Despite widespread complaints about Premier League ticket prices, many clubs are now introducing cheaper away tickets thanks to the Football Supporters Federation campaign.

If I told you away matches were cheaper in the Premier League than the Championship, you may well think I was joking, yet this is the surprising reality of being a Watford fan.

So far four of the eight Watford away fixtures on sale this season have been priced at £25 or less. In the Championship last season, prices typically hovered around the £30 mark with only Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City charging less than £25 for the visit of Watford. A number of clubs in the Championship this season have also introduced prices in the extortionate region of £40 for selected fixtures.

Now let’s not pretend that Premier League clubs have suddenly been taken over by lovely people who are deeply touched by the plight of away fans. With a record £5 billion TV deal it is obvious that Premier League clubs don’t need the income provided by high ticket prices as much as Championship clubs.

It is also worth noting that when clubs apply fixture categorisation to ticket prices, promoted clubs tend to be in the cheapest category, so while Watford fans are benefiting from lower prices designed to attract more home fans to a less attractive fixture, it is unlikely that this applies to Man United fans.

Nevertheless the early signs of a change in attitude thanks to the campaigning of the FSF are clear. First of all in 2013 the Premier League agreed to distribute a £12 million away fans fund to be distributed among the twenty clubs in order to subsidise selected away tickets and travel. And now more and more clubs are buying into the Twenty’s Plenty initiative.

The beauty of Twenty’s Plenty is in its calls for reciprocal pricing agreements between two clubs for £20 away tickets. With these agreements clubs are able to mutually drop ticket prices for away fans of specific opposition to £20 without having to lose substantial income by doing the same for home fans. In turn home fans won’t complain about paying higher prices than the away supporters because they will benefit from the same treatment at the corresponding away fixture.

At £36, prices for away fans at Watford are somewhat higher than is reasonable, albeit nowhere near as bad as some Premier League clubs of a similar standing. However, at the beginning of the season, the club announced that it would seek to enter reciprocal ticketing deals with any interested clubs, so any away fans who do have to pay the full £36 may want to contact their club to find out why they were unable to agree a reciprocal ticketing deal with Watford, as Newcastle, Sunderland and West Brom have already done.

Finally it is worth acknowledging that there is still a lot of work to be done and certain clubs need to be named and shamed. For example Watford still have to visit Norwich and West Ham, where I understand away fans will be charged a minimum of £45, as well as Chelsea (£52). In turn Chelsea fans were charged £60 at West Ham and concessions an astonishing £45. So while Hammers’ manager Slaven Bilic said football fans should not be charged the same as those of polo or golf, the ticketing department clearly wasn’t in agreement.

As helpful guidance as to which Premier League clubs are doing their bit to support lower ticket prices for away fans, here is a breakdown of the adult price Watford fans have been charged at every away game so far this season:

Everton £39-£44
Manchester City £42-£44
Newcastle United* £25
AFC Bournemouth £33
Stoke City £25
Leicester City £22
Aston Villa £37
Sunderland* £20

*Reciprocal pricing agreement reached