Let's hear it for the fans

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Torquay United's 2-1 win over Chippenham Town at Plainmoor last midweek was the attendance (writes Dave Thomas).
Only three days earlier, the Gulls had lost 3-0 to Worthing in their first home game of the season. 'Embarrassing', 'horrendous' and 'debacle' were among the words that even manager Gary Johnson used to describe it.
Johnson, the team, indeed the whole club, came in for heavy criticism - calls for the manager to go, and even talk of a fan 'boycott'.
A crowd of 2,733 had seen it, many leaving early and others booing Johnson and his players off the pitch after the final whistle.
Most predictions for the Chippenham gate hovered around the 1,500-mark, especially when, on the club's own website, there was an advert selling live TV 'stream' coverage of the game at £9.50 a time.
In fairness, it was a National League-wide initiative.
Although Saturday 3pm kick-offs will still be LiveTV-free, midweek matches have become fair game for stay-at-home watchers, for half the price of a seat at Plainmoor.
It isn't even as if United will receive all the revenue from TV customers 'buying' their own matches.
They pay direct to National LeagueTV, and we're told that the whole pot is later divided among the clubs.
They haven't told us exactly how that works or who gets what. Dear, dear - that would be much too open and transparent.
We live in an age where sports fans can and do stream coverage of almost any event in any corner of the globe.
'Firesticks' are widely available, allowing viewers to bypass many of the paid-for channels we've all become used to.
You can't uninvent ever-advancing technology. Of course you can't.
But what makes live sport so desirable and so lucrative is not the contests themselves, it's the crowds and the atmosphere in the stadiums.
How long would the cameras keep turning up if matches, even important ones, were played in front of empty terraces and vacant seats?
Whichever way you look at it, that streaming 'ad' on the Gulls' website last week was designed to encourage people to stay away from Plainmoor.
Call me old-fashioned, but the logical conclusion of that process is, and always has been, a one-way ticket down a dark tunnel.
So let's hear it for the fans, every 2,069 loyal, committed, lifeblood-of-the-club one of them, who made the effort to turn up for the Chippenham game.
They, more than anyone, deserved to celebrate the 2-1 win. And wasn't the TV coverage enhanced by the noise they made?