Sutton United chairman Bruce Elliott is urging the town to get behind the team's push for automatic promotion, and he has cut ticket prices to get the fans through the gates.

Moreover, this weekend's clash against Basingstoke Town is free of charge as Elliott aims to get a bumper crowd into Gander Green Lane.

Following the Basingstoke match, entry prices will be cut to £10 for adults, £5 concessions and £1 for U16s.

Elliott said: “This has been a season full of disruptions, even back in the autumn many of our Saturday home games were beset by wet weather and the recent spate of postponements has obviously led to a bit of a fixture pile up.

"We fully understand that coming to football competes with many alternative attractions and that having a run of games in a short space of time can be difficult for some people, and the economic picture is still hard for many."

After last weekend's 2-1 win at Farnborough - thanks to goals from Damian Scannell and Jamie Taylor - United are seven points behind Skrill South leaders Bromley.

Elliott added: "The team is going well, playing excellent football and deserves to be watched by as many people as possible as we try to confirm a place in the play-offs, or perhaps, even better.

"We hope that by making this reduction to admission prices, which also sees the age for senior citizen entry revert to 60, we will help people to get to more games and maybe attract new supporters.”

The Basingstoke game also sees the return of local celebrity Tim Vine, who will be the club’s mascot for the day as united combine with the West Sutton Safer Neighbourhoods Team and St Raphael’s Hospice to stage another of their popular Community Fun Days.

Entry to this match will be free to all, with the option to pay what you want, if you want, once you are inside the ground.

Elliott said: “Tim Vine did us a great favour by giving up his time to put on a really successful show here last month, which benefitted both the club and St Raphael’s, but unfortunately the weather caused that day’s match to be postponed and so Tim kindly offered to come back at his next free opportunity to honour the other commitments he had made for that day.

"We know that a lot of people were really disappointed that the game was called off that day and so we thought that free admission would be a good way to thank Tim for his kind generosity and attract as many people as possible to the match.”