POOLE Town boss Tom Killick is hoping that Non-league Day will create a “bit of a buzz” at the BlackGold Stadium tomorrow when Dolphins host Hayes & Yeading.

Non-league Day is an initiative encouraging those that do no regularly visit non-league teams to catch a game during the international break, when teams in the top two tiers are not in action.

Clubs regularly offer special deals, Poole no exception, with the Dolphins offering any Cherries or Southampton fan with a ticket stub or showing their season ticket reduced price admission of £8 for adults and £5 for concessions.

With the game itself seeing fifth-placed Poole take on seventh-placed Hayes in a key play-off battle, Killick believes his charges are excited by the proposition of playing in front of a slightly bigger crowd than normal.

He told the Daily Echo: “I think non-league players would probably always say that they very much relish the opportunity of playing in front of bigger crowds, because you don't get at our level of football, vast numbers watching.

“When you do get the bigger games, where there's bigger crowds, or occasionally like this one, where the crowd can be inflated because it's the designated non-league day, Players are very keen on it because it's what everyone aspires to, isn't it?

“The better level that you play at, the better the crowd.

“So to get the opportunity to play in front of the big crowd, I think it's always something that players will be very keen on.

“As a manager, I'm much happier when you're involved in a match day, where there's a good atmosphere, whatever ground you're playing at, decent numbers in the ground, rather than sometimes going to places or having games where everything's a bit sparse.

“You'd always much rather there be a bit of a buzz. And non-league day hopefully gives us the opportunity to generate a few more people than normal. So I think it's all positive.”

First-time visitors to the BlackGold Stadium could become new regulars if they like what they see, with Killick admitting to “slight pressure" in terms of getting a positive result to encourage return visits.

“What you're looking at is a getting the result, because that's what our season needs," he restarted.

"But then the added agenda that you do hope that you might get a few people watching that don't normally watch, and the better the game is and the better your performance is, then you can get some increased numbers coming back down the line.

“So that's always what I feel, slight pressure as a manager, is that when you get an occasion where you've got a few people coming that don't normally come, that you want to try and give them a good example as to what's available at this level of football and from us as a club.”

Apart from the potential for a bigger crowd due to non-league day, the game itself sees Poole attempt to fend off one of their main rivals for the final play-off spot.

Dolphins currently sit in fifth, a position in the league table coveted by seventh placed Hayes, who have two games in hand a seven-point deficit to overcome.  

Killick continued: “I've always felt as much as I was surprised by Hayes & Yeading not perhaps doing as well as they have in previous years, I always felt that they would get to a point where their form would pick up, and that's proving to be the case.

“In terms of their squad and their capabilities, they're undoubtedly one of the best teams in the league.

“They'll feel they’re in a good place, in terms of they have got real momentum with recent results. They're hitting form at a good time.

“From our point of view, I know there's other teams circling around with Hayes being one of them, but if we could beat Hayes, then it would give us a little bit of breathing space.”