ATTENDANCES in the Scottish top flight soared by 14 per cent last year with almost half a million extra fans streaming through Premiership turnstiles.

Figures released by the SPFL yesterday show 3,631,982 supporters watched our top teams in action, up from 3,184,955 the previous campaign across the 228 matches.

Ten out of 12 clubs showed an increase in crowd - Dundee and St Johnstone were down eight and 13 per cent respectively - with this year’s beaten Scottish Cup finalists Motherwell finishing in first place.

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The Lanarkshire outfit’s home attendances rocketed by a staggering 28 per cent season on season, with 23,740 more punters flocking to Fir Park.

Aberdeen were second with a 25 per cent upturn, Hibs coming in third with 24 per cent.

Celtic’s increase was five per cent, Rangers one per cent.

Across the four divisions, a five per cent increase was seen on the back of last year’s 12 per cent jump with a total of 4.4million fans taking in a match.

The highest watched team outwith the top flight was Dundee United with a season figure of 99,097. League Two basement battlers Cowdenbeath played out their campaign in front of just 5761 fans at Central Park.

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A further 380,781 supporters attended 95 Betfred Cup matches and 44,823 went to 55 IRN-BRU Cup games, meaning a total of 4,870,753 fans attended games across all SPFL competitions during season 2017/18.

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said: “Following the conclusion of the fifth season of the SPFL, it is hugely encouraging to see attendances on the rise once again.

“These latest figures reflect both the hard work done by the 42 clubs to attract and retain supporters, but also the loyalty and commitment of Scottish football fans who continue to turn out in significant numbers to back their team.”