YORK City boss Gary Mills is hoping slashing ticket prices by more than half for the FA Trophy quarter-final clash can start attracting lost supporters back to Bootham Crescent.

Bottom-of-the-table City’s average league attendance this season of 2,327 is still the fourth-highest in National League football behind Tranmere, Lincoln and Wrexham, but it is the club’s lowest figure in eight years and less than a couple of hundred more than the all-time poorest record, set at 2,139 in 1977/78.

The Brackley Trophy clash a fortnight today will see admission reduced to £8 for adults and £4 for concessions, with the cheapest respective prices for a normal match day costing £18 and £9.

Mills has praised chairman Jason McGill for the initiative and believes the anticipated higher turnout in numbers can help the Minstermen’s players move another step closer to Wembley.

He said: “It’s a fantastic gesture that we have taken as a football club to show our appreciation to the fans, who deserve that. It’s always nice to have a big crowd and, hopefully, it will bring more people in.

“It’s not easy to do it, but it’s another way of the chairman thanking the supporters and encouraging them to come and get behind us and help the lads get to the semi-finals.”

When Mills guided City to promotion back into the Football League in 2012, the average gate was 3,117 and the opening three fixtures of the following campaign all attracted crowds in excess of 4,000.

The former European Cup winner would love to get as many people through the turnstiles again, but understands that can only be achieved when the paying punters are getting value for their money – a process he feels has now been put in place.

Mills reasoned: “The only way we will get those big crowds again is if we start climbing up the table and the fans see a team and players who want to keep this club up by showing desire. That should never be in question and it hasn’t been over the last few weeks.

“The players have to be motivated and give 100 per cent, because the biggest criticism that can be levelled at any player is that they’re not doing that. There’s nobody in the current group that is guilty of that and that’s why we are picking up results.

“We’ve got to maintain that now, because I wouldn’t pay money to watch a team where the players were not giving 100 per cent. But I believe we are building a club to be proud of again and supporters can come through the turnstiles knowing what they will get from the players, which wasn’t the case before.

“There were a lot of negatives when I first came back in and people didn’t want to come to work, but we’ve got a nice feeling around the place again and this is a beautiful club and a beautiful city. The office staff are all smiling again and I don’t want to lose that.

“I feel like I’m getting my club back to what it was before in terms of knowing we can go and win football matches. Together, we all want to achieve again and that has to happen as quickly as we can.”

Mills also argued that should City stave off the threat of relegation and lift the FA Trophy on Sunday, May 22 that would represent a more successful campaign than a team who might finish second in the table, but then get knocked out of the play-off semi-finals.

“If we finish fifth from bottom but we win the Trophy, then we will have had a better season that a lot of teams who might be perceived as doing well at the moment, because only two can ever get promoted every season,” he pointed out. “We’re still looking up at everybody in the league, but it’s April 29 when that will matter and, then, we could have three weeks to look forward to a good weekend in London.”