Coventry fans have criticised the stewarding at the Ricoh Arena after being forced to sit in allocated seats in a stadium which was more than 95 per cent empty.

Video footage has appeared online which shows a group of home supporters being asked by match day stewards to sit in the seat numbers displayed on their tickets, despite a crowd of just 1,429 for the Checkatrade Trophy tie against West Brom on Tuesday night. The capacity of the Ricoh Arena is 32,609.

Cameron Baxter, a Coventry fan who is a student in the city, recorded the video and posted it on social media and he claims the fans were being keenly observed by security staff sat behind monitors at the back of the stands.

He thinks the incident might be related to Coventry sharing the stadium with rugby union team Wasps.

He said: “You couldn’t get in view of the stadium without your ticket being checked. And if that wasn’t enough they checked them all again at half-time.

“They said that the head of the Wasps stewards were watching them like a hawk during that game and to be fair they pointed to one of the boxes and there were many people on computers staring at us.”

Asked who was staring, Baxter said: “Head of Wasps security, I believe. The main one was apparently called Paul Cook. But I can’t be sure of that.”

Asked how many were watching them, he added: “Five to 10 of them. After we saw them the majority of them hid behind their computers. It could have been more.”

As stewards asked fans to move along, a chorus broke out of “if you all hate stewards clap your hands”.

Baxter believes such incidents could deter fans from coming to the Ricoh Arena to watch matches.

“I go to all games at the Ricoh, definitely, I’m addicted to Coventry,” he said. “I’m hoping to attend more away games too although I think I spend enough money watching us play at the Ricoh.

“Games like that one on Tuesday makes me feel like going to watch Coventry is becoming a chore. I will carry on going but I don’t need that from the stewards.”

Coventry had not responded to the incident, or a request for a comment, at the time of writing.