Blue sq premier: Grays will be hoping for plenty of new support as they step-up attempts at beating the drop tomorrow.

Visitors to the New Rec are mid-table Altrincham and, as part of the Grays Football Foundation’s incentives for soccer in the community, the club have issued every infant and junior school in the borough with free child tickets to the game.

There will be further initiatives including coaching sessions for local children. Those who go along will be hoping to see Gary Phillips’s host enjoy greater fortune than they did in midweek when an 87th minute goal sentenced them to a 2-1 home defeat by promotion-chasing Torquay. That followed on from picking up a point at Forest Green Rovers last weekend.

If Grays can achieve a win from tomorrow’s affair it will put them in good heart for Tuesday’s trip to a Kettering who are in the top half of the table. With games in hand, Grays could yet pull themselves up to the play-off race.