IS Bolton a football mad town or not?

That is the question posed in an article by my colleague Gordon Sharrock this week following disappointing attendances for the opening two Premiership home games and the slow ticket sales for Friday night's England Under-21 international.

My own opinion is that Bolton is a bigger football town than Bury and Wigan, the same as Blackburn and Burnley and smaller than Southampton and Derby.

I also believe that the passion and willingness to watch Wanderers has not changed one iota for half a century.

The debate opened up when, in last Sunday's programme, Reebok chairman Phil Gartside expressed his disappointment with the size of the crowd for the first home league game against Charlton. In the piece he called for more support. It did not come against Villa and history suggests it will not come in the future.

I can understand Wanderers' frustration. They have captured the imagination by staying in the Premiership against all the odds last season and have added to the squad with two of the world's most exciting talents in Youri Djorkaeff and Jay Jay Okocha.

What do they have to do - sign David Beckham?

Probably even that wouldn't work because history suggests that what Wanderers are attracting now is about all they are going to get except for the top games.

Despite its modest capacity of 28,000 the Reebok has only had full houses 15 times since it opened in 1997. Only six of those have come after the inaugural season when new stadiums are notorious for attracting big crowds.

But throughout that time they have been able to guarantee 20,000 home fans in the Premiership and 15,000 in the First Division which compares well with the last half century.

Indeed, Wanderers have come a long way since the dark decade of the 1980s when, for six consecutive seasons, the records show regular league attandances at Burnden Park of four and five thousand. The old timers will tell you about the 1950s when Burnden Park was so full that kids had to be passed down the terraces to sit on the wall.

They don't tell you about the First Division game on February 20, 1957, when 11,284 watched Bolton beat Birmingham or about the previous FA Cup winning season when only seven of the 21 home league games broke the 21,000 barrier.

There were big crowds like that season's 48,000 against Manchester United. That is the stuff of legends but the 13,000 for the next home game against Portsmouth is not.

The current crowds are a concern because they are the lowest in the Premiership and considering the quality of signings made in the summer. But what happens tomorrow night could be a total embarrassment.

Bolton's standing as a football town will be given a big black mark around the country if fears that they could fail to break double figures for the England Under-21 attendance prove to be true.

When Blackburn can attract 29,000, Derby 32,500, Stoke 28,000 and even Reading 18,000 for under-21 games - two of them friendlies - it will be difficult to argue Bolton is a football mad town if it falls well short of those figures.

What do you think? E-mail Chris Sudlow, Internet Editor, on csudlow@boltoneveningnews.co.uk