day, are a well-run non-league side that normally pulls in a few hundred. Nevertheless, a few hundred people a week only goes so far at this level. A crowd of a thousand would break a league attendance record that had stood since 1985.

The chaos (because it wouldn't be Away Days without it)

None of this came easily. Matchday arrived with two named storms back to back, a fallen tree blocking the railway and trains cancelled across the region and Ellis reckoned his chances had dropped from about 10% to about 2%. The 500 inflatable pigs he had bought for the crowd refused to inflate with the pump he'd ordered. The car park was worryingly quiet in the morning and for a while it looked as though the whole plan might fall flat.

Then the community turned up.

Slowly at first and then all at once, fans arrived from all over the country, including Newcastle, Leeds, Leicester, Brighton and Bolton and at least one made the trip from the Netherlands. By the end of the first game there were around 800 people in the ground, with the main event still to come.

When the crowd packed in for AC Mil Lane's match against Shrublands, a pig made its way onto the pitch. Ellis, Alfie and Ben Gibbs each took their turn on the field, but Ellis never found the goal he needed. The head shave he had promised took place in the grandstand, in front of a crowd that had stayed especially to watch.

1,023 people and a lasting boost:

The official attendance came in at 1,023, a new record for the Anglia Combination League. Every ticket sold, along with the food and drink that came with it, helped two clubs that rarely see crowds like that. For AC Mil Lane's players, it was probably the biggest crowd they will ever have and for Great Yarmouth Town, it was a welcome boost for a club that’s always looking to grow.

This is exactly what we like to see from our creators: taking something that sounds ridiculous, bringing an online community along for the ride and leaving a place better off than they found it. A thousand people showed up, two clubs got a boost and a town that gets plenty of stick had a day to be proud of.