BBC commentator Jonathan Pearce told a national television audience during last Saturday's FA Cup tie between Wanderers and Arsenal that the 23,500 crowd was a disappointment.

It was the latest in a long line of negative messages sent out about Wanderers' fans reluctance to be gripped by cup fever.

As the dust was just about settling after 7,000 season ticket holders stayed away from the last round against Fulham, there were more than 4,000 empty seats in the home sections last Saturday.

The following day Blackburn were 9,000 below capacity for their quarter-final tie against Leicester, sparking more accusations of fans failing to support their club.

Rather than criticising the fans who decided not to go to these games, it would be more productive to investigate the reasons why.

The inference in the criticism of the stayaway supporters is that they don't want to go to the game.

That's absolute rubbish. What fan who goes to watch their team in a routine league game against Fulham or Norwich doesn't want to see an FA Cup quarter-final against Arsenal or anyone else for that matter?

There is only one reason why fans stay away from cup ties and that is because they can't afford it. It might surprise football's mega-rich people who bandy this criticism about, but once a family man on an average wage has paid all his bills and bought food there is often not enough left to take himself and his son off to a cup match.

If they want full houses at cup ties then they should include them in the price of the season ticket which the ordinary football fan budgets for at the start of the season.