Saffron Walden Town chairman Martin Johnson has thanked the fans for showing up in droves for Saturday’s crunch league game against Swaffham Town, and apologised for the result.

A crowd of 462 packed into Catons Lane, the highest attendance for over 20 years, and more than double that of any other attendance in England across step 10, to see the Bloods lose 3-0 to their title rivals.

“On behalf of everyone at the club, I would like to say thank you for the support on Saturday. To have almost 500 at Catons Lane was incredible and it was our biggest crowd since the 1993/94 season, so over 20 years,” said Johnson.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t put on a better performance. It was a shame but the guys have been fantastic this season. They had to have a blip at some points but it was a shame it was on Saturday.”

The result saw Walden drop to third in the Thurlow Nunn First Division, but they are on the same points as second-placed Swaffham and just one off leaders Long Melford.

With nine games to go, Saturday’s loss should be seen as no more than a minor setback in Walden’s quest for automatic promotion.

Johnson is hoping Saturday’s result didn’t deter fans from, hopefully, cheering the side into the Premier Division.

“The guys have been fantastic and we’re right behind them for the rest of the season,” he said.

“We’ve got nine matches left and the top three are separated by one point. It really is all to play for, and we’ve got a lot of matches at home. We have to take a step back from Saturday and see we’re in a really strong position. We just need to push on and find our form.

“If we do that, there’s no reason we can’t go up automatically.”