Pardew tells players: don't take fans for granted (From This is Hampshire)

Pardew tells players: don't take fans for granted

6:00am Saturday 21st November 2009

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ALAN PARDEW has warned his players not to take the Saints fans for granted ahead of today’s big St Mary’s clash with Norwich.

Saints are anticipating their largest crowd of the season for the game against the Canaries – even on the back of the team’s first defeat since September against Brighton at St Mary’s last Sunday tea-time.

The unbeaten run put together by boss Pardew’s men had attracted the supporters back into St Mary’s and now only two teams have a higher average attendance in League One than Saints.

The Daily Echo revealed two days ago that Saints’ average league attendance is up by just over 11 per cent on last season.

The club is averaging a home gate of 19,843, compared to a final average of 17,849 in 2008/09.

For the first eight home games of last season, the average was just 15,625.

That gives Saints an increase of almost exactly 27 per cent on the same period last season.

But following the lacklustre loss to Brighton, Pardew says he couldn’t blame the fans for deciding not to turn up and that their support cannot be expected come what may.

Full story in today's Daily Echo

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