Crowds hit 250,000 mark

Hearts home attendances have smashed through the 250,000 mark this season.

The fans at yesterday's derby clash with Hibs saw the milestone reached and brought the average crowd to over 13,000 for SPL games at Tynecastle. The club's supporters rallied round again this season bringing the total attendance at Tynecastle to 250,056 across 19 SPL games, giving an average attendance of 13,160.

This is on a par with last season's average SPL attendance at Tynecastle of 13,381. When European and domestic cup competitions are included the total crowd at Tynecastle was 272,343 across 21 games.

A club spokesperson said: "The supporters of this club want to see Hearts prosper and they have shown this with consistently high attendances at matches throughout the season. We did not hide from the fact that this would be a transitional season for the club and so it has turned out.

"The foundation stones have been put in place to continue transforming this club into one of the most attractive young footballing teams in the country. We hope that the supporters will back this strategy in the new season by continuing to invest in season tickets. In this way we can speed up the transitional process and create a successful team capable of continuing to compete for domestic honours."

Hearts' highest attendance of the season at Tynecastle was for the New Year Derby when 17,062 watched a 0-0 draw with Hibs. The club's biggest attendances were away from home with the largest being the 44,361 that packed Anfield to watch Hearts take Liverpool to the wire with a 1-1 draw in the Europa League play-off round second leg. The Scottish Communities League Cup Final attracted 44,036 at Hampden when Hearts were edged out 3-2 by St Mirren.

Hearts World