Crowds at matches in the Coca-Cola Football League have broken 17 million for the first time in 50 years.

A total of 17.1 million supporters attended the 1,656 league matches played during 2009-10, an increase of 4.4 per cent on last season and the highest aggregate crowd figures since the 1959-60 campaign.

Unfortunately, the success story does not extend down to League 2. In Barnet's league the average crowd was 3,853, a loss of 7.7 per cent.

The average attendance at Underhill was 2058, the average home attendance of 1607 being bolstered by a last day of the season top League crowd of 3922 for the visit of promoted Rochdale.

The Bees averaged 2137 the previous season ... a drop this time of 79.

Dennis Signy