By common consent Yeovil Town FC have just finished their most succesful season on the pitch for some time. We finished 5th in the league; got as far as the quarter-final of the FA Trophy, only the 2nd time in the last 25 years we've achieved that; and to gild the lily the club achieved their best FA Cup performance for 50 years, beating a 2nd Division side and taking the then leaders of the 3rd Division to a replay and extra-time. So naturally the town has been buzzing and attendances have been rising, yes?

Er, no, as a matter of fact, that's not been the case. Alone of the the top Conference teams last season YTFC experienced a drop in attendance figures as compared to the previous season, down by 2.5%. And this at a time when Conference attendances across the board are at an all-time high. It's worth looking at the other top clubs in the Conference to see how their attendances have fared this year and the story is a consistent one: Cheltenham (finished 1st) - up by 65%; Kettering (2nd) - up by 36%; Hayes (3rd) - up by 14%; Rushden (4th) - up by nearly 20%; Stevenage (6th) - up by 13.5%; Northwich (7th) - up by 12.5%.

And then there's Yeovil (5th) - down by 2.5%. Four Conference teams averaged higher attendances than Yeovil this season, with Doncaster, Cheltenham and Rushden averaging crowds of over 3,000 - a figure we didn't manage to reach even once in the league. We used to be known as the Manchester United of non-league football, purely on the strength of our gates. By that criteria this season we more closely resembled West Ham United.

Alarmingly, the trend towards lower gates isn't just a one-off. Our average crowd this season was 2,406. The season before we averaged 2,467; 2 years ago we averaged 2,779. So why have our crowds been dropping? Some would point to the team's relatively poor home form as a reason and doubtless that has played a part. But surely the main reason has to be the sheer expense of attending football matches week-in, week-out, especially if one is attending games as a family. This has been exascerbated by two price rises of one pound each over the last 2 seasons, well above the rate of inflation.

We applaud the initiative taken by the club towards the end of last season when they introduced their scheme of letting a child in free when accompanied by an adult. Supporters are captured young and they are the lifeblood of the club's future.

It's worth sitting back and considering here : When did many of us start supporting our favourite football team ? I'd lay bets that the majority have their favourite team cast in stone somewhere around the point that they leave primary school and join secondary school. If they haven't got into the habit of supporting Yeovil Town by then, it's almost certain that they are probably supporting a Premiership side hundreds of miles from their Somerset or Dorset home, not realising or caring that there is a vibrant club worth visiting on their doorstep.

It makes so much more sense to get a kid to come and watch Yeovil Town for nothing instead of leaving them at home watching the likes of Man Utd and Arsenal on the TV. They will still spend money at the club in the snack-bars and perhaps on merchandising, buying a programme etc; but more importantly and whether they realise it or not, they are getting into the habit of coming to watch their local team and they are getting into the habit of supporting their local team. All absolutely vital for the future well-being of the team.

With kids wanting to come to watch the football for free, this encourages their parents to bring them. In the normal course of affairs, with no incentive for children to come other than half-price tickets, it can be a prohibitively expensive afternoon out for a parent to take his or her children to a game. Letting kids in for free encourages families to attend who otherwise simply would not be able to afford to go to a match at Huish Park.

Added to that we believe the club should be adopting a much more aggressive marketing policy to really 'sell' the scheme to the town. Doncaster Rover's example is worth looking at here: At the beginning of last season Doncaster made a determined effort to publicise and promote their similar scheme, and it paid off in spades. They used leaflet drops, posters, tannoy announcements at games, relevant information was passed to schools in the area, youth clubs, sports clubs, scouts/guides organisations, nothing was left to chance - there wasn't a kid living within miles of Doncaster who didn't know that if he or she went to Belle Vue on a Saturday afternoon they'd be able to get in for free. Our club must make a similar effort and it will pay off. It's simply not enough to rely on word of mouth and a small back-page advertisment in the Western Gazette. Success breeds success - and higher gates lead to higher gates which in turn leads to more cash for the club to spend on better players, which leads to more success, higher gates... A virtuous circle of reward.