Saints supporters have turned up in numbers for the regular Championship games this season, but how does this compare with the rest of the division, read on to find out.

With a total attendance at St Mary's of 654, 487 (28,455 average) we are the 4th best supported teams in the division, that sounds good, but it is 918 down on the 29,373 average two years ago under Russell Martin.

In fairness, perhaps a chunk of that number could be accounted for by the number of night matches we played at St Mary's against teams who would have been expected to bring a large following, Bristol City, Norwich, QPR & Sheffield United all played evening games here in our unbeaten run and could have been expected to bring a large following, between them there were probably 1,500 on average per game less than the full allocation.

Earlier in the season West Brom & Leicester where all evening games and again two years ago on a Saturday brought 3,000 fans and this time out struggled to raise 1,500.

So the overall picture is that we were down on two years ago, but perhaps not as big as the gap suggests.

But how do we compare against other teams in the division.

The top 3 are

1. Coventry 696,671 (30,281 average)

2. Leicester 664,861 (28,907)

3. Derby County 656,942 (28,562 average)

You would expect Coventry to have been top, they were Champions and enjoying their best season in over a quarter of a century and it's even more impressive given that they only allocated the 2,000 minimum tickets to away fans.

Leicester held up well, but it is disappointing to be behind them given the torrid time they have had this season, surely we should have been above them.

Likewise Derby, they were solidly mid table and never really troubling the top 6, yet they 1,500 per game ahead of us in attendances, hats of to Rams fans.

Ipswich were in 5th place with 650,980 (28,303) again a club that did so without having to rely on a full allocation of away fans to bolster the average, given that they were only 152 fans per game less that us, it's is fair to suggest that more Ipswich fans watched their team at home than Saints fans at St Mary's.

In 7th place were Middlesbrough and they must be disappointed with their average attendance , they do have the excuse that it is probably the farthest place to travel to for most of the clubs in the division, but with 635,316 (27,622) that is way below the capacity of the Riverside.

Aside from a handful of crowds above 30k the highest being just short of 35K , they have dropped as low as 24k and their average is just about right.

The article on footballleagueworld.co.uk only covers the top 12 clubs, so surprise surprise the Worlds self proclaimed "Bestest fans" do not feature.

Portsmouth come in as the 15th best supported club in the 24 team Championship, with a capacity of 20,688, their average of 20,120 leaves an average of 500 seats empty per game.

The capacity was only truly tested for an FA Cup game due to our trip there seeing seats in the away end being covered in netting, but they enjoyed several attendances well under the 20k mark, so the Portsmyth of full houses etc, is statistically at least debunked.

So a pleasing statistic showing how good Saints supporters have been this season, but disappointing in the fact that Derby & Leicester didn't have much to shout about this season, but still managed to have a better average than us.

All Photos Via Reuters