SAINTS are anticipating their biggest crowd of the season tomorrow - but have refused to criticise the level of attendances so far at St Mary's.

Four successive league and cup wins - including three away - could see the first 25,000-plus crowd of 2006/07 against struggling QPR.

If so, it will act as a major boost to the current seasonal league average of 22,137, which the Daily Echo yesterday revealed is a disappointing 6.7 per cent down on last season's 23,614 average.

The biggest attendance at the stadium this season was the 24,233 who saw the 0-0 draw with West Brom back on August 12. That figure included 1,800 visiting fans.

Surprisingly, the crowd for the last home game against Plymouth a fortnight ago saw fewer Saints fans present than for the 1-1 draw with Preston on August 26.

Saints had been confident of attracting a seasonal best crowd for the Argyle game given the 2-0 win at Crystal Palace a few days earlier.

But 22,514 turned up - including 2,600 from Devon.

That left around 19,900 Saints fans present, compared to the 20,300 out of a total crowd of 20,712 that had seen the 1-1 draw with North End three Saturdays earlier.

But the Plymouth attendance was still HIGHER than ticket office manager David Luker had budgeted for.

Luker revealed he budgets for a minimum 22,800 crowd for all gold games at St Mary's and 19,900 for silver games. And Argyle's visit - unlike those of Coventry, West Brom and Preston - was a silver match.

"I'm certainly not going to complain about the size of the crowds," said Luker. "There's been an awful lot of games recently and people can't go to every one."

Full story in today's Daily Echo