Hayden hoping fans can make all the difference at sold out St. James'

The Magpies fought back from two goals down to win 3-2 against the men from Merseyside in March, with a 52,242 crowd more than playing their part on a thrilling afternoon.

This term, though, attendances have been down and, following discussions between head coach Steve Bruce and managing director Lee Charnley, the club decided to offer current season ticket holders a free additional half-season ticket to help get a full, vibrant stadium behind the team.

Saturday's game is the first match covered by the new half-season tickets and is sold out, with Hayden hoping that will lead to the noise levels increasing.

"This season, the crowd hasn't been at its full capacity, hasn't been roaring like it has done in the past," he admitted. "We still feel the fans there - I certainly do anyway - but we hope as we get better results and we climb the table, the fans start coming back, because they do make a difference.

"Last season, the Everton game was quite obvious. It was a full house; we were 2-0 down and to come back to 3-2, you need the fans. It's not something in the Premier League that you can just do by yourself. They helped us massively.

"So hopefully, as the season goes on, we can start to get a few more of the fans back."

Hayden added: "We've only lost one (league) game (at St. James' Park) this season. We have still been getting good results, but the atmosphere can make a vast difference in some games.

"We understand why some fans don't want to come, we fully appreciate that, but we just hope as the results get better and we play better, the fans come back out."