Preston Lions v Melbourne Victory youth. Apparently attracted 3.5 k and over 11k on YouTube.

Good effort all round. Excellent to see a club that has ambitions to get into the top flight putting the hard yards in at this stage of the process.

After some very difficult years for Preston, their current management seems to be making significant inroads into both infrastructure development and also the club structure. 

Bring on the second division - clubs to determine their ability to survive on performance only and have ambitions without external (Central Office) influence. Called survival of the strongest.
Promotion to the Aleague (and relegation) then to take place, purely on results. Relegation within 3 years when new (current WU and Mac) Aleague clubs are well established.
Looks like Preston could be well in the mix!

Showing some of the big NPL Boys how it's done. 

They drew more than the Bulls vs Roar game based on those numbers! That must be a first if an NPL game drew more than an aleague game.

Almost fell off the couch when i saw that turnout.
I went to one of their games back around 2016 and they wouldnt have had 100 people there.

Installing lights and playing Friday nights is a game changer for them. The clowns that ran them into the ground a decade ago are no longer there.

They had to play an A-League mainstream club to get that. After all they are trying to raise their profile for the NSD.
I remember in the NSL days where only mainstream club participation got 40,000+ capacity crowds in finals.

Think you will be surprised in the coming weeks, 99% of the crowd was Preston.

Honestly this is good for the sport. If preston can keep drawing more then MacArthur it’s really gonna make them look like spuds 

Who won?

Preston with a beautiful solo goal 

Were there more MV supporters?

Great work Preston.

Shows what a well managed club can achieve and start to build with positive momentum.

A few dozen behind one of the goals and that’s it. 3,000 Preston supporters. It’s all on YouTube look at the reaction when they score.

always a negative for paulc.....

Kudos to Preston.

Hahahah showing WU up quite a bit there... they would kill for that sort of crowd.

What a stunning crowd at BT Connor... well done to the new committee at the Lions.. Keep rising up the ranks lads, cant wait to get you into the NPL1 to have some of the old rivalry back in the competition.

This is how football should be off the field and on it clubs should consistently be trying to outdo each other. It’s good for the sport and a smack on the ass for WU 

All well and good if they can get that type of crowd against a Victory or City or WU, but will the fans come out to watch, say a Doveton or Box Hill? 

Yeah I get a little bit of that feel too but to be honest I don't think alot of the Preston fans are as anti Aleague as other clubs. I think it is more to do with finally being in NPL and under lights, Friday night cevapi and beer with friends watching the old club run around... paradise. They just seem to be a club that is in tune with its community (playing in Reservoir is almost at the geographical heart of the North Macedonian community here) and have a new board with a passion for getting things done. Ground redevelopment and lights...just recently announcement of govmnt grant...  Its amazing how even just the faint whiff of ambition from some of these old clubs brings about a change in fortunes..  Still hate them but credit where credit is due  they've got a better crowd and bigger stadium than WU will ever have......

There is a lot of hype around how many spectators they’re getting atm, and rightly so, and that’s what I mean, will that aura about being back in the NPL competitions, die off as they start playing these lesser supported teams. I hope not, but I went to BT Connor back in 2019 when they played a regular season game against Essendon. 

600 for the division they're in is still good. 3.5k is just nuts. As long as they keep winning and pushing for promotion they should be able to continue the momentum.

Let's face it - they got that crowd because an a-league club was playing.

I am all for Preston, but if it was v westgate or something they are not getting that interest. Doesn't matter how many of the crowd were preston fans, they are going because they are playing MV

They've drawn Oakleigh in  the cup next round... Regardless of where it is played I would expect a bigger crowd than 3.5k....  In fact wouldnt be surprised if it is a bigger crowd than both City and WU combined for the round. 

I hope they can find someone who can count the attendance!

even if they did you'd still knock it paulc.

Anything a positive re NPL is frowned upon by many, no wonder the game in gen doesn't gain the support it needs and deserves.
Part of the prob here in unique Oz, on one hand we have the Pro league clutching at straws after so much money poured into it, on the other hand NPL/Grass roots making ends meet somehow.
Both ends of the scale not getting the exposure and support the game needs more so to show the long time enemies of the game in general, media/other codes etc that we could be a true code against them all.

Anything positive in this game seems to be ripped apart.

An NPL3 club getting that crowd is a huge effort, and let’s hope they can continue to progress.

We are not part of the same game bud. Thats the problem. Its always going to be old vs new, us vs them, ethnics vs mainstream, clubs vs franchises, classics vs plastics name it whatever you want or be on whatever side you want there will never be agreement until this is resolved. A fourth tier suburban club (which I hate BTW, have no affiliation with them whatsoever) gets a massive crowd and the complaint is that the crowd is ethnic., according to some they can't even count and the only reason they turned up was because they were playing against 19year old academy kids from the mighty MV..... ffs. In the same breath they welcome an ethnic club from Manchester and can't wait to relocate to a bigger town, stuff the existing customers they can get new ones.... Wonder what would happen if Hajduk Split or Galatasaray  tried to do the same thing? What do you think the headlines would look like then?

The exaggeration in crowd numbers has always been a taking point on this forum even with the ALeague. So consistent with that,  me a smidget of evidence and I might believe that figure.