Sign up to our free newsletter for the top North Wales stories sent straight to your e-mail Sign up now! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Welsh Premier attendances dropped to their lowest level for four seasons in 2016/17. But on a positive note the amount of red cards dished out was the least ever in the league's history.

Figures released this week also bizarrely show the poorest average attendances last season were recorded by the top three clubs in the points table.

The overall league average crowd last season was 306, a fall of 6.38% on 2015/16.

That figure is still the sixth highest known average in the league's 25-year history. The WPL did not achieve an average attendance of more than 300 until 2010/11, the first season the size of the league was reduced to 12 teams.

The league did not return attendance figures during its first two seasons, 1992-94.

Bangor City were the league's best-supported club last season with an average turnout of 487 - a slight decline of 1.42% on the previous campaign's 494 - when the Citizens were also top of the 12-club chart.

Aberystwyth Town achieved the second highest average attendance of 2016/17 with 379 (an increase of 3.27% on 2015/16), with Rhyl third on 359 (a slump of 11.58%).

Perhaps the strangest statistic of last season is the fact the top three clubs in the table occupied the bottom three spots in the attendance stakes.

Connah's Quay Nomads, who finished an all-time highest second in the WPL, returned the lowest average attendance of 230 (up 7.98% on 2015/16).

Champions The New Saints suffered a drastic average attendance drop last season - 261 compared to 375 in 2015/16 (down a massive 30.40%).

Bala Town's average turnout over 16 games at Maes Tegid was just 242 (down 13.88% on 2015/16).

The biggest attendance of the season was the 1,168 Aberystwyth Town pulled in for their home clash against Rhyl on Friday, October 14, a night which marked the official opening of a new 3G pitch at Park Avenue.

Aber also boasted the league's best Friday night average of 683, while Bangor topped the standings for Saturday and Sunday games with average crowds of 418 and 615 respectively.

Caernarfon Town were by far the best supported club in the Huws Gray Alliance last season with an average crowd of 357. Holywell Town were second on 230 and Porthmadog third with 216.

Only three clubs in the Welsh Premier recorded a better average attendance than Caernarfon.

A massive positive for the Welsh Premier League was the fact the 2016/17 campaign saw the lowest number of red cards handed out in WPL history - 39, compared with 46 the previous season. The league's worst-ever season was 1997/98, which 112 reds were dished out.

Last season saw 625 yellow cards brandished - the second lowest ever.