Braintree Town are hoping to mark National Non-League Day with a big crowd for their eye-catching home game against Grimsby Town at the Avanti Stadium tomorrow.

With no Premier League or Championship action taking place across the country, October 10 is designated as a day when fans are encouraged to take in a non-league game and the Iron are hoping to attract a large attendance for their Vanarama National League fixture against the Mariners.

Braintree chairman Lee Harding said it is an ideal opportunity for people to show their support for their local club, but added that the number of Grimsby fans expected meant the club had been unable to reduce ticket prices for the game.

He said: “There are no games in either the Premier League or the Championship so we hope people come on down to support their local team.

“I know a lot of clubs are trying to do promotional things to encourage fans and we’ll be having things going on including supporting the Vanarama National League initiative against prostate cancer.

“But we are already expecting a decent-sized crowd because of the number of fans that Grimsby are expecting to bring and that means a substantial uplift in the number of stewards and maybe police that we’ll have to have in the ground.

“That’s something we are mindful of and leaves us little room to manoeuvre with ticketing discounts because it is expensive, certainly if there are police there.

“It would be the first time since we hosted Luton a couple of years ago that we’d have police in the ground and it’s always very expensive when that happens.

“We’d love to be able to offer discounts, but we have to keep things on an even keel financially.

“However, we are still doing things all the time like offering free season tickets to under-18s (who are in full-time education) and if any young fans want to get in for free on Saturday then they can go on to the club website and apply for one before the game.”