Watford will ditch crowd noise being piped into Vicarage Road for Premier League matches after goalkeeper Ben Foster revealed it “annoyed” the players.
The Hornets trialled the gimmick – which will be offered to viewers watching live on TV to enhance the atmosphere - in two practice matches.
And former England keeper Foster revealed they even made it sound as life-like as possible by playing a familiar chorus of disapproval, as a premeditated joke, over the public address system: “The referee's a w****r.”
But Watford will shun pre-recorded crowd chants when they join Project Restart at home to Leicester next Saturday.
After it was tested at a full-scale squad practice match last Tuesday, and used more sparingly in Saturday's 2-0 friendly win against Brentford, the Hornets' verdict on piped-in noise was emphatic: Pipe down.
Foster said: “It really annoyed me. You can only play it at certain times, like when the ball goes out, when it would just come on and be really annoying.
“Everybody agreed we’d rather not have it. We had one of the coaches refereeing and he was the worst referee ever, so they started playing ‘The referee’s a w****r.’
“Nobody knew it was coming. Even he was laughing.”
Other clubs in the division are set to embrace the idea as they bid to avoid eerie silences during their matches.
A Premier League spokesman explained: “At the discretion of the home club, pre-recorded crowd noise will be permitted at games behind closed doors – but never when the ball is in play.
“It should be limited to goals, half-time, immediately before kick-off and moments which would not interrupt or affect the ebb and flow of a match.”
