WORCESTER Warriors have refuted claims their home game against Nottingham was watched by the lowest league crowd at Sixways for 10 years.

A gate figure of 3,826 was given for Warriors’ 55-16 home win over Nottingham in the Greene King IPA Championship — their smallest home league attendance since February 2004.

But Warriors’ acting chief executive Anthony Glossop said the club had ‘adopted a different basis for reporting the figures’ this season.

Last Saturday’s gate would have been calculated as 5,112 under last season’s recording basis, Glossop said.

The attendance for Warriors’ first home match against Moseley — 4,376 — would have been recorded as 5,715 under the former system.

Glossop said Warriors now planned to revert to the former method of calculating home attendances.

“There have been some comments made by supporters recently relating to what might appear to be a very significant reduction in attendances,” said Glossop.

“While relegation to the Championship has undoubtedly led to some reduction, the main reason for the change is that we had adopted a different basis for the figures.

“Traditionally we, in common with other clubs, had reported our attendance as tickets sold or allocated, which included all season ticket and debenture holders.

“Now, with better ticketing and turnstile systems, we have an accurate assessment of the number of supporters at the stadium on match-days.

“This figure, which had previously been used only for internal purposes to calculate sales per head information, had been reported instead of the traditional figure.

“To form an accurate comparison with matches from previous seasons we will revert to the former method of calculating attendances, which would have given us an attendance of 5,112 for our game against Nottingham.”

Manchester were the visitors when Warriors recorded a sub-3,800 home crowd for a league match during the 2003/04 campaign.

On that occasion, Warriors thumped Manchester 74-8 in front of 3,739 supporters at Sixways during an all-conquering season in the second tier of English rugby, known as National Division One.

Last term, Warriors averaged home league gates of 8,212 — the highest was 11,852.

n Warriors' home league gates at a glance: 2013/14 season (Premiership): Total: 98,549; average: 8,212. High: 11,852. Low: 6,214.

2012/13 season (Premiership): Total: 102,370; average: 9,306. High: 12,024. Low: 7,847.

2011/12 season (Premiership): Total: 112,250; average: 10,205. High: 12,024. Low: 7,965.

2010/11 season (Championship – excluding play-offs): Total: 68,728; average: 6,248. High: 7,474. Low: 4,712.

2003/04 season (National Division One): Total: 45,330; average: 3,487. High: 6,025. Low: 2,027.