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Saturday, July 27, 2019

Average of 658 watch home friendlies

Only 625 fans watched Hereford's final pre-season friendly this afternoon against an Aston Villa Under-23 side.

It was the lowest attendance for this year's home friendlies, with 648 and 701 turning up for the Cheltenham and Wolves Under-23 matches respectively; the latter probably boosted due to it being Ryan Green's testimonial.

Of course, there are a number of facts as to why they were low, such as that everyone has to pay (a lot of fans felt £10 for an adult ticket was too steep), it's the summer holidays and friendlies traditionally don't whet many people's appetite. The fact that two of the games were against Under-23 sides may also have turned a lot of people off from going. 

In comparison, this time last year, 804 watched the match against Cardiff U23s, while a very healthy 1,521 turned up the previous week for the game against Newport; albeit the attendance was swelled by 467 visiting supporters. The lowest attendance last year was 624 for a mid-week encounter against Forest Green.

The final pre-season friendly in 2017 - against Stourbridge - saw an attendance of 1,025, while the last friendlies in 2016 and 2015 saw crowds of 1,371 (versus Merthyr) and 1,118 (versus Hull U21s) respectively.